Clarification of Thought – Yakob Hagos

End the Crime of Torture!

Speaker: Yakob Hagos, Member of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC)

Date: Friday,  June 7, 2019 @ 7:30 p.m.

Place: Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: 503 Rock Creek Church Rd. NW, Washington, DC, 20010

Each June, human rights and faith organizations join together to mark “Torture Awareness Month” because on June 26, 1987, the nations of the world took a major step against the immoral practice of torture. On that day, the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment entered into force and the United Nations later declared June 26th the “International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.”

Yakob Hagos, a teacher and small business owner from Eritrea, a small country in northeast Africa, will share his experience as a torture survivor. Like everyone else in Eritrea, he was forced by the government to enter a military training camp called “Sawa” where men and women are required to serve for an indefinite period of time, sometimes more than 20 years. It was extremely difficult for him to participate in the military exercises because his left leg is paralyzed from polio. Yakob was falsely accused of being part of an opposition political group. He was interrogated and beaten repeatedly because he had graduated from college, asked questions and refused to spy on customers who used his Internet Cafe. He finally managed to escape the country and arrived in the United States in April 2016. Yakob is now an Educational Assistant with the Washington DC public schools, a translator and a member of TASSC.

The mission of TASSC, the only organization founded by and for torture survivors, is to end the practice of torture wherever it occurs and to empower survivors, their families and communities wherever they are. TASSC stands in solidarity with all immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and survivors of torture around the world as it tirelessly works for the abolition of torture. For more info about TASSC and how you can support its annual June Survivors Week from June 26-29, please see: www.tassc.org.

Please join us!

For more info contact the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: 202-882-9649, artlaffin@hotmail.com