This handbook is aimed primarily at less experienced NGOs, particular smaller NGOs working at a national and community level, who wish to develop and become more involved in torture reporting. It does not attempt to provide technical medical or legal instruction, but focuses rather on the process of reporting itself. In this way, it seeks to enable such NGOs to produce high-quality information on both individual incidents and patterns of torture, with a view to maximising the utility of the information to the international bodies, as well as assisting those NGOs to select the most appropriate procedure or procedures to which to address the information in light of their own desired result. The focus of the handbook is torture, but much of what is said here would be equally relevant in the context of other human rights violations. Even where an allegation may not amount to a violation of the prohibition of torture, it could still be a violation of another human rights norm, such as the right to liberty and security of person, or the right to a fair trial. Although such violations are not the object of this handbook, readers should be aware that remedies also exist for violations of human rights other than torture.
It should be borne in mind that following the guidelines set out in this handbook is not a guarantee of obtaining a particular result from a particular international body, and that it will often seem as if little has been achieved in a particular case. While frustration and disappointment is inevitable on such occasions, it should be remembered at all costs that the struggle for the eradication of torture is a long, slow process, and should not be measured in terms of individual results only. Each piece of reliable information meticulously collected is a weapon in that struggle, and every door thrown open is one less door for the torturers to hide behind.
