WE, THE UNDERSIGNED
members of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT), representing health professionals caring for survivors of torture throughout the world, gathered at the annual Council meeting on the Island of Syros,
Greece, 30 October - 2 November, 2001

EXPRESS OUR DEEP CONCERN ABOUT:
I The devastating losses to individuals, their families, and communities resulting from the 11th September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and the subsequent attacks on Afghanistan;
II. The adverse health consequences of torture, terrorism, and war;
III. The increasing polarisation resulting from fear for safety from terrorism;
IV. The proposed and actual use of torture to extract information from detainees and alleged terrorists.

CONSIDERING THAT:
I. Since its founding, the IRCT has observed the suffering and enormous loss of life resulting from torture and repression worldwide;
II. Many innocent persons died in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., as well as the subsequent attacks on Afghanistan. This has had devastating psychological, physical, and economic consequences for all populations, especially the survivors and their families;
III. The war in Afghanistan has resulted in increasing levels of racism and intolerance, and has eroded a culture of human rights;
IV. War has provided repressive regimes justification for increasing repression and using torture;
V Societies have been destabilised by torture, terrorism, and war, which also threaten civil liberties in democracies;
VI Governmental policies, human rights violations, social injustice, and political oppression have fuelled terrorism.

HAVING NOTED THAT:
I. All communities are at risk for adverse health consequences as a result of torture, terrorism, and war, which increase intolerance, violence, and feelings of terror;
II. Survivors of torture, terrorism, and war often suffer from traumatic stress disorders, which can be exacerbated by additional acts of violence;
III. The use of torture is prohibited under any circumstances and for any reason by the UN Convention Against Torture and other Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by 126 countries.

WE CALL UPON:
I. The attacks on Afghanistan and the Middle East to cease immediately;
II. Governments, organisations, and individuals to find alternative non violent resolution to conflicts;
III. Governments, organisations and individuals to work towards the elimination of the root causes of torture, terrorism, and war;
IV. Governments, organisations, and individuals to work towards promoting a culture of human rights, peace and an end to war and armed conflicts;
V. International communities to share the responsibility of providing protection of refugees and of supporting countries which receive refugees to keep their borders open;
VI. International communities to include mental health care as part of relief activities for refugees displaced by war;
VII. Political groups to use international organisations and conventions to resolve conflicts and to ensure the protection of human rights for all the peoples of the world;
VIII. Governments to respect the absolute prohibition of the use of torture and extra-judicial killings in all circumstances.

Given in Syros, Greece, on the Second Day of the Month of November of the Year Two Thousand and One

Maria Piniou-Kalli, MD, Medical Director of MRCT, Greece J?rgen Nystrup, MD, Psychiatrist, Chairman of RCT, Denmark Christian Pross, MD, Medical Director of BZFO, Germany Anthony P. Reeler, Psychologist, Clinical Director of AMANI, Zimbabwe Bhogendra Sharma, MD, Medical Director of CVICT, Nepal Kirsten Stallknecht, RN, Board Member RCT, Denmark Arno Aadamsoo, MD, Psychiatrist, Executive Director of MRT, Estonia Okan Akhan, MD, Professor, Former Secretary-General of HRFT, Turkey Juan Almendares, MD, Executive Director of CPTRT, Honduras Anita Apsite, MD, Medical Director of SMRC, Latvia Keith Carmichael, Executive Director of Redress, UK Camelia Doru, MD, Medical Director of ICAR, Bucharest, Romania Semyon Gluzman, MD, Psychiatrist, Director of IRC, Ukraine Douglas Johnson, Executive Director of CVT, USA Ling Merete Kituyi, MD, The Independent Medico-Legal Unit, Kenya Diana Kordon, MD, Psychiatrist, Co-ordinator of EATIP, Argentina Carlos Madariaga, MD, Psychiatrist, Medical Director of CINTRAS, Chile Abdallah Mansour, MD, Director of El Nadim Centre, Egypt Aldo Martin, MD, Psychiatrist, Executive Co-ordinator of SERSOC, Uruguay Vivienne Nathanson, MD, Professor, Chair of BMA Steering Group on Human Rights, UK Samuel Nsamba, MD, Medical Director of ACTV, Uganda Regina Benevides de Barros, Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais/RJ, Brazil Khalida Salimi, Director of SACH, Pakistan Dimocritos Sarantidis, Psychiatrist, President of MRCT, Greece Eyad El Sarraj, MD, Psychiatrist, Director of GCMHP, Palestine Joan Simalchik, MA, Canadian Network for Health and Human Rights of Survivors of Torture and Organized Violence, Canada Jagdish C. Sobti, MD, India Nomfundo Walasa, MA, Director of TCVVT, South Africa Ole Vedel Rasmussen, MD, DMSc, Member of CPT and CAT, Consultant at IRCT, (co-opted to IRCT Council)

Secretary-General of the IRCT, Jens Modvig, MD PhD

Staff of the IRCT