Here are five techniques which author has in his ethics courses to help students explore the ethics of psychology—and their own ethics. They give you one example of each technique; you can take it from there and apply these to ethics in your personal life and your own profession. They make no claim that these are original, and this is certainly not a definitive list.
In response to a significant problem, this website approaches professional choices from a unified perspective that views decision making as an orderly process sharing essential characteristics in all of the mental health disciplines. More than that, it invites the user to interpret professional issues from a communitarian, rather than individualistic, perspective. With these issues in mind, the system for addressing professional dilemmas is useful for practitioners and students in mental health settings. Examples of the use of this system are offered in a variety of practice dilemmas presented in links to this page.
This document has been drafted with contributions from the Gender-based Violence Group and the Ethics Group at the CAMFIC. They have provided the basis for the work and the Groups bear the responsibility for the content.
With the increased interest and attention of the global community of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers toward rigorous intervention research for preventing VAW, a discussion of the ethical considerations specific to this type of research is warranted. As was highlighted by the WHO over a decade ago and by many others since then, the sensitive nature of research on VAW requires special ethical and safety considerations (1, 5, 7-10).
The United Nations released in this Compendium some basic principles, see here in particular article 16 – “Principles of Medical Ethics relevant to the role of health personnel….”
I should say Šrst that I don’t assume that human rights provide the only language or tools available in addressing global challenges. There is a rich body of international norms in the Šelds of labor and environmental protection, to name only two, that are today given too little importance but that should also serve as part of the “rules of the road” for an equitable and sustainable globalization process at different levels.
Health professionals` ethics and human rights violations, revealed in May 2004, CIA inspector generals report. “Physicians for Human Rights” is discussing in this article (8 p.) the CIA report (released in 2009) about the role health professionals played in the CIA`s torture program and the level of ethical misconduct.
The article discusses the challenges and opportunities faced when integrating participatory methods into human rights-based research. It describes the development of a participatory action research approach designed to fulfil the aim of undertaking advocacy-focused research grounded in human rights and community participation.
This website aims to provide with resources for teaching, studying, investigating ethical issues in mental health research. Collaboration at Saint Louis Univ., Missouri Inst. of Mental Health, Nat. Inst. of Health, and the Nat. Inst. of Mental Health.
This is an “international, peer-reviewed, web-based journal, available free online, worldwide. It aims at providing a useful forum for sharing ideas and experiences among all who are committed to improving ethical standards, behaviours, and choices in mental health caregiving”.
This paper reflects on some of the moral dilemmas inherent in the provision of counselling for Iraqi refugees by highlighting the day-to-day experiences of psychosocial counsellors employed by an international nongovernmental organization (INGO) in Jordan.
It is important for health professionals to have an ethical framework to help make decisions regarding psychosocial interventions in patients with addictive disorders. As patients with addictive disorders are vulnerable to unethical actions in the name of treatment, therapists need to aware of their role in delivering ethical care – not just in their own clinical practice but in the setting in which they deliver the interventions. This article aims to sensitize the health professional to the various areas in which ethical challenges may arise.
The CDA has developed some training materials, aiming to sensitize helpers in “Do No Harm“. This training was the result of projects to learn more about the assistance given in conflict settings (often used and misused to pursue political or military advantage). You can download hand- and workbooks, trainers package etc.
In the 1991 Moscow Document the OSCE participating States agreed that they will “encourage their competent authorities responsible for education programmes to design effective human rights related curricula and courses for students at all levels, particularly (…) students (…) attending public service schools.” These guidelines aim to support systemic and effective human rights education for health workers, and especially those who study to become health professionals or already carry out that important work.
The mission of the American Counseling Association is to enhance the quality of life in society by promoting the development of professional counselors, advancing the counseling profession, and using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity.
The United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP) is an association of body-oriented psychotherapists, allied somatic practitioners, and interns trained in related modalities. The purpose of the USABP is to support the practice and further evolution of the field of body psychotherapy.
The “AMHCA Code” is an essential component of practicing clinical mental health counseling with professionalism and integrity. While ethical guidance for the practice of clinical mental health counseling is its primary purpose, it is also intended to prompt pondering about ethical thinking and practice. To be an ethical mental health counselor is to practice thinking ethically in an ongoing self-deliberation and in discussions with other mental health professionals.
