Introduction

Each year the Medical Foundation researches, writes and publishes studies based on the forensic medical reports and first-hand accounts of our clients.

One of the most important aspects of our work has been the recording and validating of clients' experiences by taking testimonies, and forensically documenting injuries. In this way we bear witness to the history of each individual, with each case a living denunciation of torture.

Great store is set by building up as complete a picture as possible of an individual's experiences, for the resulting medical report by an MF doctor - last year 629 of them were written - will often be used to support an asylum claim. Our doctors are considered "expert witnesses" in legal proceedings, and therefore we have procedures to ensure the reports they write are to an exacting standard.

The detail of these reports contributes to the in-depth analysis of torture in the client's country of origin. In recent years the Medical Foundation has published reports and submissions on Chechnya, Kosovo, Cameroon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the Punjab, Algeria, Sierra Leone and Zaire as well as on UK Home Office Refusal Letters and Rape as a Method of Torture (PDF download 715kb).

These reports stand as an indelible record of torture committed by regimes and add significantly to calls for them to abandon such practices. The reports also raise grave concerns here in Britain at the criteria by which the Home Office judges whether it is safe for an asylum seeker to be returned to his or her country of origin.

Purchasing reports:

Generally, this site contains only the executive summaries from our latest reports (please note the full reports can be purchased from the Medical Foundation for £3.00). To purchase a report email our Public Affairs Department through our contact form.