Bangladesh Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma Victims

Bangladesh Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma Victims (BRCT; ) is a Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

i NGO, working in the area of rehabilitation of trauma victims. It was established in 1992. BRCT began its journey by providing medical treatment, legal support, and rehabilitation to the victims on 25 February 1992 with support from foreign medical experts.

Founder

Akram H. Chowdhury,, a human rights activist and 9th Parliament Member (MP) in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

and the founder and General Secretary

General Secretary

The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...

of BRCT. He is also secretary general of Bangladesh Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) in Dhaka

Dhaka

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...

, and a Council Member of Executive Committee, of International Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (IRCT), Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. Previously he was the president of the Coordinating Council for Human Rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

in Bangladesh

Bangladesh

(CCHRB), a federation of 189 human rights and development organizations, secretary general of the Coordinating Council for Human Rights in Bangladesh (CCHRB), and Human Rights consultant for RDRS.He is proud of his father Dr. Captain (Rt.) Ismail Hossain Chowdhury, who was a Member of the Constituent Assembly

Jatiyo Sangshad

Jatiya Sangsad or National Assembly is the national parliament of Bangladesh. The current parliament of Bangladesh contains 345 seats including 45 women reserved seats distributed on elected party position in the parliament, the occupants of which are called Members of Parliament or MPs...

(Provincial Essembly-47: Rajshahi

Rajshahi

The city of Rajshahi is the divisional headquarters of Rajshahi division as well as the administrative district that bears its name and is one of the six metropolitan cities of Bangladesh. Often referred to as Silk City and Education City, Rajshahi is located in the north-west of the country and...

) in 1972 under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a Bengali nationalist politician and the founder of Bangladesh. He headed the Awami League, served as the first President of Bangladesh and later became its Prime Minister. He headed the Awami League, served as the first President of Bangladesh and later became its...

. He was one of the signatories of the Constitution of Bangladesh

Constitution of Bangladesh

The Constitution of Bangladesh is the supreme law of Bangladesh. It declares Bangladesh as a secular democratic republic where sovereignty belongs to the people; and lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles of the state and spells out the fundamental rights of citizens...

(First) Serial no. 112. His Mother's name is Jamila Khatun.

Mr. Chowdhury was born on 11 November 1954 in village Chakrail, thana Badalgachhi

Badalgachhi Upazila

Badalgachi is a Upazila of Naogaon District in Bangladesh. It consists of 36,614 households and has a total area of ....

, District Naogaon

Naogaon District

Naogaon is a district in Northern Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rajshahi Division.-Upazilas:The district is divided into the following upazilas:*Naogaon Sadar Upazila*Manda Upazila*Niamatpur Upazila*Atrai Upazila*Raninagar Upazila...

.He studied in development L.L.M. in International Human Rights Law

International human rights law

International human rights law refers to the body of international law designed to promote and protect human rights at the international, regional and domestic levels...

from University of Essex

University of Essex

The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

in 1984 to 1986. He obtained B.S.S. in 1978 and M.S.S in Social Welfare from University of Dhaka

University of Dhaka

The University of Dhaka is the oldest university in Bangladesh. It is a multi-disciplinary research university and is among the top universities in the region. Established on July 21, 1921, as per the Government of India Act, 1920, it was modelled on the Universities in England and soon gained...

Activity

There are two major area of concentration or activities of BRCT – the curative and the preventive ones. BRCT has been operating a very up-dated treatment at Dhaka exclusively for the torture survivors to improve their physical and psychological structure for restoration in the society under the supervision of allied experts. Besides Medicare, physiotherapy and psychotherapy it provides prompt counseling, legal aids, lobbying home visit provide them physical rehabilitation and financial rehabilitation for the torture survivors.

The legal department of BRCT was developed in 1994. The legal department of the BRCT is concerned about both curative and preventive measures. Curative activities include arranging bail, providing legal advice, taking cases to court and lobbying legislative changes. Preventative activities include raising awareness to the public, seminars, symposiums and training community health workers (CHW) through use DDCAT. Taking cases trial can be considered curative as well as preventative as these acts could be deterrents for police to commit such crimes.

The monthly regular publications of BRCT is Manobadhikar Aunushandhani (Human Rights Fact-finder) and Article 14 is a quarterly published English newsletter. BRCT observes the International Day in Support of Torture Victims on June 26 and International Human Rights Day on 10 December regularly and makes awareness among the people of Bangladesh. It organizes various rallies, seminars, postering, stickers & leaflets, bills, etc. to create public awareness in Bangladesh.