Has published these meta-codes, referring otherwise to the ethical codes of their member associations.
The WMA has published its ethical guidelines in different languages, the English version (140 p.) will you find here.
Also here find we ethical principles documented by a large psychiatrist organization, to provide guidelines.
The NASW Code of Ethics is intended to serve as a guide to the everyday professional conduct of social workers.
The American Psychological Association has set up in this long article the general principles, and specific ethical standards according which they are working.
The American Psychiatric Association has here defined Medical Ethics, with annotations especially applicable to psychiatry.
The article discusses the necessity of research in conflict areas to improve the quality of assistance, considering the ethic principles in doing research in a vulnerable population, and the harm-benefit ratio
The author reports to the article by Gillon from 1994, discussing the four principles on examples.
The “four principles plus scope” approach provide a simple, accessible, and culturally neutral approach about ethical issues in health care. The principles: respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice. The article discusses these topics, and the conclusion in personal decision making.
This article (12 p.) discusses the necessity to review ethical principles in health, to ensure that human rights and dignity are fully respected. – Mamdouh Gabr, Cairo University.
Ethics are a system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which defines what is good for individuals and society.
This website (set up by a clinical psychologist) collects over 130 useful links to help torture survivors and asylum seekers to find information on lots of topics import to know (guidelines, networks, legal services etc).
An organisation of courageous and committed human rights defenders. Founded in 1999, we provide free legal and investigative support to some of the world’s most vulnerable people: those facing execution, and those victimised by states’ abusive counter-terror policies – rendition, torture, extrajudicial imprisonment and extrajudicial killing.
The medical work against torture began in 197411. The work took place in internationaland national NGO’s. In the beginning it concentrated on documenting torture. Medical examination of torture victims added evidence to reports on torture. The only way to stop torture was to put pressure on the government by exposing them to torture allegations. The usual reaction by the government was that the allegations were unfounded, communistic propaganda done by leftist activists.
The 4 links focuses on the medical, physical examination in connection with torture and other related human rights violations. The major content theme is divided into different organ systems that will be described with regard to the acute and somatic consequences of torture here and in the following two issues. Part I contains information regarding Literature review, Pitfalls, Skin lesions.
Your involvement in recording histories and exam findings and in referring patients for specialized care can restore lives. It can also aid in reversing the “invisibility” of torture survivors that perpetuates inadequate clinical education, research, and development of appropriate therapies.
This booklet contains guidelines for writing medical legal reports. The advice contained in this book concerns the provision of medical evidence to help substantiate (or evaluate) claims of ill-treatment and torture.
The purposes of effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (hereinafter “torture or other ill-treatment”) include the following: (a) Clarification of the facts and establishment and acknowledgement of individual and State responsibility for victims and their families; (b) Identification of measures needed to prevent recurrence; (c) Facilitation of prosecution and/or, as appropriate, disciplinary sanctions for those indicated by the investigation as being responsible and demonstration of the need for full reparation and redress from the State, including fair and adequate financial compensation and provision of the means for medical care and rehabilitation.
The information included represents a “getting started” and “where to go for more information” guide. We present options for providers along a continuum of services they might choose to provide, from implementing a survivor service component in their ongoing practice to developing a full-service torture rehabilitation program.
The RCT Documentation Centre and Library “holds the world’s most extensive special collection of published documents on torture and related subjects. In addition to books, reports, and articles the library holds a large collection of pictures and video materials.”
OMCT’s Handbook Series consists offour volumes, each one providing a detailed guide to the practice, procedures,and jurisprudence of the regional and international mechanisms that arecompetent to examine individual complaints concerning the violation of theabsolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment.
The right to redress for victims of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide is soundly established as a right under international law, including both the right to an “effective remedy” and to “reparation”. Reparation refers to ways in which the victim can be restored, and it may be understood as attempts to reestablish dignity, recreate a sense of balance, and reconstruct a life after human rights violations. In this article, the experiences of persons affected by gross human rights violations during the dictatorship in Argentina, with regard to economic reparations for their suffering and losses, are explored.
