2022
Mental Health and Human Rights Info (MHHRI) Newsletter March 2022
MHHRI provides information about mental health and human rights violations

Newsletter No 2 – March 2022
Psychological first aid, information for helpers in and around Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has devastating consequences for the mental health of Ukraine’s people; consequences that might reverberate for years to come.
The heavy challenges and continuing task to address the consequences of the war will fall on helpers, volunteers or professionals living and working in extremely difficult conditions in Ukraine and the neighbouring countries.
- Persons exposed to war trauma, separation, loss, including sexual violence
- Adults – individually or in groups
- Adolescents or children – individually or in groups
- Helpers and others engaged in emergency work
Important and practical information and handbooks about psychosocial support to be used in work with Ukrainian refugees inside Ukraine and in neighbouring countries have been developed by international and very experienced organisations.
Some relevant links follow:






Psychological first aid (PFA) for helpers working with people within Ukraine and impacted countries
What is psychological first aid?
- a set of skills and knowledge that can be used to help people who are in distress.
- a way of helping people to feel calm and able to cope in a difficult situation.
PFA rarely stands alone and is usually accompanied by other support and skills such as:
- knowing how to assess a situation
- familiarity with common patterns of reactions to crises
- how to approach someone in distress and how to calm them if needed
- how to provide emotional support and practical help.
Psychological First Aid is psychosocial support and is based on the intervention principles for providing psychosocial support in emergencies:
1. The first principle is about promoting a psychological sense of safety, which can be done on an individual, group, organization, and community levels.
2. The second principle is promoting calming. It is natural in emergency and crisis situations that people feel anxiety. In fact, some anxiety is a normal and healthy response required to make people pay attention. However, high levels of continued feelings of anxiety and difficult emotions are not good.
3. The third principle, promoting a sense of self and collective efficacy, supports the importance of having a sense of control over positive outcomes. When we are exposed to crises and emergencies an immediate effect is often a feeling of having lost control. It is important to support people to regain a sense of competency and belief in themselves that they can act and handle the situation.
4. The fourth principle is promoting social connectedness which provides opportunities for knowledge to essential emergency response information, as well as opportunities for social support activities, including emotional support and understanding.
5. The fifth principle is about promoting and instilling hope. Those who remain positive are likely to have favourable outcomes after going through tough experiences.
PFA is a method of helping people in distress that is based on the fundamental principle of DO NO HARM that we always follow in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support responses.
To ensure that we do no harm, we pay attention to offering help that promotes safety, dignity and is rights-based. This means that we make efforts to
- Avoid putting people at further risk as a result of our actions and do everything we can to ensure the people we are helping are safe and protected from physical or psychological harm.
- Concerning dignity, it means always treating people with respect and in accordance with their cultural and social norms.
- Fulfilling people’s rights involves making sure people can access help fairly and without discrimination. It also means helping people to claim their rights and access available support.
- We always act only in the best interest of any person we encounter. (@WHO, @IFRC-RC)
The information about PFA is from IFRC and WHO designed to orient helpers to offer psychological first aid (PFA) to people following a serious crisis event. PFA involves humane, supportive and practical assistance for people who are distressed, in ways that respect their dignity, culture and abilities in English and in Ukrainian.
Psychoeducation
(this information is available as a toolbox both in English and in Ukrainian)

This knowledge implies an understanding of what traumatic events may do to a person, what she/he may expect and is aware of the reactions she/he may have. We believe that the more a person is aware and informed about reactions, the way these may affect the person and others, and how possibly to deal with these, the more the person can have control over their own life, and the better he or she can live with the reactions. In this way, information about trauma may empower both the person experiencing trauma and you as a helper.
‘Trauma’ means wound. In both medicine and psychology, it refers to major physical or mental injuries, including threats to life or physical integrity.
A ‘traumatic event’ is one characterized by the following:
-The situation is overwhelming, inescapable, and very frightening
-Life and integrity threatened
-Person feels the loss of control
-The situation is beyond what we are prepared to deal with
-The stressors surpass the capacity for mastering the situation
-Most people will struggle with serious reactions such as intrusive memories,
re-experiences, flashbacks and sleeping problems afterward
-Suffering can be recognized in thoughts, feelings, breathing, heart and body
Such events may cause mental and/or physical trauma. Faced with events that may threaten life, and/or physical and mental integrity, the immediate response is to struggle for survival. Behaviourally this is expressed by ‘fight, flight or freeze responses, submission or ‘faking dead’.
A severe traumatic event often changes the way in which people understand the world around them.
Persons exposed to traumatic events may lose their sense of safety and feel vulnerable and helpless. If the event involves acts of violence and the intention to hurt, trust in other people may be lost and the relationships with others seriously disturbed.
Personal encounters with human or man-made violence are considered the most disturbing forms of trauma, likely to have the most lasting impact.
Loss of safety, control and trust commonly lead to depression (deep sadness, loss of the will to live, etc.) or anxiety. It is important to emphasize that the reactions experienced are “normal” reactions to an abnormal event. The person has not lost his or her mind!
Some important things to know about acute trauma:
- When a person is traumatized, her/his feelings are intense and chaotic
- Fear and shame may cause a survivor to withdraw and refuse social contact
- Trauma causes a survivor’s confidence to collapse
- It is important to act but, at the same time, you as someone who can support
- The survivor must allow the survivor to decide at what point she/he is ready to
- Make contact and open a conversation
- The following reactions may be expected
Flashbacks are sudden, often strong, and uncontrollable re-experiences of a traumatic event or elements of that event. People may feel disconnected from their bodily sensations and feel numb or may be unable to recall traumatic memories. A state of heightened arousal is also quite usual. Persons exposed to traumatic events may be on their guard all the time, startle easily, sleep poorly, be irritable, or find it difficult to remember and concentrate.
A personal encounter with violence and death may also haunt the survivor, who may painfully re-experience the event in dreams or daily life (also called intrusion). We call the reminders that cause intrusion ‘triggers’.
Triggers, or trauma-reminders, are events, objects or situations that remind survivors of their painful experiences and memories. Such reminders may elicit trauma reactions over and over again. They can be extremely distressing and create such anxiety that people are afraid to go out, see people, hear certain sounds, or do many ordinary usual things.
Some key points to know about triggers:
- Unexpected situations can suddenly trigger trauma reactions
- It is possible to prepare against these, by using the senses to feel more present
Calming a survivor who has been triggered:
In order to help a survivor, it is useful to assist her/him in coming back to the here and now. You may say things like this to the survivor:
- “You are at home/a café/in a park (or where you are at the present moment) now”
- “You are safe here in this room”
- “You are here now and not where the traumatic event happened”
- “You are strong and courageous”
- “Remember to breathe”
- “Look around, try to be present here and now” (for example, you can point at different objects in the room and say things like “Do you see the white table over there? Do you see the green carpet? The yellow chair?”)
You may also practice grounding exercises (that is also available in the toolbox both in English and Ukrainian on page 10) together and try to use them if/when the survivor is being triggered.
We have now provided you with information about how trauma and traumatic events may affect the body and the mind. We hope that this information will be helpful in understanding your/the survivor’s reactions better. We have also given some information about how to calm a survivor who has been triggered.
The grounding exercises that we have described under the heading Self-care: grounding exercises explain how practicing grounding exercises regularly, either alone or together, may help the person to deal with traumatic memories, triggers, flashbacks, and nightmares if they occur. We, therefore, recommend that you have a look at the page with grounding exercises and try some of them. Maybe this can be helpful in handling the trauma reactions, making good decisions for oneself and others, and taking some control back in life.
Remember that, with time, most survivors will get better. Also, remember that nobody can take your dignity away from you. You are you.
Being aware of secondary traumatization and how to take care of yourself as a helper
Talking to people who have experienced trauma can also affect the helper. For all helpers, empathy is an essential aspect of good help. This is also a source for compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatisation or secondary traumatic stress (STS). How can helpers manage their own stress? Early recognition and awareness are crucial to being resilient to these symptoms. Awareness of this is important for workers in areas of conflict and disaster, and in extreme environments such as these, people may be more vulnerable to secondary traumatisation. We also know that professionals under this kind of stress may be at risk to perform less efficiently and not perform as they would normally do. Even large organizations that have the resources and knowledge about this particular kind of stress may have reduced capacity to deal with or take care of the affected personnel. As for local helpers, there may often not be any support or resources at all to deal with this. On MHHRI´s thematic page for helping the helpers, we have gathered links that can be useful for all persons engaged in this kind of important but heavy work.
Warning signals that can occur after a prolonged period of time on a stressful job.
• Wounded ideals and cynicism
• Feeling unappreciated or betrayed by the organization
• Loss of spirit
• Grandiose beliefs about own importance
• Heroic but reckless behaviours
• Neglecting one’s own safety and physical needs (not needing breaks, sleep, etc.)
• Mistrusting colleagues and supervisors
• Antisocial behaviour
• Excessive tiredness
• Inability to concentrate and Inefficiency
• Symptoms of illness or disease
• Sleep difficulties
• Excessive use of alcohol, tobacco or drugs.
It is important to develop strategies to cope with situations that might cause vicarious trauma reactions. What helps you to take your mind off your work or your thoughts? How can you rest your body as well as your mind? Does an activity inspire you or put you in a better mood? If you find it useful, you can also use the grounding techniques that you teach survivors. Helpers who have been personally exposed to GBV have additional reasons to be stressed. At the same time, their experience can give them a special understanding of the hardships and vulnerability of survivors, and this should be recognised and valued. Like survivors, helpers need support groups. If possible, meet regularly with other helpers to discuss your experiences and feelings, or do things together. If there are too few helpers in your area to create a support group, find friends and other people you trust with whom you can share your feelings without breaking the confidentiality of the survivors you are helping.
Gender-based violence in conflict and emergencies
Violence against women, girls, men and boys manifests itself in physical, sexual and psychological forms. Even so, during times of instability, women and girls are disproportionately impacted by sexual and gender-based violence. Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility (UNFPA) has made collection of useful tools related to this.
In addition, MHHRI has written a manual on how to support survivors of SGBV in war and conflict. “Mental health and gender-based violence Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict – a training manual” Based on our collaboration with AHALAR this manual is also available in Ukrainian. The manual explains, among other things, how trauma affects mental health. It refers to methods and techniques that can be used to meet the psychological needs of women survivors of sexual abuse in contexts of war and conflict. The handbook can also be useful for people who already have knowledge and experience in the field.
For parents, teachers and helpers working with children
About Better Learning Programs
Supporting Students’ Recovery in Emergencies Children affected by stress from conflict and crisis situations often have difficulties learning and functioning at school. They experience a sense of chaos, loss of concentration and reduced memory, making it hard to keep up in the classroom or do their homework. Teachers, with the support of parents, have an important role in supporting children to stabilise and recover, so they can learn and thrive.
