I will continue and I will offer evidence-based and victim-centred research.
We are not alone in identifying and understanding the mental health differences between non-state torture and assault or abuse victimizations. Our research questionnaire asked citizens whether 48 violent behaviours were indicative of assault, abuse or non-state torture, if many or all were inflicted on one person.
Of 776 respondents, 723 or 93% were Canadian, 680 or 88% were female respondents, 89 or 12% were male, seven didn't answer or said “other”, 7% were from other countries and 8% came via our website or regular mail.
This questionnaire also asked, “If you were forced to choose between being a victim of abuse/assault or a victim of torture, which would you choose?”
Some 680, or 88%, chose assault or abuse, explaining that non-state torture was more life-threatening, more dehumanizing, more painful and more difficult to heal from and that they were disbelieved. Some 6% were undecided or did not answer and 6% chose non-state torture.
As two women explained, that's all they knew. One woman said that she was brought into a child sex-trafficking ring by her father when she was around the age of four. She said that most of what she was put through in this ring she considers to be torture and that she is still having powerful flashbacks, which include body memories of this torture.
The other woman said that she was definitely tortured. She said that she uses this term to help health care professionals and others understand her childhood and not minimize it.
Our three recommendations are to criminalize torture perpetrated by non-state actors as a torture crime; to recognize non-state torture victimization-traumatization informed care; and that education on violence against women must include non-state torture victimization.
Women cannot mentally heal when social-political injustice dehumanizes them as persons with no legal right to truth-tell, when they are not treated with dignity, when they are disbelieved and when they are not protected from non-state torture.
Thank you for your time.