Public Committee Against Torture in Israel

The Public Committee against Torture in Israel ( German: Public Committee Against Torture in Israel) is an Israeli human rights organization that specifically committed against torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment. The organization was founded in 1990 as an independent human rights organization, in response to the so PCATI: " to allow continuous policy of the Israeli government, the systematic use of torture, as well as physical and psychological abuse during interrogations of the domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet "

The activities of the organization includes the monitoring of Israeli prisons, the court battle against Torture, as well as information campaigns with the aim to promote a critical awareness in relation to this topic. PCATI operates in the context of the fight against torture in Israel with other Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organizations to advocate for the implementation of international law and human rights in Israel.

The organization is committed to all the people of Israel ( Israelis, Palestinians, migrant workers, and generally all persons whose permanent residence is in Israel), which victims of torture and ill-treatment on the part of Israeli security authorities.

The organization won a historic victory when the Supreme Court of Israel on 6 October 1999, in the wake of a petition which PCATI together with the " Association for Civil Rights in Israel - HaMoked " filed in 1991 before the Supreme Court, the systematic application of various methods of torture on the part of the Shin Bet banned. Subsequently, the number of judicial complaints regarding those torture methods significantly decreased, but increased in the course of the beginning of the second Intifada in September 2000, again sharply, indicating a de facto reversal of the implementation of the judgment of the Supreme Court. The basis for this development was the generous interpretation of the so-called " self-defense " clause by which qualified his judgment of the Supreme Court. Given this development, PCATI expanded its activities and started external lawyers and support staff set to assist the internal employees with the research and investigation of torture allegations. PCATI tried to find further proof new ways to combat torture, human rights violations in general, and in particular the issue of impunity with regard to such action and to develop new methods in terms of legal action, and public relations.

In December 1996, the organization received along with the "Palestinian Center for Human Rights ' ( PCHR ) Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.

The organization maintains in its role as a human rights organization wide variety of programs for public relations, with the aim to raise public awareness and encourage social discourse in relation to torture and human rights violations.

The organization hopes that this way to influence politicians and social institutions, the latter in order to turn public pressure for a change in policy.

Ishai Menuchin has held since January 2008, the Office of the Managing Director. He assumed the office of Hannah Friedman, which is one of the founders of PCATI and the position held since the founding of the organization.

In 2009 PCATI published a report under the title: " bondage as a form of torture and ill-treatment " in which it was levied the accusation that Israel hundreds of Palestinian prisoners by tethered in violation of international standards, tortured. The report also questioned Israel's refusal to grant the Red Cross access to the so-called " Facility 1391 ", a secret prison, which is also known as "Israel's Guantanamo Bay ."