The Better Learning Programme 1 (BLP 1) provides teachers with a simple psychosocial support framework, the “Recovery Box”, which they can use on a daily basis to promote children’s recovery from traumatic experience and stress. BLP 1 also helps teachers and children understand normal reactions to fear and stress, and provides ways to manage these reactions, including easy calming exercises that can be done as part of the regular classroom practice.
Remember:
Safety – it can take days, weeks and months to re-establish a sense of safety
Calming – … regulate your own feelings
Connectedness – continue relations to gain social support
Self-efficacy – the belief that you can change your own situation
Hope – If you don’t have hope: then it’s hopeless
This does not always happen by itself – needs some sort of facilitation.
In a good school – these principles are in place – and they are facilitated by the teacher.
We can’t change what happened, but we can change the way you think and feel about it now – and that can be rather hard work.
- Psychoeducation – understand stress reactions – Identify stress reactions and connect them to the traumatic event
- Recovery techniques – reduce stress – a combination of breathing exercise (relaxation) / concentration / Cognitive exercises:
- Learning strategies – regain lost learning capacity
UKRAINE: 5 ways to talk to children about conflict | Save the Children International
A film about nightmares made for children in Palestine, but nevertheless also important for children in Ukraine End the nightmares | NRC
The Norwegian Psychological Association, in collaboration with RVTS East, has written material on crisis reactions and childcare. The texts are prepared for refugees and affected families. The material can be used freely by health personnel and others as part of the follow-up and information work.
How to support children during crisis
Як допомогти дітям у кризовій ситуації (How to support children during crisis)
For family and relatives:
You may be worried about friends and family in Ukraine and don’t know what to do
Pictures and news of the current situation in Ukraine are disturbing and can be triggering and bring flashbacks. Use grounding exercises and stabilization techniques to calm down if you yourself, family or friends are triggered (see page 5). It may be helpful to know about trauma and what type of mental and physical reactions that can be expected among survivors of severe human rights violations, both for survivors and for people who are close to a survivor.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free from our GBV web page. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. We have also created an online training on gender-based violence manual. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars, and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations, or to your community.
Facebook and Instagram
On our MHHRI Facebook page, and on Instagram we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our website, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
The 10th IASP Asia Pacific Conference
The International Association for Suicide Prevention
Australia’s Gold Coast in May 2022.
Summer School of Psychotraumatology
PTSD Revisited: The heterogeneity of responses to psychological trauma and novel treatment approaches
23.-26. May 2022 Dubrovnic, Croatia
19th IMISCOE Annual Conference 2022 | European Website on Integration (europa.eu)
Migration and time: Temporalities of mobility, governance, and resistance
29. June – 1 July 2022 Oslo, Norway
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and program of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia 2022.
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behavior, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
Welcome to our new subscribers, we hope you will find our content useful. The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject from a mental health perspective. You will receive our newsletter 5 times a year.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
We are longing for peace in Ukraine with justice and human rights for all.
Sincerely yours,
Take care – and wishing you all the best.
Mental Health and Human Rights Info team
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
Newsletter No 1 – February 2022
Family Reunification. The refugees’ right to family reunification
Laws, challenges, and mental health effects
Overview of content:
“Born into an inhumane system”: Elizabeth
The Undermined Right
Trauma caused by separation
Further reading and articles
Download the manual
Upcoming Events
Dear friends and colleagues,
The latest events in Afghanistan have caused an immediate urge for humanitarian aid and wide-ranging help, including bringing together the thousands of family members separated during the evacuation that took place when the US withdrew in September 2021. The deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, as well as the situation in other war-torn countries, have again sparked a debate about family reunification. It highlights the acute need for discussion and action in countries receiving refugees, in order to ensure that family reunification is made possible.
In October, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, urged countries to step up reunification for Afghans whose families remain in the country or who are displaced across the region, as the humanitarian crisis in their homeland worsens.
The question we are raising in this newsletter is, what are the rights of families to reunify after separation? What are the obligations of the receiving countries to ensure that family reunification can take place? What kind of support and help do reunified families need to deal with the trauma of separation, often following trauma of war and danger? What do we know about the reunited families, and of the families that do not obtain reunification? And finally, what do we know about good practices in relation to family reunification? These are some of the questions raised in the following reports, and more information on this issue will be posted on our webpage soon!
“Born into an inhumane system”: Elizabeth
“I was literally born into a system that has been criticized by human rights organizations as illegal, inhumane and degrading, says 18 years old Irish-born Elizabeth Zion from Nigeria. In this TED Talk back in November 2021, she shares her own personal story about the long wait for a reunification with a father she never has been able to meet. It is a harsh reminder of why we so desperately need to continue to highlight the importance of family unity. Watch the video:
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The Undermined Right
The right to family reunification is inherent in the right to family life, a human right that applies to all people and is set out in and protected in international law, international human rights, humanitarian law and international refugee law. But for years there has been a major change with profound consequences, separating families for years, or in worst case- for decades. One, but not the only reason for establishing restrictions on this matter, came very quickly after the influx of refugees in 2015, when millions of refugees headed to Europe.
Challenges: restrictions and domestic laws
It was an immediate push for putting national interests and domestic laws before international human rights and the lack of political consensus that resulted in the implementation of legislative tightening of national immigration rules in many European countries. This has challenged immensely the former obligations that the receiving countries had for decades, and has because of its impact even been taken to court after violating human rights law.
Some years ago, Norway received a report and a clear message from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who came forward and recommended that the Government of Norway should refrain from further restricting the existent family reunification legislation. UNHCR said that:
“There are insurmountable obstacles and barriers that a refugee encounters in an application process for family reunification in Norway (2016)”.
With the latest events taken place in different EU-countries, such as the court ruling of a case in Denmark last year and now Great Britain’s try to push through a new Nationality and Borders Bill, confirms the sad fact that there seems to not be any common ground at national, international and European levels in regard to the waiting period given for family reunification. This restrictive attitude towards refugees’ rights is undermining a fundamental and essential human right. Instead of protecting, is now in danger of putting families at an even greater risk, not knowing if their loved ones will gain the protection they are entitled to under flight or under migration after war or conflict.
Working for years with the mental health of refugees and among them, with people who is or will be waiting for a family reunification, MHHRI knows too well that the psychological effects of forced separation can cause great traumas- and that it needs to be treated for a long time even after reunification.
Trauma caused by separation
Being separated from your loved ones causes grave psychological traumas that need to be treated immediately, and will persist a long time after reunification takes place, studies have shown. The type of support and help that the reunified families receive in each country after years of separation differs and, in some cases, is almost non-existent.
The reports in the further reading below thematize this, offering the helpers access to studies that investigate the conditions of families affected by the politics of family unity in different countries.
Prevention through family conversations
Nora Sveaass, founder and chair of the board in MHHRI is among several psychologists in Norway who for many years have experienced and investigated how the process of reunification for refugee families best can be fulfilled, implementing methods that might facilitate the challenges, firstly through conversation and therapy for the whole family (Sveaass et al, 2016).
International, as well as national research is decisive for the work and for the choices that helpers and people working daily with refugees need to take a stand on. To make it easier for you, we have therefore divided the literature list into different focus groups so that you will be able to select and prioritize the specific area that is most relevant and applicable to the work or interest that you have.
Further reading, articles, publications and websites that highlight different aspects of family reunification
This next part contains a literature list with several guidelines, studies, and reports- addressing the same questions further. There is undoubtedly a lot of research done on this important matter, and especially more throughout the years with also another important perspective: mental health and other serious health impacts.
Focus groups:
- Guidelines and recommendations given to countries
- Family reunification and therapy: methods and guidelines
- Side effects of waiting for family reunification
- Overview of the latest legal principles relevant to family reunification
FOCUS GROUP 1: Guidelines and recommendations given to countries
The main principles and guidelines for countries that enable family reunification
Guidelines UNHCR made in 1983 on how and when to make the reunification of refugee families possible, based on the essential principles the member countries must follow from certain covenants and again, are obliged to follow. This note restates the position of the Office concerning the types of family reunification promoted by UNHCR, the categories of persons eligible for assistance, and the action to be taken by UNHCR Headquarters, by the Field Offices, and by refugees themselves to achieve the reunification of refugee families under various circumstances (UNHCR 1983). UNHCR recommendations to Norway for strengthened refugee protection in Norway, Europe and globally
Amongst their recommendations addressed to the Norwegian Government, UNHCR has given comments and solutions for improvement of the policies regarding family reunification in Norway.
Realising the right to family reunification of refugees in Europe
Council of Europe 2017
For refugees, the right to family reunification is crucial because separation from their family members causes significant anxiety and is widely recognised as a barrier to successful integration in host countries. Well-designed family reunification policies also help create the safe and legal routes that are necessary to prevent dangerous, irregular journeys to and within Europe. Based on this analysis, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights sets out a number of recommendations to member states intended to assist national authorities in re-examining their laws, policies and practices in order to give full effect to the right to family reunification, for the benefit of both refugees and their host communities.
FOCUS GROUP 2: Family reunification and therapy: methods and guidelines
How can family reunification be more successful?
As mentioned above, in 2016 a group of psychologists implemented a set of guidelines and tools to help those working closely with refugee families. To integrate the aspect of family therapy as an integral part of help offered to refugee families who are reunited in Norway (Sveaass et al. 2016)
Working with Refugee Families
L. de Haene and C. Rousseau (eds) 2020
In the field of a refugee family, research and intervention form a growing field of scientific study, focusing on the refugee family as the central niche of coping with, and giving meaning to, trauma, cultural uprooting, and exile. This important new book develops an understanding of the role of refugee family relationships in post-trauma healing and provides an in-depth analysis of central clinical-therapeutic themes in refugee family psychosocial interventions. Expert contributions from across transcultural psychiatry, psychology, psychotherapy, and social work have provided chapters on post-trauma reconstruction in refugee family relationships, trauma care for refugee families, and intersectoral psychosocial interventions with refugee families. This exploration of refugee family systems in both research and clinical practice aims to promote a systemic perspective in health and social services working with families in refugee mental health care.
Supporting Refugee Family Reunification in Exile
Nora Sveaass and Sissel Reichelt 2020
Family reunions in exile may be a complex and challenging experience. Refugee families are often reunited in the host countries after having lived through long periods of separation, insecurity, and violence. Assisting families in the process of reunification is discussed as an issue of priority, both from a psychological and a human rights point of view. Based on clinical experiences, the authors suggest that accompanying families in this process of transition is meaningful and useful. The chapter argues that work with refugees should be seen through a family lens and that mental health professionals have the knowledge and background regarding families and systems that enable them to offer good assistance to families in reunification processes (chapter 13 in Working with Refugee Families, not open access).
