Dr. Simon Adams, CVT president & CEO, gave this speech in New York, September 13, 2025, as he accepted on behalf of CVT the Freedom from Fear Award from the Roosevelt Institute as part of their Four Freedoms Awards. These awards honor achievements in connection to the freedom of speech and democracy, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear – all of which were proclaimed by President Roosevelt in 1941 as essential to democracy. Watch the event here.
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Acceptance Speech – Freedom from Fear Award 2025
On behalf of everyone at the Center for Victims of Torture—our staff, our partners, and most importantly, the 24,000 resilient survivors (and family members) who we served last year—I am deeply honored to accept the 2025 Freedom from Fear Award.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke of four essential human freedoms. These are freedoms that transcend borders; ideas that can penetrate through cracks in the walls of the darkest prison, and reach hearts and minds ensnared in barbed wire.
In 1941, in the midst of world war and rising authoritarianism around the world, the idea of freedom from fear was a clarion call to action. Today, this award affirms that call and the work CVT has undertaken for four decades—to restore dignity, healing, and hope to those who have survived the unimaginable, and endured the unthinkable.
Torture is meant to silence. To erase identity. To instill fear so deep that it permeates across generations. But we stand in defiance of that fear.
Every day, survivors walk through the doors of our clinics around the world. We bear witness to their courage. And through therapy, advocacy, and global partnerships, we help transform trauma into strength.
This award is a powerful recognition of our work, but also of the unwavering truth that torture has no place in any society, anywhere, under any circumstances.
This has been an excruciatingly difficult year for CVT. We were hit hard by President Trump’s foreign aid funding cuts and various executive orders. We had to close many of our life-saving programs around the world. And we had to watch as the whole humanitarian sector was decimated. Many of our beloved colleagues lost their jobs and I fear, some of our abandoned refugee clients lost their lives.
Every day we see the tears and the human consequences of the current administration’s decision to turn its back on the world. To malign those who respond to the humanitarian impulse. To replace compassion with performative cruelty.
But CVT will not step back, submit or be silent. We will continue to stand with refugees, torture survivors and human rights defenders. We are deeply bruised, but we remain unbroken and unbowed. Our doors remain open. And we continue to challenge the current administration in the Supreme Court.
To the Roosevelt Institute: thank you for the recognition and for amplifying all these resonant and vital voices today.
To our allies and supporters: thank you for walking beside us.
I also want to speak to the survivors and human rights defenders who entrust us with their stories and allow us into their lives—you are the heart of everything we do. Your courage helps illuminate the path forward. Because tomorrow does not belong to the war criminals, torturers, or to those with authoritarian pretensions. The future belongs to you.
Thank you.
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Shown in photo: Dr. Simon Adams with Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, chair of the Roosevelt Institute board of directors and granddaughter of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Complete list of organizations and individuals who received the 2025 Four Freedoms Awards:
-Freedom Medal: Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation
-Freedom of Speech and Expression: Teen Vogue
-Freedom of Worship: Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister, Middle Collegiate Church
-Freedom from Want: World Central Kitchen
-Freedom from Fear: Center for Victims of Torture
About The Author
Dr.
Simon Adams
is President & CEO at CVT
