At a time when peoples are fighting for their freedom, when human rights defenders are threatened or murdered simply because they have sought to have international standards applied, when detainees are living under disgraceful material and social conditions, when foreigners suffer great discrimination, when Christians are persecuted simply for being what they are, there is an urgent need to strengthen the basis of the absolute prohibition of torture and to remind everyone of the importance of respecting human dignity as an absolute value.

The work of a vigilant civil society and non -governmental organisations like FIACAT is crucial as an accompaniment to the international and regional mechanisms for combating torture and death penalty, which provide the essential legal frameworks.

FIACAT represents the ACATs before the international and regional bodies which have given it consultative status (the United Nations [UN] and the International Organisation of La Francophonie [OIF]), participative status (the Council of Europe) or observer status (the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights [ACHPR]).

FIACAT also works in close collaboration with other human rights NGOs and with the churches and Christian communities.

FIACAT helps the ACATs to organise themselves and become major actors in civil society, capable of influencing the changing attitudes and structures of their countries, by promoting exchanges, offering regional or international training courses and proposing joint activities or campaigns. It thus supports the ACATs' activities and gives them international resonance.

Testimony : 

"In FIACAT, we work for a network, people who are very committed and for victims of human rights violations. Most of the cases of abusive pre-trial detention are for petty crimes: theft of chicken, bike… They are in prison because they couldn’t afford to pay a lawyer, they are sometimes illiterate and don’t understand what is at stake. Even for known criminals, Human rights are universal and for all. I am proud to have contributed to the abolition of the death penalty in Benin, Madagascar and Congo Brazzaville."

Guillaume Colin, Fiacat

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