Engaging refugee families in therapy: exploring the benefits of including referring professionals in first family interviews (can make free download)
In this guide booklet, the possible benefits of including referring professionals in the first family interviews are being explored as a way of engaging refugee families in therapy. Families in exile confront several problems related both to premigration traumatic exposures and to present adaptation processes. Refugee clients and the referring professionals in the larger system frequently see the problems and their solutions quite differently. This situation may often result in unclear working alliances in the context of therapy. (Sveaass, N. & Reichelt, 2001, p. 212-231).
FOCUS GROUP 3: Side effects of waiting for a family reunification
Waiting for family reunification and the risk of mental disorders among refugee fathers.
This is the first large-scale cohort study to demonstrate that family separation is associated with an increased risk of psychological disorders among refugee fathers. The study found that the risk of being given a psychiatric diagnosis was twice as high for refugee fathers who are waiting for their families to arrive than for other refugee fathers, and this risk was found to increase the longer the family separation. More than 20% of the waiting fathers have been diagnosed with a psychological disorder, most commonly PTSD (Hvidtfeldt, Petersen. Nørredam 2021).
Trauma sustained by Asylum-seeking children and parents persists after reunification.
A new study analyzing the mental health impacts of family separation finds that children and parents seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border experience severe psychological trauma even years after reunification. The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) study provides the first-ever qualitative analysis of the mental health effects of the forced family separation policy and shows further evidence of the “zero tolerance” policy’s detrimental effects on the mental health of impacted families (The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) 2021).
The challenges to family reunification in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
The report, commissioned by UNHCR and made by NOAS (Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers, is a comparative legal study of the legal framework, policies and practice pertaining to the family reunification procedure in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. It compares the politics and practice of family reunification for refugees in three Scandinavian countries. Policies regarding family reunification have become increasingly strict over the last few years, especially after the influx of asylum applications that all Scandinavian countries received in the summer and autumn of 2015. While the number of asylum applications rapidly decreased, the number of family reunification applications have continued to increase in recent years (UNHCR and NOAS 2019).
Family Migration and Integration: A Literature Review.
This report from Norway (in English) shows that there is very little evidence of that strict conditions for family immigration provide better integration. Stricter conditions, on the other hand, lead to more families being split up, which has very serious consequences for those concerned. Stricter conditions for family immigration read to fewer applicants and more people being rejected. The children experience anxiety, restlessness, behavioral problems and have serious negative consequences in the quality of life and possibility of integration (Eggebø and Brekke 2018).
Disrupted flight the realities of separated refugee families in the EU
This report gives an overview of the health impact a family separation can have, from poor mental and physical health, which again has an impact on peoples’ ability to learn a language, look for a job, re-train, or simply interact with others (including with officials and administrations). It goes through the consequences of what a long separation can also do with the family structure by causing conflict when the family is reunited again (Red Cross 2014).
FOCUS GROUP 4: Overview of the latest legal principles relevant to family unity
Family reunification for refugee and migrant children – standards and promising practices.
This handbook focuses on the reunification of families with children, with a particular focus on unaccompanied and separated refugee and migrant children. It presents an overview of legal principles of human rights, children’s rights, refugee law and EU law relevant to family reunification and then discusses key features of family reunification procedures, with promising examples of law and practice and relevant applicable standards (Boreil, Desmet, Dimitropoulou, Klaassen 2020).
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free from our GBV web page. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. We have also created an online training on gender-based violence manual. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars, and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations, or in your community.
Facebook and Instagram
On our MHHRI Facebook page, and on Instagram we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our website, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
The 10th IASP Asia Pacific Conference
The International Association for Suicide Prevention
Australia’s Gold Coast in May 2022.
Summer School of Psychotraumatology
PTSD Revisited: The heterogeneity of responses to psychological trauma and novel treatment approaches
23.-26. May 2022 Dubrovnic, Croatia
19th IMISCOE Annual Conference 2022 | European Website on Integration (europa.eu)
Migration and time: Temporalities of mobility, governance, and resistance
29. June – 1 July 2022 Oslo, Norway
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and program of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia 2022.
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behavior, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
Welcome to our new subscribers, we hope you will find our content useful. The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject from a mental health perspective. You will receive our newsletter 5 times a year.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Sincerely yours,
Shima Harati-Shahriari, Mónica Orjuela and the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
2021
Newsletter No 6 December 2021
Human Rights defenders´s mental health and wellbeing
Overview of content:
Secondary or vicarious traumatization
Tools to take care of yourself
Further reading and resources
Download the MHHRI GBV manual
Upcoming events
Talking to survivors of trauma also affects human rights defenders (HRD) either working as helpers, listening, reporting or supporting others. Some HRDs are also survivors themselves, and might have experienced torture, threats, and prolonged stress. For all helpers and human rights defenders, empathy is an essential aspect of good help. But it is also a source of secondary traumatic stress (STS). How are helpers to manage their own stress? Early recognition and awareness are crucial to efforts to prevent burnout.
Secondary or vicarious traumatization
Human rights defenders are under a lot of pressure. They need to both push themselves and take care of themselves, which can be difficult to balance. Being exposed vicariously to traumatic events, for example by listening to catastrophic testimonies, may generate some of the same trauma reactions that would occur if they were involved in a serious incident. Some warning signals include hyper arousal, avoidance or distancing, and experiencing intrusive images and nightmares after hearing or witnessing the traumatic suffering of survivors. Even a single story can create intrusive images.
This can lead to HRDs struggling to manage their emotions, have relationships problems, find decision-making difficult, have physical problems (aches and pains, illnesses), feel hopeless, think their life has no meaning, or experience a collapse in self-esteem.
Tools to take care of yourself
It is therefore important to develop strategies to cope with situations that might cause secondary traumatic stress. As a helper, you can ask yourself what helps you to take your mind off your work or your thoughts? How can you rest your body as well as your mind? Does an activity inspire you or put you in a better mood? If you find it useful, you can also use the grounding techniques that you teach survivors.
Additionally, when seeing warning signals or just being ahead, to prevent emotional fatigue and burnout, leaders at the workplace should regularly check in with their leaders one on one and allow an open dialogue about the working situation. They could set up a list of what demands the human rights defender has at work. Then, they could work actively towards reducing demands and find out parts of the job that can be removed or changed to decrease the workload or pressure. Investing in HRD’s wellbeing will have positive ripple effects, because people who are doing well psychologically, tend to perform well at work.
When this is said, we would not be working within this field if it did not also have some positive aspect. According to researcher David Gangsei, as with vicarious traumatisation, awareness is a key factor in vicarious resilience. Vicarious resilience recognizes the value of observing resilience in our trauma-survivors. This is not only noticing positive dimensions of our work, although that is important. It’s how bearing witness to survivors’ resilience can change how we are, not just as helpers and HRD, but as persons in our own lives, dealing with our own sorrows and challenges. When we know such an experience exists, we are more likely to recognize and benefit from it.
On MHHRI’s website, you can find tools to take care of yourself as a human rights defender. They include grounding exercises, which is a therapeutic approach for handling dissociation or flashbacks, and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and panic.
Further reading and resources
Human Rights Defenders
Mental Health & Human Rights Info (2021)
Here you can find information about definitions and terms, human rights declarations, resolutions and guidelines on the protection of human rights defenders. There is information about women human rights defenders, about mental health and well-being of human rights defenders, and about reprisals. Lastly, we provide an overview of relevant organisations and sites.
Helping the helper
Mental Health & Human Rights Info (2021)
For mental health workers, empathy is an essential aspect of good help. This is also a source for compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization or secondary traumatic stress. Early recognition and awareness are crucial to being resilient to these symptoms.
Wellbeing, Risk, and Human Rights Practice
University of York (2017)
Human rights defenders at risk often find it difficult to talk about their mental and emotional wellbeing, even when they are concerned about it. Cultures of human rights practice tend to emphasize self-sacrifice, heroism, and martyrdom. These norms inhibit defenders from expressing their anxieties and seeking help. How can we engage in discussions about wellbeing in human rights practice? How can we strengthen personal and collective strategies for wellbeing amongst defenders at risk?
Resilience as Resistance: Mental health and well-being in human rights. What risks advocates face and how they might be mitigated?
Open Global Rights (2021)
The mental health and well-being of advocates has often been neglected by human rights organizations, funders, and advocates themselves. Recently, however, activists and mental health professionals have begun giving the issue more attention, exploring what risks advocates face and how they might be mitigated. Human rights organizations increasingly want to bolster the resilience and creativity of their staff and constituents. Defenders increasingly see their own well-being as an imperative for sustainable movements.
Mental Health Functioning in the Human Rights Field: Findings from an International Internet-Based Survey
Joscelyne et al. 2015
Human rights advocates play a critical role in promoting respect for human rights worldwide, and engage in a broad range of strategies, including documentation of rights violations, monitoring, press work and report-writing, advocacy, and litigation. However, little is known about the impact of human rights work on the mental health of human rights advocates. This study examined the mental health profile of human rights advocates and the risk factors associated with their psychological functioning.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free from our GBV web page. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. We have also created an online training on gender-based violence manual. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars, and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations, or in your community.
Facebook and Instagram
On our MHHRI Facebook page, and on Instagram we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our website, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
The 10th IASP Asia Pacific Conference
The International Association for Suicide Prevention
Australia’s Gold Coast in May 2022.
Early bird registrations will open in January 2022.
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and program of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia 2022.
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behavior, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
Welcome to our new subscribers, we hope you will find our content useful. The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective. You will receive our newsletter 5 times a year.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
We are wishing you a peaceful season with justice and human rights for all.
Sincerely yours,
Elisabeth Langdal, Sara Skilbred, Mónica Orjuela, the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
|
Mental Health and Human Rights Info (MHHRI) Newsletter October 2021
MHHRI provides information about mental health and human rights violations
Newsletter No 5 2021
Trauma informed teaching: helping young students to cope
Overview of content:
How trauma might be expressed
Responding to student’s trauma
Sharing what’s working with traumatized students
Further reading and resources
Download the MHHRI GBV manual
Upcoming Events
Acts of violence in war, conflict or natural disasters may be disorienting and overwhelming for anyone. Especially for young students experiencing such forms of situations, it is beneficial to mental health recovery to feel like they can cope with stress and adversity. One of the important protective factors is their access to supportive relationships, for example with teachers. To form the foundation of resilience, it is helpful if teachers have knowledge about children’s trauma reactions, and how to respond to them. According to NCTSN “Trauma-related distress can have a long-term impact if left untreated. Unaddressed mental health needs, including those from exposure to violence and other potentially traumatic events, increase dropout rates, lower academic achievement, disrupt peer relationships, and impact overall well-being.” Even though, do not assume that all students will be traumatized or want to talk about the incidents. Being physically present and understanding often helps children feel safer and more able to cope.
How trauma might be expressed
Trauma reactions can be expressed in many ways. Children in need of help may show signs of acute stress, including disorientation, confusion, anger, withdrawing, or acting frantic and agitated.