Preventative

Victim's Associations (VA)
Door to Door Campaign Against Torture (DDCAT)
Task Force Against Torture (TFT)
Home Visits
Research and Documentation
Lobbying for Change and Spreading Awareness

Curative

Integrated Rehabilitation Approach (IRA)
Community Bades Rehabilitation (CBR)
Community Health Assistant Program (CHA)

Integrated Rehabilitation Approach

As already stated, the ultimate goal of BRCT is to provide victims of torture with a combination of treatment and rehabilitation in order to allow full integration back into their homes and communities. Early on, BRCT recognized that completed rehabilitation could not occur with a little medication and a bandage. Rehabilitation involves a multidisciplinary approach and at BRCT. This approach has come to be known as the integrated rehabilitation approach (IRA). The IRA consists of services at BRCT including counseling, medical care, physiotherapy, psychotherapy

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...

, and legal assistance. The IRA also involves group and family therapy, follow-ups including home visits.

Victims' Association

Once the victims, especially of rural areas, return to their communities, they will often form or join a victim's association (VA). The VA was initiated by the BRCT as a way for victims to continue rehabilitation at home by actively participating in a program that supports one another, future victims and as a means to prevent future torture occurrences from happening by spreading awareness.

VA's are based on three pillars of strength: Mental (মনবল), Human Power (জনবল) and Financial Solvency (অর্থবল), and have the impact of shifting feelings of loneliness to unity. They are self-help groups that consist of approximately 10 – 30 members and they hold monthly meeting to discuss their won social and economic problems.

Task Force against Torture

BRCT started a unique program called Task Force against Torture (TFT), in the preventive part, formed at different district level consisting of local doctors, lawyers, journalists, teachers and social workers, who will take initiative for the protection against torture as well as human rights violations. The members of the TFT will facilitate treatment for the victims of torture locally, will arrange seminars, worships and discussion meeting for general awareness about torture and human rights violations and will take necessary initiative to stop any incidence of torture.

Door to Door Campaingn Against Torture

The Door-to-Door Campaign Against Torture (DDCAT) is a village-level anti-torture and human rights empowerment campaign initiated by BRCT in April 2000. Its mandate is to remove the veil of silence that has kept torture victims from asserting their rights as human beings and as citizens of their own country, and to amplify those voices muffled by poverty, illiteracy and fear through a national movement against torture. The DDCAT began as a pilot program stemming from the un human rights Decade (1995–2004) and two stickers were produced in the first three years of the program in an attempt to spread the anti-torture message into every home in the country. Today the DDCAT program is focused mainly in the 10 districts of the division of Khulna as this is an area prone to violence and it is also where most other BRCT programs are now initiated.

Treatment and Rehabilitation

BRCT under curative activities sincerely addresses almost all complications with available resource. BRCT Treatment Center is concerned with the treatment of the torture victims and provides services through a process termed as Integrated Rehabilitation Approach (IRA). It is a multidisciplinary approach, which includes physical, psychological as well as economic rehabilitation measures. From the very outset BRCT is operating a Dhaka based treatment center as outdoor services provided to the victims. BRCT considers a person as torture survivors when victimized only perpetrated by the members of the law enforcing agencies and security forces of Bangladesh. Most of the torture survivors visited the center with acute physical coplication to get the psychological, economical and legal supports.

Zero Pain Movement

BRCT formally opened the Zero Pain Movement on March 30, 2006 at BRCT. It is a revolutionary social movement to bring basic physiotherapeutic principles and prevention awareness to the masses. With the Zero Pain Movement, BRCT in conjunction with IPRR (Institute of Physiotherapy Rehabilitation and Research) will use physiotherapy as a key tool to reduce the pain and sufferings of the general public, especially those who are involved in daily manual labor where the pain becomes chronic.

BRCT Documentation Centre

BRCT is running a Documentation Centre to having information and documents on human rights

Human rights

topics focusing on torture. The main objective of BRCT documentation centre is to organize a human rights library and to provide information on human rights to the human rights activist and promoting awareness among the people of Bangladesh

Bangladesh

about fundamental rights.

The documentation centre is regularly maintaining communication with local and international organization to collect documents.

The most expending and escalating activities of the organization is BRCT documentation unit. It has created scope for the users to enjoy new collections of information with Internet facilities. A good number of readers are regularly collecting materials from the library of BRCT. BRCT is also providing photocopy service to the users on request.
Besides the regular work of Documentation centre, which includes readers’ service, feature services, collecting library materials etc.

User : research workers, journalists, teachers, students; human rights workers, etc.

Founder

Activity

Preventative

Curative

Integrated Rehabilitation Approach

Victims' Association

Task Force against Torture

Door to Door Campaingn Against Torture

Treatment and Rehabilitation

Zero Pain Movement

BRCT Documentation Centre

Other Link