Each year, thousands of Eritreans flee to refugee camps in northern Ethiopia to escape forced military inscription, persecution, and torture. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently announced that Ethiopia is now the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa. According to UNHCR, Ethiopia is host to 629,718 refugees. The largest refugee population is South Sudanese (247,000), followed by Somalis (245,000), and Eritreans (99,000). UNHCR says that, over the past seven months, almost 15,000 Eritreans arrived in Ethiopia.As the Eritrean government targets the families of young men who flee the country to avoid forced conscription, more women and children have also fled Eritrea seeking refuge in Ethiopia.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently issued a report on the plight of Syrian refugee women. Woman Alone: The Fight for Survival by Syria's Refugee Women shows that more than 145,000 Syrian refugee families in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan – one in four of all households – are headed solely by women. According to UNHCR, the report uncovers that “Many [women] live under the threat of violence or exploitation, and their children face mounting trauma and distress.”

On 26 June 2014, CVT staff, volunteers and board members gathered in the St. Paul Healing Center with survivors of torture to commemorate the anniversary of the Convention Against Torture. Rosa Garcia-Peltoniemi, Ph.D., L.P., Senior Consulting Clinician, offered these remarks to honor all survivors.

We are honored to observe the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture at our St. Paul Healing Center, where a community of providers, interpreters, and volunteers help heal and support survivors in rebuilding their lives.

Paul Linnell, the Humphrey Fellow for CVT in our Washington DC office, provides an informative and useful summary of our recent expert briefing on Fighting Impunity: Combating Torture & Human Trafficking.

Each year, CVT presents the Eclipse Award around June 26 – International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – to an individual or organization that has played a crucial role in the prevention of torture or treatment of torture survivors. The 2014 recipient is Professor David M. Crane, who is being honored for his extraordinary efforts in fighting impunity for torture.

CVT psychotherapist and trainer Abbey Kanzer, PsyD, LP, wrote this poem as a reflection on a women's counseling group she led. The women came from around the world. They ranged in age. They spoke different languages. They had different education levels.

But they had three things in common: they were all torture survivors; they were all mothers; and they were all separated from at least one child.

We share it in honor of Mother's Day this Sunday.

Today’s post is in honor of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness day.

Paul Orieny, PhD, LMFT, international services clinical advisor, recently returned from northern Ethiopia. Last February, CVT Ethiopia began group counseling in Mai Ani and Adi Harush refugee camps. Below are Paul's observations.

My fellow Muslims, people who spoke the same language, had the same r