Children may not know why they react like this. If teachers are informed, they can recognize some of the psychological reactions and help the child understand what is happening and how to help the child to calm down the reaction.
When teachers approach students through a trauma lens, they are better equipped to provide the educational and social–emotional supports necessary to help students reach their potential. Also, being informed about ways to deal with trauma-related stress can create less frustration for both teachers and students.
Responding to student’s trauma
Traumatized children are likely to bring their fears into the classroom. If students start acting out, they may be seen as a problem and get punished. But punishment can contribute to the feeling of shame about their reactions and thus create more fear. Trauma informed teachers could instead see the behavior from a more curious point of view and ask themselves why the student is acting this way.
Setting up a “safe space” in the classroom, where triggered students can take short breaks, could help them calm down. Predictability and a stable teacher who follows through with what they say is a good starting point.
Some children may have flashbacks, which means that they feel like the terrible situation is happening all over again. Stress reactions like flashbacks can be frightening, and children may view their reactions as something being wrong with them.
Children’s capacity to make connections between events and emotions vary and a teacher explaining this connection can be helpful. If a child experiences flashbacks, teachers can, if appropriate, discuss the reactions and explain that these are normal reactions to an abnormal event.
Sharing what’s working with traumatized students
Some teachers manage to establish rich relationships with traumatized students and discover methods that work with specific children. The impact could be even greater if teachers wrote these methods and experiences down and shared those strategies via a shared document, behavior plan, or student success plan. Also, counselors, school nurses, and psychologists could write and share such techniques with each classroom teacher.
Recent studies have shown that trauma has a great impact on cognitive development, and that we have to focus on the importance of creating a safe learning environment. The Sustainable development goals (SDG) no. 4 indicates that to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, we need teachers that are trauma informed in order to create a stimulating and learning school environment.
Further reading and resources:
Psychological First Aid. Field operations guide.
National Child Traumatic Stress Network & National Center for PTSD
Page 80: Talking with children about the bodyly and emotional reactions.
Children vary in their capacity to make connections between events and emotions. Many children will benefit from a basic explanation of how disaster-related experiences produce upsetting emotions and physical sensations. Suggestions for working with children are listed.
Trauma-Informed Strategies to Use in Your Classroom
Resilient Educator
Research has shown that traumatic experiences alter the brain and can affect children socially, emotionally, behaviorally, and academically. Toxic levels of stress and anxiety shape behavior and may make kids appear angry, depressed, checked out, uncooperative, or distracted, says psychologist Jamie Howard, PhD, of the Child Mind Institute in New York City. “When you adopt a trauma-informed perspective, you approach that student’s behavior with openness and curiosity,” she says.
Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Traumatized students are especially prone to difficulty in self-regulation, negative thinking, being on high alert, difficulty trusting adults, and inappropriate social interactions (Lacoe, 2013; Terrasi & de Galarce, 2017). They often haven’t learned to express emotions healthily and instead show their distress through aggression, avoidance, shutting down, or other off-putting behaviors. These actions can feel antagonistic to teachers who don’t understand the root cause of the student’s behavior, which can lead to misunderstandings, ineffective interventions, and missed learning time.
Neurobiologically, students can’t learn if they don’t feel safe, known, and cared for within their schools (Aupperle et al., 2012). When teachers are proactive and responsive to the needs of students suffering from traumatic stress and make small changes in the classroom that foster a feeling of safety, it makes a huge difference in their ability to learn.
The Psychological First Aid for Schools Field Operations Guide
National Child Traumatic Stress Network & National Center for PTSD
Psychological First Aid for Schools (PFA-S) is an evidence-informed intervention model to assist students, families, school personnel, and school partners in the immediate aftermath of an emergency. PFA-S is designed to reduce the initial distress caused by emergencies, and to foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning and coping.
TED talks: Videos
Trauma Informed Teaching | Dr. Meredith Fox | TEDxFieldstoneDriveED
The paradox of trauma-informed care | Vicky Kelly | TEDxWilmington
How teachers can help students navigate trauma | Lisa Godwin
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free from our GBV web page. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. We have also created an online training on gender-based violence manual. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars, and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations, or in your community.
Facebook and Instagram
On our MHHRI Facebook page, and on Instagram we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our website, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
Webinar ”Peer workers perspective: Human rights in mental health and the importance of the role of peer workers in mental health care’’.
October 14th, 2021, 10:00 CET
ICP2021-Virtual
Psychology in Action –
Promoting Equity and Justice in an Age of Uncertainty
Symposia on Climate Justice, Health Equity, Disabilities Justice, Decolonising Processes. 2 days of exploring psychology and human rights!
22-24. October 2021
ICMHLHR 2021: 15. International Conference on Mental Health Law and Human Rights
Online: October 28-29, 2021 in Paris, France
22nd Nordic Conference For Professionals
Working With Traumatised Refugees
Rescheduled 9-10.12.2021 | Helsinki, Finland
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and program of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia 2022 (still in planning).
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behavior, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Take care – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours,
Elisabeth Langdal, Sara Skilbred, Mónica Orjuela, the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
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You may be worried about friends and family in Afghanistan and don’t know what to do
Information about how the brain works and why we as human beings react the way we do in traumatic events can be useful. This may provide the survivor with the knowledge and ability to deal with her/his problems in alternative ways. Knowledge means that the survivor understands what traumatic events may do to a person, what she/he may expect and is aware of the reactions she/he may have. We believe that the more a person is aware and knowledgeable about her/his problem and how it affects her/his life and the lives of others, the more control she/he can have over her/his life and the better the person can deal with and live with the reactions. In this way, information about trauma may empower both the survivor and you as a person who is close to a survivor.
‘Trauma’ means wound. In both medicine and psychology, it refers to major physical or mental injuries, including threats to life or physical integrity.
Some key things to know about trauma:
-The situation is overwhelming, inescapable and very frightening
-Threaten life and integrity
-Loss of control and beyond what we are prepared to deal with
-In a short term perspective most people will struggle with serious reactions such as intrusive memories, re-experiences, flashbacks and sleeping problems afterward
-Suffering can be recognized in thoughts, feelings, breathing, heart and body

A ‘traumatic event’ is one that has the capacity to cause mental or physical trauma. Faced by such an event, the immediate response of the body and the mind is to struggle for survival. Behaviorally this is expressed by ‘fight, flight or freeze responses, submission or ‘playing dead’. A severe traumatic event often changes the way in which survivors understand the world around them. They may lose their sense of safety and feel vulnerable and helpless. If the event involves acts of violence and the intention to hurt, trust in other people may be lost and the survivor’s relationships with others seriously disturbed. Personal encounters with human or man-made violence are considered the most disturbing forms of trauma, likely to have the most lasting impact.
Loss of safety, control and trust commonly leads to depression (deep sadness, loss of the will to live, etc.) or anxiety. It is important to emphasize that the reactions that survivors experience are “normal” reactions to an abnormal event. The survivor is not crazy!
Some important things to know about acute trauma:
- When a person is traumatized, her/his feelings are intense and chaotic
- Fear and shame may cause a survivor to withdraw and refuse social contact
- Trauma cases a survivor’s confidence to collapse
- It is important to act but, at the same time, you as someone who can support the survivor must allow the survivor to decide at what point she/he is ready to make contact and open a conversation

Flashbacks are sudden, often strong, and uncontrollable re-experiences of a traumatic event or elements of that event. Survivors may feel disconnected from their bodily sensations and feel numb or may be unable to recall traumatic memories. A state of heightened arousal is also quite usual. Survivors may be on their guard all the time, startle easily, sleep poorly, be irritable, or find it difficult to remember and concentrate. A personal encounter with violence and death may also haunt the survivor, who may painfully re-experience the event in dreams or daily life (also called intrusion). We call the reminders that cause intrusion ‘triggers’.
Triggers, or trauma-reminders, are events, objects or situations that remind survivors of their painful experiences and memories. Such reminders may elicit trauma reactions over and over again. They can be extremely distressing and create such anxiety that people are afraid to go out, see people, hear certain sounds, or do many ordinary usual things.
Some key points to know about triggers:
- Unexpected situations can suddenly trigger trauma reactions
- It is possible to prepare against these, by using the senses to feel more present

Calming a survivor who has been triggered:
In order to help a survivor, it is useful to assist her/him in coming back to the here and now. You may say things like this to the survivor:
- “You are at home/a café/in a park (or where you are at the present moment) now”
- “You are safe here in this room”
- “You are here now and not where the traumatic event happened”
- “You are strong and courageous”
- “Remember to breathe”
- “Look around, try to be present here and now” (for example, you can point at different objects in the room and say things like “Do you see the white table over there? Do you see the green carpet? The yellow chair?”)
You may also practice grounding exercises together and try to use them if/when the survivor is being triggered.
We have now provided you with information about how trauma and traumatic events may affect the body and the mind. We hope that this information will be helpful in understanding your/the survivor’s reactions better. We have also given some information about how to calm a survivor who has been triggered.
The grounding exercises that we have described under the heading Self-care: grounding exercises explain how practicing grounding exercises regularly, either alone or together, may help the survivor to deal with traumatic memories, triggers, flashbacks and nightmares if they occur. We, therefore, recommend that you have a look at the page with grounding exercises and try some of them. Maybe this can be helpful in handling the trauma reactions, making good decisions for oneself and others, and take some control back in life.
Remember that, with time, most survivors will get better. Also, remember that nobody can take your dignity away from you. You are you.
Mental Health and Human Rights Info (MHHRI) Newsletter June 2021
MHHRI provides information about mental health and human rights violations
Newsletter No 3 2021
The invisible problem:
What do we know about sexual violence against boys and men?
Overview of content:
The invisible problem:
What do we know about sexual violence against boys and men?
Download the MHHRI GBV manual
Upcoming Events
—————

Living with trauma in the country of arrival
Many male refugees who arrive or live in the country of refugee, live with the trauma that is too difficult for most people to understand. Some have even experienced sexual abuse on their travel to a safe haven.
Abuse is a heavy and brutal topic that often can be difficult to talk about. But the precondition for the survivors to be heard, seen, and helped is that we, as a society, are aware of the problem. How did the abuse take place, and what are the short as well as long term consequences? Knowledge about how the problem can be met must be strengthened and made available, especially among those who in their daily work meet with boys and men that might have been abused.
Invisible problem
Sexual abuse of men breaks with the traditional image of a man who can both defend himself and retaliate and has therefore often not been taken seriously. In addition, shame and guilt contribute to men failing to report sexual violence in captivity, in connection with acts of war, or in connection with flight. This causes the problem to remain invisible and that help becomes difficult to seek and find.
