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Reports and Backgrounders

Last updated: July 21, 2023

CVT experts conduct research and analysis and write reports on critical issues facing refugees and asylum seekers, and the torture survivors among them.

Arbitrary & Cruel: How U.S. Immigration Detention Violates the Convention against Torture and Other International Obligations
This CVT backgrounder illustrates how the dehumanizing and cruel policies and practices in the U.S. immigration detention system led to violations of the Convention against Torture, and makes the case that the system must be eliminated in order for the United States to comply with international law.

Designing a Trauma-Informed Asylum System in the United States
CVT released a report outlining concrete steps the Biden/Harris administration should implement to build a genuinely trauma-informed asylum system. Read a summary here.

Deprivation and Despair: The Crisis of Medical Care at Guantánamo
CVT and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) launched this joint report detailing widespread medical deficiencies at the Guantánamo Bay detention center. Read the press release here.

Enforced Disappearances: Ambiguity Haunts the Families of Iraq’s Missing
Disappearances create an ambiguous loss, a category of loss for which there is no closure or verification. In this paper, CVT explores this sometimes overlooked human rights violation and its impacts on Iraqi torture survivors.

Updating the Estimate of Refugees Resettled in the United States Who Have Suffered Torture
Based on an analysis of previous research studies, CVT has concluded that the number of refugee torture survivors in the U.S. is much higher than previously reported. A meta-analysis of existing studies led CVT to estimate a refugee torture prevalence rate as high as 44 percent – significantly higher than previous estimates.

Reclaiming Hope, Dignity and Respect
CVT’s report Reclaiming Hope, Dignity and Respect: Syrian and Iraqi Torture Survivors in Jordan, the product of two years of in-person interviews and study, is based on the stories of 64 men, women and children who either faced torture in their home countries or had close family members tortured and are working to rebuild their lives.

Tortured & Detained: Survivor Stories of U.S. Immigration Detention
This 2013 report describes the immigration detention experience for torture survivors seeking asylum protection in the United States.