Restart Center For Rehabilitation Of Victims Of Violence And Torture - About

Restart Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Violence Restart Center is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) active in the field of rehabilitation of victims of torture and violence. Restart was established in 1996.
Restart Center envisions a World free of torture, where the individual’s dignity, self-respect and self-worth are cherished and his/her physical and psychological integrity and empowerment are guaranteed.
The center seeks to prevent torture practices, nationally and regionally, through awareness-raising, advocacy, and capacity building and to ensure that the victim of an act of torture or ill-treatment and war-trauma obtains redress particularly through the provision of means for as full rehabilitation as possible.

Specifically, Restart Center:

Restores the psychosocial, medical, and physical wellbeing of survivors of torture or trauma and their families.
Educates professionals and the public about torture and its consequences.
Strengthens the legal and policy frameworks for an effective criminalization and abolition of torture nationally and regionally.
Thwarts, prevents and responds to gender-based violence and Counters violent extremism.
Advocates for the rights of victims of torture and war-trauma to effective remedy and reparation.
Reinforces the capacity of governmental bodies, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations and local    communities as well as health and education sectors to identify and respond to the health, mental health, legal and social        needs of survivors of torture or war trauma.
Takes actions to improve detention conditions and practices.

Our target groups:

Restart Center supports victims of torture, ill-treatment and war trauma; in particular those in specific situations of vulnerability including:
- EX-PRISONERS/EX-DETAINEES- PERSONS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY- SECONDARY VICTIMS (VICTIMS OF SECONDARY TRAUMATIZATION)- REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS- PEOPLE WITH MENTAL DISORDERS- WOMEN AND CHILDREN- WOMEN VICTIMS OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE (GBV)- CHILDREN AFFECTED AND INVOLVED IN ARMED CONFLICTS- CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS- OTHER MINORITY GROUPS (I.E. LGBTI PEOPLE)

Our Values:

Throughout its Human Rights’ based approach, Restart Center deeply embraces individual’s dignity, integrity and respect as well as the principles of non-discrimination, equality and justice. It also seeks to foster transparency, accountability, organizational learning, and leadership within its system.Restart Center “emphasizes the importance of victim participation in the redress process, and that the restoration of the dignity of the victim is the ultimate objective in the provision of redress”.Acting for its beneficiary’s best interests, Restart Center programs are founded on the values of confidentiality, professional secrecy, informed consent and respect for autonomy as well as “do no harm” principals and participatory approaches.
Objectives:

To offer physical psychological and social rehabilitation to any individual victim of torture and violence and their family members and to refugees
To develop awareness program about torture
To enable the torture survivors to become productive members in their societies
To cooperate with local and international NGO’s governmental bodies and networking among concerned professionals
To apply and gather research to develop our services
To facilitate the social functioning by strengthening adaptive coping mechanisms and providing the access of social opportunities
To create a central source of information and statistics on psychosocial problems facing refugees
To develop a network and collaboration systems among non-governmental and governmental organizations in Lebanon
To promote awareness of all concerned stakeholders towards the refugees issues and their needs
To develop Mental Health preventive mechanisms for the refugees and their family members
To promote the development of a secure environment for children affected by armed conflicts
To encourage the social integration among children residing in Lebanon and to open the public debate on children rights
To cooperate with the concerned authorities in order to promote the spread of a Human Right culture in Lebanon