The Research and Documentation Program of ARCT is a core component of its mandate, aimed at preserving historical memory, strengthening accountability, and providing an evidence-based foundation for advocacy, legal reform, and rehabilitation.
OBJECTIVES
Preserving Historical Records
Documenting cases of torture and political persecution to ensure that these violations are acknowledged, recorded, and remembered as part of Albania’s democratic development.
Supporting Justice
Providing evidence and professional documentation to support legal remedies, compensation procedures, institutional accountability, and advocacy for survivors’ rights.
Informing Policy and Practice
Generating research to influence detention standards, rehabilitation models, preventive mechanisms, and legal frameworks related to torture prevention and refugee protection.
Raising Awareness
Using documented data and analysis to educate the public, reduce stigma against survivors, and promote understanding of the long-term psychological, social, and economic impacts of torture.
CORE ACTIVITIES
Documentation of Human Rights Violations
Case Documentation:
Collecting detailed, survivor-centered accounts of torture and ill-treatment, using structured and trauma-informed methodologies aligned with international standards.
Archiving Evidence:
Ensuring secure and ethical storage of documentation for legal, institutional, historical, and advocacy purposes.
Collaboration with Institutions:
Sharing findings with national authorities, independent oversight bodies, courts, and international human rights mechanisms to strengthen accountability and reform processes.
Research on Trauma and Its Impacts
Long-Term and Intergenerational Impact:
Conducting research on how torture and political persecution affect survivors and their families over time, including intergenerational consequences.
Detention and Institutional Studies:
Examining conditions and practices in prisons, police detention facilities, psychiatric institutions, and migrant centers to improve safeguards and preventive standards.
Social Perceptions and Stigma:
Researching societal attitudes toward former political persecuted persons, detainees, and refugees to guide stigma-reduction and awareness strategies.
DEVELOPING SURVIVOR-CENTERED INTERVENTIONS
Research findings inform ARCT’s multidisciplinary rehabilitation programs, including psychological therapy, legal assistance, and livelihood support initiatives. Evidence-based insights contribute to strengthening family-focused and community-based approaches that promote dignity, resilience, and reintegration.
ETHICAL AND TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICES
Confidentiality and Consent:
All documentation and research activities are conducted with strict respect for privacy, informed consent, and survivor safety.
Empowerment Through Participation:
Survivors are engaged respectfully in documentation and research processes, ensuring their voices contribute to advocacy, policy dialogue, and reform efforts.
IMPACT
The Research and Documentation Program has been instrumental in:
Strengthening monitoring and prevention of torture in places of deprivation of liberty
Supporting survivors in accessing recognition and compensation mechanisms
Informing legislative and institutional reform
Preserving the documented history of political persecution and torture in Albania. By combining rigorous research with survivor-centered documentation, ARCT contributes to justice, rehabilitation, and systemic change, ensuring that the experiences of survivors remain central to Albania’s democratic progress.