TASSC grieves lives lost by the Hamas attacks in Israel and Israel's assault in Gaza. We mourn with the loved ones of all who have lost family members.
The violence in Palestine and Israel is devastating. TASSC condemns targeting civilians and the physical and psychological torture of all individuals during this conflict.
TASSC is raising its voice to call for the immediate implementation of international humanitarian law principles and safeguards to protect all civilians and ensure their dignity under all circumstances. As an organization dedicated to abolishing torture, TASSC calls for an immediate ceasefire, return of all hostages, and upholding of humanitarian principles, human rights, and access to basic needs.
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By Andrea Barron
TASSC staff and survivors are outraged by the vicious attack on Ethiopian migrants by border guards in Saudi Arabia resulting in the deaths of hundreds, “possibly thousands” of innocent civilians.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that between March 2022 and June 2023, Saudi border guards fired directly and deliberately on Ethiopian men, women and children crossing into Saudi Arabia from Yemen. The HRW Report, issued on August 21, is titled “They Fired on Us Like Rain: Saudi Arabian Mass Killing of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border.” https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/08/21/they-fired-us-rain/saudi-arabian-mass-killings-ethiopian-migrants-yemen-saudi. It documents how the guards fired on the migrants with explosives, shot others in their limbs, and forced male migrants to rape female survivors. The attacks were widespread and systematic, which makes Saudi Arabia guilty of a “crime against humanity” according to the UN definition.
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TASSC Condemns Dramatic Rise in Rapes in Sudan
Chloe Phely-Bobin
There has been a dramatic increase in rapes and abductions of women and girls, some as young as 12, in Sudan. The conflict between military factions, ongoing since April 15, 2023, is to blame. The Sudanese army is fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over a transition to civilian rule.
“Rape and sexual violence have been used as ruthless weapons, inflicting unimaginable trauma on countless innocent victims. These survivors are left to endure the weight of their suffering and injustice without sufficient support or avenues for justice,” says TASSC’s Executive Director, Aymen Tabir.
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61 House Members Want to See Justice for Asylum Seekers at USCIS
TASSC and torture survivors are celebrating a major victory on the way to justice for torture survivors and other affirmative asylum seekers waiting as long as eight years for an interview with USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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By: Chloe Phely-Bobin*
After fleeing an oppressive military dictatorship, Eritreans are not safe in Ethiopia, Sudan, or South Sudan. At risk of forced deportation, human trafficking, disappearance, and other abuses and violence, Eritrean refugees require urgent humanitarian assistance.
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Human Rights Watch, Women and children expelled by Tunisian authorities to the Libyan border stand by the shore, July 6, 2023. © 2023 Private
By: Chloe Phely-Bobin
TASSC - Advocacy Intern
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The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) was founded in 1998 by Sister Dianna Ortiz, a Roman Catholic nun who was brutally tortured by the Guatemalan military in 1989. TASSC provides legal aid and counseling to torture survivors in the Washington OC metropolitan area, mostly from Africa, and advocacy training to survivors nationwide.
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U.N. Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain, who just made an official visit to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in February 2023,
says detainees still face “ongoing cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment but acknowledged that conditions have improved under the
Biden Administration. Thirty Muslim men are still imprisoned at Guantanamo, 19 of whom have never been charged with a crime.
TASSC calls for an immediate improvement in prison conditions, and for President Biden to end indefinite detention and finally close the notorious prison
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