Society owes vulnerable boys and men to acknowledge the problem and take it seriously. Space must be opened to take the difficult conversation. The fact that men do not ask for help, and that helpers may rarely encounter stories of this type of abuse, does not mean that the problem doesn’t exist.
Research in conflict-affected areas in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) found that almost a quarter of the men had experienced sexual violence. Another survey showed that almost half of the men living in a conflict-affected part of Sudan had experienced or witnessed sexual abuse. In Liberia, one-third of former male soldiers reported that they had experienced sexual violence in various contexts, another survey reports.
Video: click and watch the video
Disabled and LGBTQ people
Furthermore, in addition to women and girls, also male refugees alongside vulnerable groups such as LGBTQ + and people with disabilities experience sexual violence in the migration process. Twenty percent of rapes reported to the Gender-based Violence Information Management System (GBV IMS) in Lebanon from January to May 2016 were from boys and men. A study among refugees and asylum seekers in Morocco shows that men were victims in 53 of 142 reported rape incidents. A survey by Médecins Sans Frontières found that 17.2% of the 429 refugees who reported sexual abuse while in transit through Mexico fleeing violence in Central America were men.
We need to strengthen the focus and knowledge about this topic. As a society that receives refugees and others with such experiences, it is vital that we have a support system that is prepared and available. It is an important goal that survivors know where they can seek help, both in the health service system and in asylum reception centers. The helper should be prepared and able to meet the person in the best possible way, past attitudes of taboo and shame.
Sexual violence as a weapon
Not all countries have criminalized rape or sexual abuse of men. At the same time, there is little doubt that all forms of sexual violence in conflict must be considered a violation of international human rights and therefore considered illegal.
Sexual violence in war and conflict is often referred to as “weapons in war” and can in many contexts also be described as torture or inhuman treatment. The intention is to humiliate, control and intimidate a population by breaking down social ties and dignity.
In many societies, it will be taboo for men to talk openly about torture, and in particular about sexual abuse. This makes the topic extra painful and difficult to deal with. A stronger effort to shed light on this in the public debate is needed. At the same time, there will always be a difficult balance with regard to what kind of information is presented, and the possibility that it may also be misused in an ongoing conflict.
More awareness and knowledge about the problem
The first step is to recognize and raise awareness of the problem. We cannot fight a problem that we do not know exists.
Everyone’s voice is important and necessary to prevent sexual violence. By spreading more awareness and knowledge about the problem, we are increasing the number of allies who can support survivors and prevent sexual violence. We need to know where, when and how abuse occurs, to be able to do something about the problem, and to know where to use our resources. We need to know about the problem in order to do something about it. Change starts with awareness.
Working for a society without sexual violence means that we as a community take into account the needs of the most marginalised and invisible survivors.
In 2021 MHHRI in collaboration with The Norwegian Council for Mental Health (NCMH) have received funding from Dam Foundation and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) to develop a handbook for helpers working with boys and men exposed to sexual violence in war and conflict situations and to share information related to the topic.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free from our GBV web page. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. We have also created an online training on gender-based violence manual. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars, and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations, or in your community.
Facebook and Instagram
On our MHHRI Facebook page, and on Instagram we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our website, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
IRCT symposium in Georgia
Postponed
2021 IRCT Scientific Symposium & General Assembly
Overcoming the Extreme: Life after Torture
2021 in Tbilisi, Georgia (more information will follow)
Cinema Human Rights and Advocacy
16th edition of the Summer School
in Cinema Human Rights and Advocacy
30 August – 8 September 2021
4th European Conference on Domestic Violence
September 13th – 15th 2021 | online from Slovenia
Global challenges in health, migration, and equity
ECTMIH 2021
28. September – 1. October Bergen | Norway
ICP2021-Virtual
Psychology in Action –
Promoting Equity and Justice in an Age of Uncertainty
22-24. October
22nd Nordic Conference For Professionals
Working With Traumatised Refugees
Rescheduled 9-10.12.2021 | Helsinki, Finland
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and program of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia 2021/2022 (tentative dates).
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behavior, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Take care – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours,
Elisabeth Langdal, Sara Skilbred, Mónica Orjuela, the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
Mental Health and Human Rights Info (MHHRI) Newsletter April 2021
MHHRI provides information about mental health and human rights violations View this email in your browser
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Overview of content:
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
What do we know about the issue?
How can we all contribute to change?
Download the MHHRI GBV manual
Upcoming Event
Sexual Assault Awareness Month is an annual campaign with the aim to raise awareness about the issue and to educate people around the world about preventing sexual assault.
“Systems of oppression give greater social power to some people over others based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and other aspects of identity. Working towards a future without sexual violence means that advocates, survivors, and communities need to respond to a complex and layered reality that centers the needs of those survivors most marginalized, silenced, and unseen”.
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA)
Video: Male Survivors of Sexual Violence in War
MHHRI’s focus is on people of all sexual orientations, women, men and children who are exposed to human rights violations such as sexual violence in war and conflict. It can happen to anyone of any race, gender, economic status, ability, or age. All forms of sexual assault are violations of human rights and therefore illegal.
What do we know about the issue?
By sexual assault we mean any sexual act that survivors have been exposed to without their consent. Also, taking advantage of a victim’s incapacity to give genuine consent is considered abuse. An example is trading food for sex, which can be a form of coercion. Sexual violence in war and conflict is often considered a “weapon of war” and could classify as an act of torture. The overall aim of sexual violence is to humiliate, control and intimidate a person or a population to disrupt social ties.
It is difficult to estimate the prevalence of conflict-related sexual violence. An important reason is underreporting, which results from the intimidation and stigmatization of survivors. Females are more likely to be victims of sexual and gender-based violence, as well as LGBTQ+ and people with disability, but also a high number of men and boys are violated during war and conflict.
In order to create societal change, we need to break down taboos and shame around the topic, so it becomes less taboo to talk about it. We need to recognize the problem, dare to address it and require zero tolerance for sexual violence. Fortunately, based on the hard work of advocates and local organizations in the past decade, global understanding of the horrific impacts of conflict-related sexual violence has increased.
How can we all contribute to change?
We at MHHRI provide a resource database with free information about the consequences of human rights violations on mental health in contexts of disaster, conflict, and war. We wish to give necessary support and resources to survivors of sexual assault, their families, and helpers.
Everyone’s voice is important and necessary in preventing sexual violence. By spreading more awareness and educating people on the issue, we increase our number of allies to support survivors and prevent sexual violence before it happens.
We need to know where, when and how it happens to be able to do something about the problem, to know where to use our resources. Put simply: We need to know about the problem to be able to do something about it.
Change starts with awareness.
Further resources:
Resources for male survivors (in Norwegian)
Gender-based violence
Violence against women, girls, men, and boys manifests itself in physical, sexual, and psychological forms. Even so, during times of instability, women and girls are disproportionately impacted by sexual and gender-based violence.
Are you a survivor?
Dear survivor and those of you who are close to a survivor. Having one’s human rights violated can lead to painful short and/or long-term physical and/or psychological consequences. In the following, you can find information and resources that we hope will be of help to take the first steps to move on in life.
Online training course about gender-based violence
If you are working with or assisting survivors of gender-based violence or involved in training of helpers working directly with survivors, this is a good resource for you.
Q&A: sexual violence in armed conflict
International committee of the red cross, 2016
The ICRC firmly believes that sexual violence in armed conflicts can be stopped. Through a comprehensive response including assistance, protection and prevention it seeks to ensure that the needs of victims are met and that activities to prevent these crimes are undertaken. The ICRC has committed to improving its response over the next four years, by enhancing and expanding its programs and strengthening its capacity to address this.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free from our GBV web page. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. We have also created an online training on gender-based violence manual. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars, and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations, or in your community.
Facebook and Instagram
On our MHHRI Facebook page, and on Instagram we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our website, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
Free online global health research in the last decades
Parallel session 1: Symposium 1 is focusing on Mental health
Online 20 – 21 April 2021
IRCT symposium in Georgia – postponed
2021 IRCT Scientific Symposium & General Assembly
Overcoming the Extreme: Life after Torture
2021 in Tbilisi, Georgia (more information will follow)
17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Trauma and resilience through the ages: A life course perspective.
01- 04 June 2022
Northern Ireland.
Cinema Human Rights and Advocacy
16th edition of the Summer School
in Cinema Human Rights and Advocacy
30 August – 8 September 2021
4th European Conference on Domestic Violence
September 13th – 15th 2021 | online from Slovenia
Global challenges in health, migration, and equity
ECTMIH 2021
28. September – 1. October Bergen | Norway
22nd Nordic Conference For Professionals
Working With Traumatised Refugees
Rescheduled 9-10.12.2021 | Helsinki, Finland
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and programme of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia 2021/2022 (tentative dates).
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behavior, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Take care – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours,
Elisabeth Langdal, Sara Skilbred, Mónica Orjuela, the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
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Mental Health and Human Rights Info (MHHRI) Newsletter March 2021
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Boletín en español
NEWSLETTER NO. 1 March 2021
Are you a survivor?
A new page on the MHHRI website
Overview of content:
For survivors: A new page on the MHHRI website
Meet a new friend: Global Network of Psychologists for Human Rights
Download the MHHRI GBV manual
Upcoming Events
Dear friends and colleagues
Our colleague Anne Margrethe Sønneland was interviewing survivors of human rights violations and observing court cases in Peru and Argentina for her PhD dissertation. In this process, Sønneland realized that many survivors had a lack of knowledge and information about their trauma reactions. Some suffered from a range of symptoms even decades after the traumatic event(s) took place and received no or very little professional help and support. Based on this experience, Anne Margrethe understood that the lack of information had serious consequences for these individuals, their families, and their communities. Also, from a human rights perspective, the lack of information and support is something that should be taken very seriously and needs to be changed. Therefore, Anne Margrethe contacted MHHRI and encouraged us to create a page with information for survivors.
We are very pleased to share this new page that is written for survivors of serious human rights violations. On the new For Survivors page, we start with two letters, one written to survivors and one written to people who are close to survivors. In these letters, we discuss the things that we consider to be the most important things that survivors and the people that are close to them should know. We also provide more information about human rights and the specific rights of survivors, human rights violations, concepts and words that are being used, rehabilitation and healing, self-care through grounding exercises, examples from different countries, the Butterfly Woman story as well as a collection of organizations and web pages that may be useful for further support.
We hope that the information on the new Are you a Survivor page will provide some help to the many survivors who might lack some form of support. The page can also be a supplement to support from local support groups, specialized care, or others.
We hope that the page will be widely known and used. Therefore, we kindly ask you to share this newsletter and the information about the page with any person or organisation for whom you believe it may be of interest.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with tips, ideas, reactions, and questions about the new Survivors page. We would truly appreciate all the feedback we can get from you.
If you want further information on how to support survivors of human rights violations, we have made a thematic page for helpers, teachers, families, and friends that need more information and relevant links.
