Our Origin
The International Coalition to End Torture was established in July 2003, with Amnesty International as its founding anchor organisation and the general secretariat based in New York City and Geneva, Switzerland. The Coalition emerged from a recognition that ending torture requires coordinated, sustained pressure across governments, legal systems, and civil society — pressure that no single organisation can generate alone.
Today, ICET unites more than 100 member organisations across all regions of the world. Together, they monitor detention facilities, advocate for treaty ratification, train national human rights institutions, and document abuses that might otherwise remain invisible.
Our Mission
ICET's mission is to raise awareness of human rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture — ensuring that governments, police, judiciary, and civil society know the law, demand its enforcement, and defend the individuals it is designed to protect.
The Convention Against Torture entered into force in 1987 and has since been ratified by more than 170 states. Its Optional Protocol (OPCAT), adopted in 2002, creates a system of independent inspections of all places of detention. ICET has been a primary advocate for universal OPCAT ratification since the Coalition's founding.
Core Values
- Independence: ICET receives no government funding and takes no instructions from states.
- Accuracy: Our documentation is fact-based, sourced, and meets international evidence standards.
- Universality: The prohibition of torture admits no exception — not national security, not cultural practice, not emergency.
- Accountability: Perpetrators must face justice; impunity is itself a form of ongoing harm.
- Prevention: The best response to torture is preventing it through independent monitoring and systemic reform.
Our Activities
ICET works with state authorities, police institutions, judiciaries, and international human rights bodies. Our activities include media campaigns, direct-appeal advocacy, archival research, parliamentary lobbying, detention monitoring training, and support for National Preventive Mechanisms established under OPCAT.
The Coalition played a significant role in developing the Robben Island Guidelines, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights' framework for the prohibition and prevention of torture in Africa, and continues to support their implementation across the continent.