Apply for the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture – (Typically, direct assistance grants range from US$30,000 to US$100,000)
The UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture was established by the UN General Assembly with the responsibility to disburse voluntary donations to torture victims via "established channels of assistance."
The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture aims to receive voluntary contributions to provide humanitarian, legal, and financial aid to individuals whose human rights have been severely violated due to torture, as well as to their families. The Fund accomplishes this by granting funds to civil society organizations worldwide to implement projects that offer services to victims of torture and their relatives.
Categories
The Fund offers two types of annual grants:
- Direct Assistance Grants:
These grants support projects that provide medical, psychological, social, economic, legal, educational, or other direct assistance to survivors of torture and their families.- To qualify, organizations must submit five case studies with their application.
- Projects can include training and skill development for staff and volunteers involved in the project. This may help them better assist torture survivors or reduce the risk of vicarious trauma.
- Socio-economic support for survivors should generally be in kind, though cash assistance may be allowed in exceptional cases.
- Activities related to intake processes, informing beneficiaries of services (like maintaining hotlines or providing leaflets/webpages), are acceptable within reasonable limits.
- Studies, research, lobbying, advocacy, or publication of newsletters are not eligible for funding.
- The Fund does not provide direct financial compensation to survivors or support legal actions seeking capital punishment for perpetrators of torture.
- Organizations can only submit one direct assistance application per country during each call for applications.
- Proposals must indicate whether access to aid is available through state-sponsored or other mechanisms.
- Capacity Building Grants:
These grants are for organizations or specialized networks (e.g., hospitals, rehabilitation centers, survivors' groups) looking to strengthen their capacity to provide specialized services to torture survivors and their families.- Applicants must identify the gap in specialized services for survivors and explain how their project will address this gap.
- Only one application per organization per year will be accepted.
- Proposals aimed at increasing the capacity of other organizations (e.g., trainer organizations) are ineligible.
- In addition to the application, organizations must submit:
- CVs of project staff and trainers
- A training program
- A provisional list of participants
- Proof of other funding sources
Eligible Projects
Projects should prioritize a victim-centered and gender-sensitive approach. A victim-centered approach ensures that beneficiaries are at the heart of the planning and delivery of services, from the start to the end of the process. Organizations need to show how victims are kept informed and involved in decisions about the services offered, including understanding the risks and benefits of the assistance, allowing them to make informed choices.
Professionals working on the project should apply trauma-informed practices, which involve recognizing, understanding, and responding to the impacts of trauma. This helps prevent re-traumatizing victims and protects staff and volunteers from secondary trauma.
Organizations must also explain how they assess and address the risks and effects of torture on various beneficiaries, including women, men, children, LGBTI individuals, migrants, indigenous peoples, ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, and others.
The project should integrate a gender perspective at all stages. This includes considering the unique impacts of torture, especially sexual and gender-based violence, on different victims, with particular attention to women, girls, and LGBTI people.
Don't miss out on the application deadline which is 1 March 2025.
Additional Information
Typically, direct assistance grants range from US$30,000 to US$100,000. Organizations that are "on-going applicants" and submitting proposals to continue previously funded projects in the same country may receive grants exceeding US$50,000. However, for organizations applying for the first time or returning applicants, the maximum grant amount is capped at US$50,000.
**Capacity Building Annual Grants:**
Capacity building grants are capped at US$50,000 for all types of applicants, including first-time, returning, and ongoing organizations. Eligible expenses for these grants may include staff salaries (for "trainer" organizations), fees or daily allowances for external trainers (for "trainee" organizations), venue rental, interpretation services, and travel or accommodation costs.
Applications will only be accepted from civil society organizations and other assistance providers (such as hospitals or professional associations). These organizations must have been operating for at least one year before applying. However, exceptions may be made for organizations that have had to establish a new legal entity due to external challenges.
The Fund recognizes different categories of applicant organizations:
First-time applicants: organizations that have never received a grant from the Fund.
Returning applicants: organizations that have received a grant previously but not in the last year.
Ongoing applicants: organizations that are currently receiving a grant from the Fund, with two subcategories:
Organizations submitting a continuation of an existing project in the same country.
Organizations proposing a new project or grant (either direct assistance or capacity building) in the same or a different country.
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