Global Impact Data

Now in its third year, IRCT’s Global Impact Data is a survey which asks all members to give numerical answers to a dozen questions about their centres and clients. What have we learned?

We know IRCT member centres around the world treat just over 60,000 survivors of torture each year. That’s a huge underestimate of the actual number of torture survivors worldwide. But the fact is, nobody knows the true figure.  

Our survivors are roughly evenly split between male and female. 

One in six survivors reports sexual or gender-based violence.

Around three percent of survivors self identify as LGBTI+, also likely to be an underestimate, but roughly consistent with best estimates of the global proportion of persons who are LGBTI+.

Poverty is the leading risk factor for torture, with an average of 48% of survivors treated by IRCT’s members also living in poverty, according to the standard in their nation. This compares to a global average of roughly 20% living below the internationally recognised medium poverty line of $3.20 per day, meaning the poor are more than twice as likely to be tortured. 

Legal support to survivors from IRCT members average some 12,000 per year, or 230 per week. That means, on average, each centre actively supported a survivor in a justice process every week, and was planning for the next one as well. 

Members’ partnership activities average some 3,330 per year, giving each member who responded to the survey around 25 partners to work with.