Meet a new friend of ours
Global Network of Psychologists for
Human Rights (GNPHR),
The GNPHR provides an independent global platform for psychologists concerned about human rights, by
- providing a global platform to promoting knowledge and discussion about the intersection of human rights and psychology among psychologists and psychology students; in their research, practice, application, and consultation;
- providing a bridge between the global community of psychologists and international human rights initiatives, practices and knowledge;
- supporting psychologists confronted with human rights violations;
- advocating for the improvement of human rights application, and for the support of victims of violations;
- highlighting human rights activities, scholarship, and achievements of psychologists from all parts of the world.
Please get acquainted with their website
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian and Portuguese. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
Facebook
On our MHHRI Facebook page, we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our web site, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
IRCT symposium in Georgia – postponed
2021 IRCT Scientific Symposium & General Assembly
Overcoming the Extreme: Life after Torture
2021 in Tbilisi, Georgia (more information will follow)
17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Trauma and resilience through the ages: A life course perspective.
01- 04 June 2022
Northern Ireland.
4th European Conference on Domestic Violence
September 13th – 15th 2021 | online from Slovenia
22nd Nordic Conference For Professionals
Working With Traumatised Refugees
Rescheduled 9-10.12.2021 | Helsinki, Finland
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and program of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia February 2021 (tentative dates).
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behaviour, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Take care – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours,
the MHHRI team
Elin Doeland, Elisabeth Langdal, Sara Skilbred Fjeld, Mónica Orjuela,
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
To the top
2020
View the original newsletter in your browser.
Boletín en español
Newsletter No. 5 November 2020
Overview of content:
- Psychological first aid tools for working in areas with little access to mental health care
- Providing psychological first aid
- Further reading and resources
- Download the MHHRI GBV manual
- Upcoming Events
Dear friends and colleagues
Psychological support tools for working in areas with little access to mental health care
Article 12 in the UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
Nevertheless, in many countries people lack access to mental health care. Refugees and displaced populations are among those who often face barriers in accessing professional mental health services.
Mental health problems such as depression can be a strain for oneself and for the surrounding family and may in some cases even lead to suicide. Especially low-income countries struggle to keep up with the demand for psychological care due to lack of funding and facilities. Therefore, a lack of (and access to) professionals arises.
On a global basis, researchers believe that the loss of health due to mental illness is greater than with all other illnesses. Mental illness tops the list of causes of excess morbidity. It is therefore important to raise awareness about this issue and to advocate for better access to mental health care. Our team at MHHRI provides useful resources about mental health and human rights on our website.
A wide gap in mental health support in areas where humanitarian access is difficult, calls for innovative measures. WHO developed Self-Help Plus (SH+) to meet the challenges of delivering evidence-based mental health support to large numbers of people in conflict- or disaster-affected areas.
SH+ is a group-based self-help intervention guided by non-specialist facilitators with minimal training. It consists of a five-session pre-recorded audio course and an illustrated self-help book designed for low literacy populations.
Guided self-help is a promising intervention and has potential to improve reach and access to psychological support. So far research findings indicate that SH+ has great effect on reductions in psychological distress.
Here, we also want to mention some other initiatives aiming to make mental health care more available. One example is the manual “Where there is no psychiatrist – A Mental Health Care Manual”, which gives the reader a basic understanding of mental illness. It also provides training for general health workers to treat illnesses such as depression.
Another example is psychiatrist Dixon Chibanda, who had an innovative idea on how to provide mental health care in Zimbabwe, where there is a lack of psychiatrists. He started training grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy, which equipped them with tools to treat depression among people in their community. This approach showed great results, reducing both depression and thoughts of suicide.
In these times of COVID-19 we should remember the words of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “The right to health means that everyone should have access to the health services they need, when and where they need them, without suffering financial hardship. No one should get sick and die just because they are poor, or because they cannot access the health services they need”.
During the Coronavirus outbreak, it is especially important that we are reminded of this fundamental right. Key aspects of the right to health that are particularly important during the Coronavirus outbreak included. For more information related to COVID-19 and mental health, go back to our newsletter no 1 of March 2020.
Further reading and resources:
Where There Is No Psychiatrist – A Mental Health Care Manual.
Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2018
“This practical manual of mental health care is vital for community health workers, primary care nurses, social workers and primary care doctors, particularly in low-resource settings. This guide gives the reader a basic understanding of mental illness by describing more than thirty clinical problems associated with mental illness and uses a problem-solving approach to guide the reader through their assessment and management. Mental health issues as they arise in specific contexts are described – in refugee camps, in school health programmes, as well as in mental health promotion.”
Guided self-help intervention reduces refugees’ psychological distress and improves wellbeing in humanitarian crises
WHO 2020
“First randomised trial of its kind finds multimedia guided self-help intervention can be delivered rapidly to large numbers of people in low-resource humanitarian settings by non-specialists with minimal training. […] The study is the first randomised trial of a guided self-help group intervention in a low-resource humanitarian setting. Although longer follow-up is needed to determine the long-term effects of the intervention, the authors say that guided self-help could be a promising first-line strategy to address the vast gap in mental health support in areas where humanitarian access is difficult, such as South Sudan and Syria.”
Guided self-help intervention reduces refugees’ psychological distress and improves wellbeing in humanitarian crises.
TED Talk: Why I train grandmothers to treat depression
Dixon Chibanda, 2017
“Dixon Chibanda is one of 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe – for a population of more than 16 million. Realizing that his country would never be able to scale traditional methods of treating those with mental health issues, Chibanda helped to develop a beautiful solution powered by a limitless resource: grandmothers. In this extraordinary, inspirational talk, learn more about the friendship bench program, which trains grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy and brings care, and hope, to those in need.”
Effect of a Primary Care–Based Psychological Intervention on Symptoms of Common Mental Disorders in Zimbabwe. A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Dixon Chibanda, Helen A. Weiss, Ruth Verhey et. al, 2016
“Zimbabwe has a large treatment gap for common mental disorders, with only 10 psychiatrists serving a population of 13 million. Prevalence of common mental disorders above 25% has been reported among adult primary care attendees,5-8 but there are no psychological services in primary health care. A potentially feasible approach to improve this situation would require task shifting, allowing properly trained and supervised lay health workers (LHWs) in primary care to contribute to the treatment of common mental disorders. […] Problem-solving therapy is an attractive option in a low-resource context because, unlike cognitive behavior therapy, it does not require extensive training or complex skills.”
Mental Health Among Displaced People and Refugees: Making the Case for Action at The World Bank Group
World Bank Group, 2017
“Forcibly displaced people’s mental health needs have often been neglected in response plans. Yet meeting these needs is critical to help displaced persons overcome trauma and rebuild their lives. Without appropriate mental health care, forcibly displaced people will often be unable to benefit fully from other forms of support that are provided to them. […] A shared commitment is needed from national and international actors to champion mental health parity in the provision of health and social services, including in humanitarian emergencies. High priority should go to identifying alternative sources of financing for mental health parity in health systems.”
Digital technology for treating and preventing mental disorders in low-income and middle-income countries: a narrative review of the literature
Naslund, Aschbrenner, Bartels et.al, 2017
“Few individuals living with mental disorders around the globe have access to mental health care, yet most have access to a mobile phone. Digital technology holds promise for improving access to, and quality of, mental health care.
We reviewed evidence on the use of mobile, online, and other remote technologies for treatment and prevention of mental disorders in low-income and middle-income countries. Of the 49 studies identified, most were preliminary evaluations of feasibility and acceptability. The findings were promising, showing the potential effectiveness of online, text-messaging, and telephone support interventions.”
Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP)
WHO launched the mental health gap action programme (mhGAP) in response to the wide gap between the resources available and the resources urgently needed to address the large burden of mental, neurological, and substance use disorders globally. Through mhGAP, WHO aims to provide health planners, policy-makers, and donors with a set of clear and coherent activities and programmes for scaling up care for mental, neurological and substance use disorders.
Digital Technology for Building Capacity of Non-specialist Health Workers for Task-Sharing and Scaling Up Mental Health Care Globally
Naslund, Shidhaye & Patel, 2019
“In this perspectives article, we consider the potential that digital technology holds for supporting non-specialist health workers in delivering evidence-based mental health care. Specifically, from our search of the academic literature, we identified seven promising examples from primary care settings in different low-income and middle-income countries (including India, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Peru, China, and Nigeria) where digital platforms are being used to support delivery of mental health care from a variety of non-specialist providers by offering training, digital tools for diagnosis, guiding treatment, facilitating supervision, and integrating services.”
Achieving universal health coverage for mental disorders
Patel & Saxena, 2019
“A key element of the field of global mental health is the design and evaluation of innovative strategies for integrating cost effective pharmacological and psychosocial interventions in primary healthcare. The evidence from this work, from a range of contexts including high income countries, is showing the way to integration. A theme across this evidence is the placement of non-specialised providers (including peers, community health workers, and nurses) in primary healthcare and community settings.”
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian and Portuguese. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
Facebook
On our MHHRI Facebook page, we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our web site, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events IRCT symposium in Georgia – postponed 17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies |
![]() The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
|
We appreciate feedback and comments The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter. If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up. |
View the original newsletter in your browser.
Boletín en español
Newsletter No. 4 November 2020
Overview of content:
- UNSCR 1325 a catalyst for ways forward for Okinawan and Japanese comfort women
- More information and Further reading
- Download the MHHRI GBV manual
- Events
Copyright click here
About the photo
UNSCR 1325 a catalyst for ways forward for Okinawan and Japanese comfort women
This year marks 20 years of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325), on women, peace, and security. This resolution reaffirms 1) the excessive impact of violent conflict and war on women and girls and 2) that conflict prevention and peacebuilding are more sustainable when women are involved.
We still have a long way to go and it is crucial to listen to what survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) have to say. In this newsletter, we give voice to Betsy Kawamura who is a survivor of GBV herself. She is an initiator for the women4nonviolence-website that was created in response to survivor-groups who wished to ‘catch up’ on the latest news and developments regarding UNSCR 1325 and allied resolutions. As Betsy Kawamura also emphasizes: “It is important to acknowledge what we have already achieved, but we are far from done. Survivors of gender-based violence still don’t receive full recognition for their suffering.” Hence, we encourage further implementation of UNSCR 1325. It is possible that UNSCR 1325 may have been a catalyst for this issue to be raised.
An excerpt of Betsy’s letter
I am engaging with the United Nations (UN) in NYC to encourage the Republic of Korea (ROK) comfort women to join forces with remaining Okinawan and Japanese comfort women to rally international recognition and support. We realize that time is running out for remaining Okinawan/Japanese women who sexually served the Allied Forces post WWII; and that they need support and a platform as they are mostly octogenarians. In great contrast to the ROK comfort women, those of Okinawa and Japan have hardly received any recognition, not to mention even any state funded trauma care or rehabilitation.
