A Philippine Human Rights NGO providing Psychosocial Services and Rehabilitation to Internally Displaced Persons and Survivors of Torture and Organized Violence.
Meeting with DSWD and Ex Detainees of the Philippines
Since the enactment of R.A. 9745 or the Anti-Torture Law of 2009 and its implementing rules and regulations, Balay has worked with its partners in the Philippines to facilitate the right to rehabilitation of torture survivors and their families. Balay provides psychosocial care and other therapeutic support after the case managers have determined the areas of intervention that matters for the survivors based on their participatory needs assessment.The organization also help survivors to access financial assistance through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Balay Rehabilitation Center, continues to lobby for the National Preventive Mechanism in Congress. The center has held talks with legislators Senator Aquilino Pimentel III and Cong. John Christopher Belmonte to push its establishment. The Philippines has ratified, along with 13 International Human Rights Treaties, the Optional Protocol in the Convention Against Torture. One of the requirements of the treaty is that the State Party must establish a National Preventive Mechanism that would act as independent body with the sole purpose of preventing torture in vulnerable areas and places of detention.
The United Against Torture Coalition (UATC), together with partner organizations commemorates the UN International Day in Support for Victims of Torture every 26th of June through the Basta! Run against Torture (BRAT). This yearly activity provides a platform for CSOs, stakeholders and key government agencies to campaign for the full implementation of the Anti-Torture Law through public action.
A major project under the YCDP is the building of a network of young people to articulate their views to enable them to participate in the peace process. Guided by the idea of “children as zones of peace,” BALAY sets up a mobile peace training program for young people in Mindanao. It also organizes peace camps and leadership seminars to develop young peace builders and human rights defenders. It works with the Department in mainstreaming peace education in schools and promotes a child-oriented governance in communities covered by its projects.
