Oleksandra Matviychuk participated in an international conference on the peculiarities of working with people who survived captivity and torture
On January 24, the Center for Mental Health and Rehabilitation of Veterans “Lisova Polyana” hosted an international conference “Peculiarities of Working with People Who Survived Captivity and Torture. Ukrainian context”. Head of the Center for Civil Liberties Oleksandra Matviychuk gave a speech at the opening of the event.
The organizers aimed to analyze successful examples and mistakes within the topic, exchange experience with international partners and unite specialists in a high-quality referral network. The main goal is to consolidate resources and efforts to improve the accessibility and quality of services for people with experience of captivity and torture.
“In the war realities, we cannot name the exact number of victims of torture and other war crimes, but we know for sure that the number is extremely high. We are talking about thousands. Our enemy used torture and sexual violence as a method of warfare, destruction of national identity, and colonization of nations in all wars,” the organizers note.
“How are we going to overcome the trauma of war? How will we stitch the country back together and restore the broken ties between people with such different experiences during the wartime? How do we preserve the space for the solidarity creation of an open society culture based on democratic values? In other words, how do we not lose what we are fighting for during the war? The way we answer these questions today will determine what Ukraine will look like in the future. Will we be able to build sustainable democratic institutions in the post-war country, rather than shaky structures? Whether we will be able to win the war and not lose the peace,” emphasized Oleksandra.
You can watch the conference presentation in English here.
The conference is organized by the team of the State Institution Center for Mental Health and Rehabilitation of Veterans “Lisova Polyana” in partnership with the NGO Resource Center Lisova Polyana, Libereco Partnership for Human Rights with the financial support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States of America.