We are hoping ultimately that the voices of Korean, Okinawan and Japanese comfort women and refugees will be supported.
Given the current international focus on peace-making initiatives in North Asia, and the emergence of UNSCR resolutions of 1325 and allied ones, I feel it is of timely and critical value for the international community and Asia Pacific states to be better informed of historic and current Women Peace and Security issues. This is to provide an intelligent basis of information from which forthcoming authentic and transparent strategies for healing of survivors and peace negotiations can be achieved, with positive global impact. Such discussions could further catalyze the inclusion of women, especially survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, in high-level, peace-negotiations through-out Asia Pacific.
These women should be taught of UNSCR 1325 and allied resolutions designed to amplify their voices.
I reviewed the ROK National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 and was hoping for stronger wording of protection of North Korean refugee women in China. I have not seen as of yet, any mention of protecting North Korean refugee women in the Japanese National Action Plan (NAP), nor of other countries who expressed ‘grave concern’ over North Korean human rights, with the exception of ROK’s NAP.
I had hoped that the 2018 Women Peace and Security meeting in Beijing would provide opportune timing for participants to discuss Secrecy issues clearly and in the open; and discuss why the USA and Japanese governments are reluctant to take actions that will enable swift, efficient redress and prosecution of sexual and gender-based violence in Far East Asia and Asia Pacific. This lack of will does nothing to empower or heal victims and prevent of sexual and gender-based violence. It is the anti-thesis of the heart of UNSCR 1325 and allied resolutions to protect women.
I had also corresponded with UN desk officers for North Asia in NYC about investigating the plight of Japanese women and girl-children who were recruited by the Japanese government post WWII as ‘comfort women’ to sexually serve Allied forces shortly after Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Apparently about 55,000 Japanese women including teenaged girls were recruited by the Japanese government under the “Recreation and Amusement Association” in 1945 to sexually serve the occupying forces as a means to ‘appease’ them. The ‘comfort stations’ were financed by Japanese banks and operated under the knowledge of General Douglas MacArthur, who was the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) during the Allied occupation of Japan and Okinawa following World War II.
I solemnly believe that the dignity of the Japanese and Okinawan women, their families and others affected by sexual slavery are owed reverent acknowledgement, apologies and remuneration.
In all, I do have hope that open, collective discussions at international State levels could pave the way for enlightenment, healing and future improvements, with the passionate support of the international community.
You can read the whole letter here
More information and further reading
Formulating Japan’s UNSCR 1325 national action plan and forgetting the “comfort women”
Hisako Motoyama 2018
This paper examines the formulation process of Japan’s National Action, focusing on the gendered struggle over remilitarization and war memory, especially that of the “comfort women,” or Japanese imperial military sexual slavery during World War II.
Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
The United Nations Human Rights Council 2013
On 21 March 2013, at its 22nd session, the United Nations Human Rights Council established the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Resolution A/HRC/RES/22/13 mandates the body to investigate the systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, with a view to ensuring full accountability, in particular for violations which may amount to crimes against humanity.
Us Too – Sexual Violence Against North Korean Women & Girls
Korea Future Initiative, James Burt 2018
In the face of extreme brutality, many North Koreans have escaped their homeland. In the first great exodus of 1998, nearly one-thousand refugees arrived in South Korea bringing news of a famine that had decimated towns and cities and a government apparatus that had violated human rights on a nationwide scale. The damage caused to survivors can last a lifetime and impact their physical, psychological, and behavioural wellbeing. In 2002, exile testimonies adopted an increasingly gendered aspect when, for the first time, more women than men reached freedom, harbouring experiences of rape, human trafficking, forced abortions, and sexual slavery.
Recreation and Amusement Association
New York Times 1995
For more information related to the situation portrayed in the first picture in the newsletter.
Upcoming Events
IRCT symposium in Georgia – postponed
2021 IRCT Scientific Symposium & General Assembly
Overcoming the Extreme: Life after Torture
2021 in Tbilisi, Georgia (more information will follow)
17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Trauma and resilience through the ages: A life course perspective.
01- 04 June 2022Northern Ireland.
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR Conference and programme of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia Winter 2021/22
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian and Peruvian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando and CAPS Peru (Centro de Atención Psicosocial).
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behaviour, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Stay well – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours
Betsy Kawamura and the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
View the original newsletter in your browser.
Boletín en español
|
LGBTQ and migration: Human rights violations,mental health and COVID-19 risks Dear friends and colleaguesRecently we have received letters from LGBTQ people being persecuted by the police or other public officers in countries where their rights have been violated. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19 there has been even more severe violations during these last months. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights) claims that protecting LGBT people from violence and discrimination does not require the creation of a new set of LGBT-specific rights, nor does it require the establishment of new international human rights standards. The legal obligations of States to safeguard the human rights of LGBT people are well established in international human rights law on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently agreed on international human rights treaties. All people, irrespective of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, are entitled to enjoy the protections provided for by international human rights law.Unfortunately, LGBTQ people’s rights are not always being asserted. According to the American Psychological Association (APP) several studies suggest that LGTBQ persons appear to have higher rates of some mental disorders compared to heterosexuals. Discrimination, also in the area of the health system, may help fuel these higher rates. These are serious consequences of human rights violations on LBTQ people’s (mental) health, well-being and possibility to live according to their own choices and preferences.LGBTQ people often experience a lack of protection from their family or community members. Once their sexual orientation or gender identity is exposed, family and community members may reject them and even abuse them alongside with the authorities. In other cases, LGBTQ people might remain silent about their identity to protect friends and family from being discriminated for knowing them.LGBTQ people might get excluded from work, which makes it difficult to get by financially. In some countries, LGBTQ people are being discriminated, harassed and abused to the degree that they don’t feel safe. Some even receive death threats. Understandably, they wish to migrate to countries where they are somewhat safe and respected for who they are. Migration and COVID-19 risks They also experience violent attacks and/or fines in countries with gender-based lockdown measures (meaning that men and women are allowed out on alternating days of the week). If transgender people are out on days which don’t match with the gender on their ID, they are in danger of discrimination and mistreatment. |
Positive developments
To this day there is no country that is completely free from trans- and homophobia. But it is important to note that there has also been great progress in the field of LGBTQ people’s rights, due to the effort of human rights bodies. In the last decade, there have been several legal triumphs for LGBTQ people, including allowing intersex people to legally identify as ‘diverse’ on official documents, legalizing gay sex and marriage equality. Greater awareness about the issue keeps the fight for equality going and contributes to progress.
Several organisations work for LGBTQ people’s human rights. One of them is OutRight Action International. They provide human rights training, training on safety and security for LGBTQ people, capacity building and political space for strategizing.
Ultimately, human rights must have priority over cultural attitudes to battle violations against LBGTQ people, such as arrest, detainment, imprisonment, harassment or torture.
Below we have gathered some useful links that highlight these issues further.
Seeking Asylum in the US to Escape Trans Discrimination
“When you’re transgender and latinx, life as a double minority often means living with a target on your back. For many facing extreme violence and discrimination in their home countries, migration to the United States represents a chance to redeem their identity and live a life free from persecution. But upon arriving in the US, instead, trans migrants often find a dangerous life plagued by the threat of detention and continued discrimination. Broadly goes to Arizona and Los Angeles to meet one of the most vulnerable populations in America, and the trans women already living in the US working hard to create a sanctuary for them.”
More information and further reading
Still a blind spot: The protection of LGBT persons during armed conflict and other situations of violence
International Review of the Red Cross, author Alon Margalit (PhD) 2018
“This article draws attention to the situation of LGBT persons during armed conflict. Subjected to violence and discrimination outside the context of armed conflict, the latter aggravates their vulnerability and exposure to various abuses. Despite important progress made with respect to their protection under human rights law, a similar effort is largely absent from the international humanitarian law discourse. This article accordingly highlights some of the norms and challenges pertaining to the protection of LGBT persons in time of war.”
Majority have their way but minority have their say
The Gay And Lesbian Coalition Of Kenya (GALCK) 2016
“LGBQ rights are human rights that are meant to promote a position of social and legal equality of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and queer (LGBQ) people in society. LGBQ rights address injustices against members of the LGBQ community by outlawing discrimination and violence, requiring changes in law in areas such as access to health, education, public benefits, and by recognising different types of relationships and families.”
Protection manual for LGBTI defenders
Protection International 2010
“In this manual, we give more space than other security manuals for defenders on the specific issues and obstacles that prevailing societal values and legal systems present to LGBTI defenders. We aim at addressing not only the affect of wider societal value systems on defenders protection but also to address how the internalisation of these value systems and the consequences of them can often have detrimental effects on the defenders capacity to manage their own security.”
Vulnerability Amplified: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on LGBTIQ people
OutRight Action International 2020
“The background literature review confirms that emergencies tend to exacerbate vulnerability for those already struggling against inequality in its many forms. The challenges in accessing justice, health, education, employment, housing, and other services due to discrimination and exclusion are amplified during times of crisis. In countries that criminalize same-sex relations or transgender lives, the risk of detainment and imprisonment may be a continuous threat.”
Criminalising Homosexuality and LGBT Rights in Times of Conflict, Violence and Natural Disasters
Human Dignity Trust 2015
“Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are a vulnerable group at the best of times. During times of turmoil (conflict, natural disasters or widespread violence) this vulnerability is exacerbated, often leaving LGBT people to experience a level of violence and exclusion beyond that borne by others.”
LGBT+ rights
MHHRI 2020
“Despite some important step forward, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBT+) people still experience discrimination, harassment and hostility in many parts of the world. Many LGBT+ experience poorer mental health outcomes that are directly related to experiences of stigma, prejudice, discrimination and abuse on the basis of being LGBT+.”
‘Separation by sex’: gendered lockdown fuelling hate crime on streets of Bogotá
The Guardian 2020
A policy of making men and women leave their homes on alternate days during lockdown in Bogotá is fuelling violence towards the transgender community by the police and the public, activists say. […] the Colombian organisation Red Comunitaria Trans recorded 20 violent incidents against trans people in supermarkets during lockdown, including a trans woman who was beaten by a man who said she was not allowed out on the women’s day.
Rethinking COVID-19 Vulnerability: A Call for LGBTQ+ Im/migrant Health Equity in the United States During and After a Pandemic
Health EquityVol. 4, No. 1, author Nolan S. Kline 2020
“Public health responses to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have emphasized older adults’ vulnerability, but this obfuscates the social and political root causes of health inequity. To advance health equity during a novel communicable disease outbreak, public health practitioners must continue to be attentive to social and political circumstances that inform poor health. Such efforts are especially needed for populations who are exposed to numerous social and political factors that structure health inequity, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or otherwise-queer identifying (LGBTQ+) populations and im/migrant populations. The COVID-19 outbreak is, therefore, a critical time to emphasize root causes of health inequity.”
