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The International Federation of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (FI.ACAT) links 28 national "ACATs" around the world. The movement is particularly strong in France, where the first ACAT was founded by two Protestant women after Amnesty International held the world's first international conference against torture in Paris in 1973. Twenty-seven other countries now have ACATs, including 12 in Africa. The world's newest ACATs have been recently set up in the Czech Republic and Haiti. All are autonomous organizations, with the federation, based in Paris, playing an information and co-ordination role.

Patrick Byrne, a Scottish-born translator based in Luxembourg who is president of FI.ACAT, told ENI in an interview at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva on March 23 that his organization believed that churches should be doing more to fight torture. As its contribution to Amnesty International's campaign against torture, launched last October, FI.ACAT is inviting "all Christian churches to reiterate their condemnation of torture and all inhuman or degrading treatment, and to renew their commitment to their abolition."

FI.ACAT has published a 100-page booklet, Hope in the Darkest Night, in English and French to assist congregations during the campaign. The booklet mentions specific cases of torture in six countries—Iran, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazil, Kenya and Hungary—and includes a prayer about what is arguably history's most famous example of torture—inflicted on Jesus Christ and culminating in his crucifixion.

Byrne told ENI that an important part of the work of the ACATs was calling Christians to pray for both the victims of torture and for "the torturers—that they will have a change of heart."

Another element of the work was education to eliminate social attitudes that allowed torture to continue. "You have to change attitudes, public opinion and traditions which tolerate torture," Byrne said. "In France an opinion poll found that 25 percent of people believe that torture can be accepted in some circumstances. We believe the message we need to get across is that torture is never acceptable, even in the case of the worst possible criminal. It's a denial of that person's humanity, and of the humanity of the torturer.

"We insist," Byrne added, "that there is always a danger of torture occurring in any country. The goal is to build up mechanisms that ensure that torture cannot happen. The presence of closed environments such as prisons means that there is always the possibility of torture."

FI.ACAT's goal during the campaign, which is also supported by five other international organizations campaigning against torture, is, Byrne said, to "make the churches more outspoken on the issue, to make it part of their daily lives. The issue of torture is sometimes perceived by churches as being too political for them to touch. So at present the issue is not always a part of church life."

He said the booklet would help parishes to see the matter as a central Christian concern and integrate it into church life.

Byrne, who is Catholic and married to a Protestant, told ENI that ACATs worldwide were firmly ecumenical. In some countries national ACATs deliberately elected three vice-chairpersons—Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox—to stress the ecumenical nature of their work.

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March (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45