Linked on our blogs with New Tactics in Human Rights Project.
- The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) exists to heal the wounds of government-sponsored torture on individuals, their families and their communities, and to stop its practice.
- As many as 500,000 torture survivors are living in the United States. These individuals were brutalized by repressive regimes abroad because of what they believed, what they said or did, or what they represented. Many survivors, their families, and their communities suffer the lingering, debilitating effects of their horrific traumas in silence … (full text Who we are).
Homepage;
Healing Survivors; Inside CTV; Resources; Research; Advocacy; Building … ; News; Contribute;
Address (1 of 6): Minneapolis Administration: Center for Victims of Torture, 717 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;
Directions to the St. Paul Healing Center; Contact.
History /Governor Perpich’s Commitment to Human Rights: The Center for Victims of Torture began with a conversation between an Amnesty International volunteer at Stanford Law School, Rudy Perpich, Jr., and his father, then Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich.
In the end, the governor promised his son he would use his position to act on behalf of the struggle for international human rights.
The governor sought ideas from local leaders in human rights, including Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights (then known as the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee), and David Weissbrodt, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and an expert in international human rights law. Together they presented Governor Perpich with ten ideas for action – the most ambitious being the establishment of the first treatment center in the United States for victims of torture.
Governor Perpich embraced the idea and began to act. He went to Copenhagen, Denmark, to visit the first treatment center in the world, the Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims, and appointed a task force to determine whether such a center would be feasible in Minnesota.
Building a Home-like Environment for Survivors:
The Center for Victims of Torture was founded in May 1985 as an independent, nongovernmental organization. For the first two years, care was provided at the International Clinic of St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center. In time, staff recommended that CVT move to a more home-like, less institutional setting that would be less intimidating for clients … (full long text).