Each year CVT presents the Eclipse Award to an individual who has given extraordinary service for the protection and healing of torture survivors, and for the prevention of torture.

2008

CVT is delighted to announce that Dr. Allen S. Keller is the recipient of the 2008 Eclipse Award. Dr. Keller, founder and co-director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, is a physician advocate who has written and spoken out on numerous human rights issues, making the connection between health and human rights for policy makers, human rights advocates and all those who care about the promotion of civil society.

Dr. Keller has used his expertise as a physician to document and report on the medical and social consequences of land mines in Cambodia, refugee health, access to health care for prisoners, political asylum and caring for torture victims.

Recently he reported on the cases of two Iraqi individuals held and tortured at Abu Ghraib.  Using international guidelines for the evaluation and documentation of torture, Dr. Keller’s findings substantiated the individuals’ allegations of torture and confirmed the profound health consequences of torture. The report found the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not the result of a few guards but were implemented systematically in the context of interrogations.

2007

Alberto J. Mora is the former general counsel for the U.S. Navy. In that capacity, Mora waged a three-year battle with military and civilian leaders over U.S. military policy regarding the treatment of terrorist suspects held by the United States as part of the war on terror.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar congratulates Alberto Mora (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

2006

Sofia Macher served as Secretary General of the Coordinadora de los Derechos Humanos de Peru (the Peruvian Human Rights Coordinating Group) from 1997 to 2001.  The Coordinadora, which includes 65 human rights organizations in Peru, took the extraordinary step of creating a strategic plan to end torture that involved the careful evaluation of the strengths and opportunities for each organization to act in coordination. Its work is credited with paving the way for Peru’s democratic transition and for building pressure to create the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, on which Sofia served as a commissioner. The Commission also broke new ground, including establishing a detailed set of standards for support to victims of the violence. 

2005

John Salzberg, Ph.D., has worked in human rights since 1973.Dr. Salzberg was the Congressional staff person who developed the legislation establishing the Human Rights Office and the annual State Department report. In 1992, he came to CVT first as a volunteer than as CVT's Washington DC representative. He played a key role in passage of the 1998 Torture Victims Relief Act and subsequent reauthorizations. John retired from CVT in December 2005 at the age of 70.

Douglas A. Johnson, John Salzberg and Sen. Norm Coleman (Photo by Ralph Alswang)

2004

Dr. Vincent Iacopino, director of research for Physicians for Human Rights and the principal organizer of an international effort to develop UN guidelines on effective documentation of torture and ill treatment (the Istanbul Protocol).

2003

Dr. Inge Genefke, founder of the Research and Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims in Copenhagen, Denmark, a predecessor of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims.

Dr. Inge Genefke with Sen. Mark Dayton

2002

Tony Reeler, founder and executive director of the Amani Trust, which treats survivors of torture in Zimbabwe. Because of threats to his organization, Mr. Reeler has been forced to leave Zimbabwe.

Douglas A. Johnson and Tony Reeler

2001

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a founding member of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) and a survivor of torture herself.