A/HRC/31/23 IV. Forty-second session of the Board of Trustees 9. The forty-second session of the Board was held in Geneva from 28 September to 2 October 2015. The Board examined applications for funding and made recommendations on grants to be awarded to beneficiary organizations for the period from 1 January to 31 December 2016. 10. The amount available for distribution to projects was calculated after deducting programme support costs, the operating cash reserve and the expenditure for non-grant activities from the total amount of contributions received since the fortieth session of the Board, held from 29 September to 3 October 2014. 11. At the forty-second session, the Board, with the assistance of the secretariat, reviewed a total of 221 admissible project applications aimed at providing direct assistance to victims of torture and their family members, amounting to a total request of $13,127,708. 12. The Board considered positively a total of 178 projects to be implemented in 81 countries for a total amount of $7,169,300. Notably, it recommended for a renewed grant 150 ongoing projects and 24 new projects aimed at providing direct assistance to victims and four grants for new training and seminar projects. With this vital financial assistance, it is expected that 47,000 victims and their families will obtain rehabilitation services in all regions of the world in the course of 2016. 13. All project proposals were reviewed on a competitive basis, taking into account the merit and documented needs as well as the number of years of continuous support by the Fund to the same project. 14. The Board also recommended setting aside an additional $1 million to respond to emergency assistance requests that may be received in 2016 through the intersessional procedure of the Fund. 15. Through its enhanced emergency procedure, in 2015 the Fund was able to provide rapid financial support in the amount of $400,000 for the relief of victims of torture in the context of unfolding crisis. Emergency grants were awarded to provide vital rehabilitation services in Ukraine for victims displaced from the eastern regions of the country, in northern Iraq and Jordan for the relief of Syrian and Iraqi victims, in Burundi to support victims of unfolding political violence as well as in Serbia and Hungary in the context of the increased influx of refugees to those countries. 16. In the face of these emergency requests, the Board remains concerned about the upsurge in torture, in particular in the context of violent extremism and unprecedented levels of forced displacement worldwide, and recalls that States have the obligation under international law to provide redress and rehabilitation to victims of torture. 17. The Board also recommended that, for the 2017 call for applications, special attention should be given to projects focusing on (a) early identification of victims of torture and their access to medical, legal, social, psychological services; (b) innovative strategic litigation initiatives; (c) victims of torture in territories controlled by non-State actors; (d) rehabilitation for women and children who are victims of torture; and (e) initiatives operating in contexts of restricted civil society space. Moreover, for the 2017 call for applications the Board identified as priorities countries in the Middle East and North Africa; countries that are members of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (in particular Brazil); and Central Asia. 18. During the forty-second session, the Board also met with Alessio Bruni, member of the Committee against Torture, as part of its regular inter-mechanism dialogue and Martha 5