A solid and detailed study (186 p.) on the issue of Secret Detention, which is concluded to be a violation of international human rights law, and may facilitate the perpetration of torture. Detailed status quo concerning Secret Detention in the different continents/states.
This rapport (112 p) presents a solid overview of the survivor`s perceptions of reparation. It comes along with definitions and discusses the problem of the reactions to reparations and the processes which are necessarily involved.
Through a combined legal and social science analysis, this paper reflects on one of the root concepts of reparation. As reparation occurs in response to victimization, this paper concentrates on the notion of a victim.1 The notion of the victim will be explored from a socio-political perspective and from an international legal perspective. By way of conclusion, these two approaches will be interwoven in order to consider a more comprehensive definition of a victim.
The thousands of human beings who have already been through the severe pain of torture also face a range of devastating long-term consequences. In particular, survivors of torture frequently experience chronic pain, headaches, insomnia, nightmares, depression, flashbacks, anxiety, and panic attacks, and can become overwhelmed by feelings of fear, helplessness and even guilt because of what happened to them.
In the resolution 1985/33 the United Nations Commission of Human Rights decided to appoint an expert, a special rapporteur, to examine questions relevant to torture. This mandate covers all countries, irrespective of whether a State has ratified the Convention against Torture. – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture SPT started its work in 2007. According to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture OPCAT the STP is given the right to visit places of detention and examine the treatment of people held there. – OHCHR.
The Committee against Torture CAT is the body of 10 independent experts that monitors implementation of the “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” by its State Parties. – OHCHR.
From the dingy dungeons of the Dark Ages to today’s shadowy holding facilities, the use of torture as an interrogation tactic has evolved little and possibly yielded even less, in terms of intelligence.
Beatings and psychological torture are the most common forms reported to the Center for Victims of Torture™ (CVT). CVT clinicians have documented more sophisticated forms of torture over the years, especially methods of psychological torture, that do not leave physical scars. This makes it more difficult for survivors to seek redress or make asylum claims.
What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions we posed in this dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in 1971 at Stanford university.
The history of torture teaches us two lessons: first, that our inventive capacity for inflicting pain and terror on our fellow human is shockingly expansive. Second, that the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history: similar patterns of violence and humiliation resurface with sinister regularity. Sometimes even the torturer’s rhetoric echoes down the centuries.
Detainees may be subjected to torture and extra-judicial execution by State actors and terrorists. But, the pathology of torture has not been well-described. This is due to the lack of autopsies performed on victims of torture, mostly due to the disposal of the bodies of the victims by their torturers. On this basis, the cause of death of detainees subjected to torture is often a matter of speculation or remains obscure.
This represents a great overview helping to understand the psychology of torture, with explanations, aspects on effects and recovery
The legal definition of torture in human rights law differs quite significantly from the way the term is commonly used in the media or in general conversation.
This convention was drafted in 1950, entry into force in 1953. It established the European Court of Human Rights. This international treaty, ratified by all Council of Europe member states, is to protect human rights and fundamental freedom in Europe. Article #3 No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The United Nations have edited a series of quite useful Fact Sheets. This one targeting combating torture covers lists of pertinent international instruments, treaty monitoring bodies, special rapporteurs, as well as mentions the UN voluntary fond for victims of torture and selected (special) issues. Annex with complaint forms and guidelines.
The Covenant is a multilateral treaty, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966, entry into force in 1976. It represents a part of the International Bill of Human Rights. The Covenant is monitored by the Human Rights Committee.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. There is one absolute prohibition in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that is universally accepted as unequivocal: Article 5’s ban on torture. At times, states may have disputed the definition of what constitutes torture, but virtually none now openly defend the practice, even if some still carry it out in what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights described as “some of the darkest corners of our planet.”
Reparations are meant to acknowledge and repair the causes and consequences of human rights violations and inequality in countries emerging from dictatorship, armed conflict, and political violence, as well as in societies dealing with racial injustice and legacies of colonization. ICTJ’s provides comparative knowledge and practical lessons learned from designing and implementing reparations programs, particularly in the global South.
A non-profit, non-partisan organization that applies rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations around the world. A non-partisan—but do not take sides in political or military conflicts, nor do they advocate any particular political party or government policy. However, not neutral: they are always in favor of human rights. They support the protections established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and other international human rights treaties and instruments