“CVT is like medicine for me, and it gave me life.” A woman in Tigray, Ethiopia said this to her counselor, who had just delivered the terrible news in January that her clinical care had to end. The funding from USAID for CVT’s program, which allowed thousands of survivors of torture and sexual violence to begin rebuilding their lives, had been abruptly stopped by the United States government.

So many of CVT’s clients living in Ethiopia and Jordan are now without life-saving mental health care, physiotherapy and social work services. The implications and impacts are disturbing. “You can’t just lock the door to a clinic for torture survivors with deep psychological wounds, in the middle of their healing work, without violating basic ethical responsibilities and potentially putting their lives at risk,” said Scott Roehm, CVT director of global policy and advocacy.

For this reason, on May 2, the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) joined a lawsuit against the U.S. government, looking to the courts to make our case that these program terminations must be reversed.

You can’t just lock the door to a clinic for torture survivors with deep psychological wounds, in the middle of their healing work, without violating basic ethical responsibilities and potentially putting their lives at risk.”

-Scott Roehm, CVT director of global policy and advocacy

U.S. funding cuts to CVT’s international grants started January 24, when we began receiving suspension letters, first from the Department of State and then from USAID, instructing us to immediately stop our work overseas. By Jan. 27, approximately 75 percent of CVT’s international operations had been forced to halt and staff were furloughed.

Since that time, CVT has worked nonstop to bring back the funding and demonstrate to the U.S. government that cutting off care in this reckless manner results in devastating consequences, including psychological relapses, worsening of mental health conditions and suicidal ideation.

“For months, we have done everything the U.S. government has asked of us in the hope that some measure of reason would prevail, and our programs would be allowed to move forward,” said Dr. Simon Adams, CVT president and CEO. “Instead, senseless cruelty won out, and they were terminated.”

The case CVT joined is AVAC v. U.S. Dept. of State, which is the lead case in the courts challenging the sweeping cuts to U.S. foreign aid which ended CVT’s USAID and State Department funding for four programs in Ethiopia, Jordan and additional global project sites. Public Citizen is representing CVT and the other plaintiffs in this case.

CVT joined the suit now because while the court has held that it was likely unconstitutional for the administration to withhold foreign assistance funding appropriated by Congress, it has so far declined to order the government to reinstate the large swath of grants that were terminated.

“We hope that by joining the lawsuit we can help change that,” Simon said. “Clients from countries that have been devastated by conflict were coming to CVT and finding hope. After surviving almost unimaginable hardship and cruelty, clients tell us that CVT helped them begin a new life.”

Clients from countries that have been devastated by conflict were coming to CVT and finding hope.”

-Dr. Simon Adams, CVT president & CEO

In addition to the many ways that halting care impacts individual survivors and their families, Scott Roehm said that the safety, health and wellbeing of the populations we serve is critical to core U.S. foreign policy objectives. “Both republican and democratic [U.S.] administrations have understood for decades the value of stabilizing and strengthening communities in conflict-affected areas,” Scott said. “When torture survivors heal and thrive, it shows dictators and oppressors against whom the U.S. has long fought that their attempts to destroy communities and silence opposition won’t work.”

More than anyone, CVT’s clients understand the ramifications of losing clinical treatment. After the counselors in Tigray, Ethiopia told clients that their sessions were ending, a survivor said, “Your healing words were so impactful and fruitful . . . But from the moment that you abruptly stop supporting us, the future is darkening and glooming.”

When torture survivors heal and thrive, it shows dictators and oppressors against whom the U.S. has long fought that their attempts to destroy communities and silence opposition won’t work.”

-Scott Roehm

While CVT’s healing work with refugees living in the United States is continuing, the blow to the organization is substantial and will impact tens of thousands of survivors in 2025 alone. At a time when the United Nations estimates that more than 120 million people have been displaced by conflict, persecution and torture, this is the very worst time for the United States to abandon its commitment to humanitarianism and strategic foreign policy.

“Survivors of torture deserve ways to find healing, and the dictators and torturers deserve to face justice,” Simon said. “We can’t expect violent and repressive regimes to end if we are not willing to help the people who have suffered the worst of their actions.”

Read CVT’s press release here.