ST. PAUL, Minn. — As Syrian civil society adapts to sweeping changes after the December 2024 overthrow of the Assad regime, the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) is pleased to announce a new project that allows us to work more closely with partners inside Syria to address the impact of torture, enforced disappearances and widespread human rights violations.

“For generations the Assad dictatorship in Syria operated an industrial system of detention, torture and disappearance. Torture was used as a tool of terror and social control,” said Dr. Simon Adams, CVT president and CEO. “As the doors of the notorious Sednaya prison were finally forced opened in December 2024, we committed ourselves to continue our work with Syrian survivors who have bravely endured the unimaginable. CVT is proud to be part of rebuilding hope and working alongside Syrian partners as they build a better future.”

While CVT has worked extensively with Syrian refugees for many years, this new project allows us to expand our direct work inside Syria for the first time.

“After 15 years of working towards this moment, seeing Syria free is a dream realized. But with that freedom comes the immense responsibility to support the hundreds of thousands of families searching for their missing loved ones and to support the newly released detainees as they begin to rebuild their lives,” said Islam Al-Aqeel, CVT senior resilience programming trainer. “The images from Sednaya prison, while a stark reminder of the horrors endured, represent only a fraction of the over 100,000 individuals forcibly disappeared during the revolution.”

Starting in 2011, CVT began offering clinical services in Jordan to Syrian refugees who fled after surviving torture and a shocking range of atrocities. From our centers in Amman, Irbid and Zarqa, we have provided counseling, physiotherapy and social work services to more than 10,000 Syrian survivors, 80% of them women. A full 19% were children.

In addition, through the Survivors of Torture Initiative (SOTI), CVT helped bring together Syrian trauma rehabilitation experts, psychosocial service providers, human rights defenders, journalists, legal advocates, documenters, and others fighting for healing and justice. CVT will continue to work with our courageous Syrian partners like the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison (ADMSP), who support detainees and families of the missing.

 “We bring support that is trauma-informed, focused on safety and locally led, which are key elements in the aftermath of the suffering we have seen in Syria,” said Yusra Al-Kailani, CVT resilience programming trainer and psychotherapist. “Integration of psychosocial support is highly important in processes of transitional justice to Syrian civil society.” Yusra has recently returned from Syria after providing support to dialogue sessions facilitated by the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Bridges of Truth Consortium.

The voices of survivors and our long-standing partners are crucial as CVT now moves to provide specialized support for detainees inside Syria who have recently been liberated from Assad’s notorious prisons and detention centers. CVT is proud to work alongside Syrians as they rebuild their lives, their country and their hope.

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The Center for Victims of Torture is a nonprofit organization with offices in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Uganda, United States and additional project sites around the world. Visit www.cvt.org