Governor Perpich’s Commitment to Human Rights
The Center for Victims of Torture began with a conversation between an Amnesty International volunteer at Stanford Law School, Rudy Perpich, Jr., and his father, then Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich. In the end, the governor promised his son he would use his position to act on behalf of the struggle for international human rights.
The governor sought ideas from local leaders in human rights, including Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights (then known as the Minnesota Lawyers International Human Rights Committee), and David Weissbrodt, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and an expert in international human rights law. Together they presented Governor Perpich with ten ideas for action – the most ambitious being the establishment of the first treatment center in the United States for victims of torture.
Governor Perpich embraced the idea and began to act. He went to Copenhagen, Denmark, to visit the first treatment center in the world, the Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims, and appointed a task force to determine whether such a center would be feasible in Minnesota.
Building a Home-like Environment for Survivors
The Center for Victims of Torture was founded in May 1985 as an independent, nongovernmental organization. For the first two years, care was provided at the International Clinic of St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center. In time, staff recommended that CVT move to a more home-like, less institutional setting that would be less intimidating for clients.
A challenge grant from the Northwest Area Foundation and the promise of a home from the University of Minnesota made the move possible. The outpatient clinic in Minneapolis was established in May 1987 in a small house on the University campus. In February 1991, CVT moved to its current home, a beautiful three-story Victorian house on the Mississippi River, rented from the University for $1 a year. Renovating the house was a community effort: Local businesses and many individuals showed their respect and concern for survivors of torture by donating materials, funds and labor to make the house comfortable, welcoming and functional.
The house itself is unique in that its design specifically takes the needs of torture survivors into account. Domestic, rather than institutional, furnishings were chosen. Windows were enlarged to maximize natural light; overhead and fluorescent lights were avoided whenever possible; the corners in nearly every room were rounded or angled. The staff and designers knew that stark, square rooms with glaring unnatural lights would feel like the institutional rooms and cells that served as torture chambers for our clients.
St. Paul Healing Services
By 2001, CVT had outgrown the Victorian house on the river and some staff and one of the client services healing teams moved into an office building in St. Paul. CVT recently purchased a house in a residential neighborhood in St. Paul. After renovations, the St. PaulHealingCenter opened in May 2003 as a welcoming, home-like center to serve clients from St. Paul and the eastern suburbs.
West Africa Healing Services and Training
CVT began working in Guinea in November 1999 to address mental health problems experienced by traumatized adult and child refugees who fled civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In the aftermath of war, there were 20,000 refugees in the Albadaria region of Guinea, nearly all of whom were torture and war trauma survivors. CVT not only provided immediate, direct care to thousands of survivors, it also began to build a local care network by training camp residents as paraprofessional mental health care providers.
As the refugees began to return home, CVT established community mental health services, first in Sierra Leone in Fall 2001, then in Liberia in April 2005. CVT closed operations in Guinea in March 2005.