IOM Experts’ Voice on Inclusive COVID-19 Response for Migrants in Vulnerable Situations
International Organization for Migration 2020
“While measures to combat the virus apply to all, not all migrant groups have the same set of resources and capacities to comply with the rules. In the following pages, contributions from key IOM experts are featured to shed light on crosscutting issues and vulnerabilities that various migrant groups face, as well as complementary resources for developing a more differentiated, appropriate and migrant-friendly response to the pandemic.”
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian and Portuguese. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
Facebook
On our MHHRI Facebook page, we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our web site, as well as events and videos.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, Nepalese, Ukrainian and Portuguese. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
Facebook
On our MHHRI Facebook page, we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our web site, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming events
IRCT symposium in Georgia October 2020
2021 IRCT Scientific Symposium & General Assembly
Overcoming the Extreme: Life after Torture
2021 in Tbilisi, Georgia (more information will follow)
17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Trauma and resilience through the ages: A life course perspective.
01- 04 June 2022
Northern Ireland.
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
All being well, the International Society for Health and Human Rights looks forward to welcoming you to the 11th ISHHR conference and programme of capacity building in Medellin, Colombia Winter 2021-22 (tentative dates).
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behaviour, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
We appreciate feedback and comments
The Mental Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.
We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Stay well – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours
Sara Skilbred-Fjeld and the MHHRI team
Mental Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
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Boletín en español
Newsletter No. 2 May 2020
Overview of content:
- UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
- As COVID-19 pandemic continues, forcibly displaced children need more support than ever
- The Resilience Guide: Strategies for Responding to Trauma in Refugee Children
- MANUAL for promoting mental health of affected children: With accent on refugees’/migrants’ children
- Improving children’s well being: An evaluation of NRC’s Better Learning Programme in Palestine
- Health of refugee and migrant children: Technical guidance
- Action for refugee children: Good practices that bring the Global Refugee Compact to life
- UNICEF calls for six actions to protect all refugee and migrant children
- Brain Builders: How a child’s brain develops through early experiences (YouTube video)
- Storytellers brighten lives of refugee children on corona virus lockdown
- Download the HHRI GBV manual
- Upcoming Events
Dear friends and colleagues,
Around the world, millions of children and families have had to flee their homes from conflict, persecution, disaster and extreme poverty. According to UNHCR, over half of the world’s refugees are children, or minors below the age of 18, and UNICEF states that 31 million children worldwide were displaced by the end of 2018. Moreover, refugee children are 5 times more likely not to have access to school than other children, and many lack access to essential health care. Children in refugee camps often live in dire conditions, lacking basic needs such as hygiene, sanitation, safety, food and clean drinking water. Many may have witnessed, or experienced, severe violence and they may be at risk of neglect, abuse, exploitation, trafficking or military recruitment. Some children do not have adults they can trust alongside themselves and they flee and seek protection elsewhere as unaccompanied minors.
Many children and their families live with a range of different reactions that may be consequences of traumatic experiences. Such reactions or symptoms can be nightmares, feeling anxious or depressed, feeling agitated and restless, physical pain, an inability to focus and concentrate, or losing hope for the future, among others. The lack of stability and routine in daily life that many refugee and migrant children face make it even more difficult to cope and recover from trauma. Often there is no psycho social support available to them due to the situation that these children and their families find themselves in.
Despite all these challenges, children are resilient. Not all children exposed to potentially traumatic events will develop serious mental health conditions. Knowing about protective factors that can help children recover and cope is important. Being able to mobilize such factors represents a hopeful approach, that may open for practical and adequate support.
We can divide protective factors into two groups: 1) those related to characteristics of the child and 2) those related to characteristics of the environment. Children can draw strength from protective factors within themselves as well as from their families and the community within which they live. Important protective factors that caregivers and helpers can influence include:
- Help the child to feel like a worthy person
- Allow the child to express itself creatively and through play
- Allow the child to learn new things and explore his or her skills, thereby providing the child with a sense of mastery
- Provide the child with an experience of having an influence in their own lives
- Provide the child with a feeling of meaning and a sense of coherence in his or her daily life
- Make sure that there are some routines, structure and boundaries in the daily life of the child
- Make sure that there is at least one adult person that the child can trust and feel that she or he really cares about the child
- Respect the child and his or her physical and psychological integrity
Children need stability, security and the possibility to learn, play and explore their skills for their cognitive, emotional and social development. Children need to be loved and cared for.
In Health and Human Rights Info (HHRI) we are currently working on responding to the need for more specific information on children exposed to sexual violence in contexts of instability and how we can provide psychosocial support to these children and their caregivers. The new project has been developed together with experts in the field of child psychology, trauma and humanitarian work. Clinical psychologist and expert in the field of resilience in children, Helen Christie, was initiative-taker to the project and is leading it together with HHRI’s Executive Director, Elisabeth Ng Langdal. Further update on this project will be provided.
Below we have gathered publications and information in English about refugee children focusing on the following:
- The rights of the child as these are laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
- The urgent need to protect refugee children during the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic;
- The importance of a strong awareness on refugee children’s mental health and well-being including interventions and strategies to provide psychosocial support and promoting resilience.
We have also included information from UNHCR and UNICEF on their work with refugee children, as well as a positive story from Madrid, Spain, where volunteers record bedtime stories that are sent to Spanish speaking refugee children, by UNHCR.
Further reading
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
United Nations 1989
First, we believe it is highly valuable to remind ourselves of articles 9, 22, 24, 28 and 39 in the Convention on the Rights of the Child which state the following:
Article 9 The right not to be separated from the parents
Article 22 The right to seek asylum and to receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance as a refugee
Article 24 The right of access to health care
Article 28 The right to education
Article 39 The right to physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims of any form of neglect, exploitation or abuse: torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflict, which should take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.
Image from Pixabay
As COVID-19 pandemic continues, forcibly displaced children need more support than ever
UNHCR 20 April 2020
Joint statement by Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director, and Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
“Millions of children around the world have been driven from their homes and across borders by conflict, violence and other forms of harm – including 12.7 million refugees and 1.1 million asylum seekers. With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the needs of refugee children have become even more acute. Meeting those needs is key to safeguarding both their wellbeing today and future potential. Displaced children are among those with the most limited access to prevention services, testing, treatment and other essential support. In addition, the pandemic and containment measures are likely to have negative consequences for their safety and education, which were precarious even before the outbreak of the disease.”
The Resilience Guide: Strategies for Responding to Trauma in Refugee Children
Supporting Child Care in the Settlement Community, CMAS
2018, author Heather Savazzi
“This practical guide is developed for practitioners and professionals working directly with families and children who have experienced forced migration. The guide focuses on the Canadian context, but much of the theory, principles and methods can be applied in work with children with a refugee experience in other countries and contexts. The guide includes information about refugee trauma, potential developmental effects, and key strategies that foster the resilience of children and families. The guide also includes tip sheets filled with practical strategies that are designed to be taken straight off the page and put into practice.”
MANUAL for promoting mental health of affected children: With accent on refugees’/migrants’ children
UNICEF 2017, author Chamber of Psychologists by Marijana Markovikj and Eleonora Serafimovska
“This manual is aimed at promoting the mental health of children under risk and providing psychosocial care in facilities accommodating persons under risk. It was developed from the project entitled: “Capacity building for providing psychological interventions and resilience of professional staff in Transit Centres to refugees and migrant children.” The project was funded and supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (“UNICEF”) and implemented by the Chamber of Psychologists of the Republic of Macedonia. The main objective of the project was: “to equip front line workers, including psychologists and social workers working in Transit Centres, with tools and skills how to provide targeted psychological interventions through group and/or individual work”. This manual is intended to serve as a guide for psychologists and/or psychotherapists engaged as helpers who (will) work with affected people1 in relief assistance facilities. The manual can also be useful for social workers, teachers and health workers.”
Improving children’s wellbeing: An evaluation of NRC’s Better Learning Programme in Palestine
Norwegian Refugee Council, NRC January 2017
“The Better Learning Programme (BLP) aims to improve learning conditions for children and adolescents exposed to war and conflict in Palestine. The Better Learning Programme consists of two components: BLP 1 reaches out to all pupils and provides psycho-education and coping skills, while BLP 2 is a specialised intervention for those with chronic symptoms of traumatic stress. Both components combine a psychosocial and trauma-focused approach. The psychosocial support offered in both components aims: (1) to establish a sense of stability and safety; (2) to promote calming and a capacity for self-regulation; (3) to increase community and self-efficacy, including where to find support and how to give and receive support; and (4) to promote mastery and hope.”
In addition to the evaluation report, an interview with Professor Jon-Håkon Schultz who led the development of NRC’s work for children with trauma can be read here.
it’s easier to ask ‘How are you doing?Have you had a nightmare?
Do you do the exercises?’”
(Professor Jon-Håkon Schultz)

WHO Regional Office for Europe 2018
“The objective of this technical guidance is to inform national and local health policy regarding health care for newly arrived refugee and migrant children. This grouping encompasses children aged 0–18 years who are asylum seekers, in an irregular situation or in the first two years after obtaining residency in the country of reception. The guidance, therefore, focuses on the initial health care response to the needs of these children.
The guidance includes information on mental health and psychological well-being and describes different areas for intervention and as well as policy considerations focusing on health promotion strategies and public health strategies.”
UNICEF December 2019
“Every refugee crisis is a children’s crisis. More than half of the 25.9 million refugees worldwide are under the age of 18. Refugee boys and girls are uniquely vulnerable: because they are children, because they are uprooted, because they have experienced or witnessed violence. These vulnerabilities put them at risk of more violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination. However, refugee children should not only be defined by their vulnerabilities. They are strong and resilient. They are determined to thrive, and their potential is limitless. They are not alone. In the Global Compact on Refugees, governments and stakeholders around the world have committed to make sure no refugee girl or boy is left behind.
The brochure includes information on education and learning, the importance of early childhood development, and protection of refugee children from violence, exploitation and abuse, among others.”

UNICEF
As part of the UNICEF ‘s Agenda for Action and the Children uprooted campaign, UNICEF calls for six actions to protect all refugee and migrant children. These six action points are:
1. Press for action on the causes that uproot children from their homes
2. Help uprooted children to stay in school and stay healthy
3. Keep families together and give children legal status
4. End the detention of refugee and migrant children by creating practical alternatives
5. Combat xenophobia and discrimination
6. Protect uprooted children from exploitation and violence
“This ‘Brain Builders’ video explains how experiences in the first years of our lives affect how our brains form. Science tells us that the stress of abuse or neglect can damage the basic structures of a child’s developing brain. Without the right help, it can put them at risk of a lifetime of health problems, developmental issues and addiction. It’s up to us to make sure that children overcome these stresses and have the nurturing experiences they need for positive development.”
UNHCR 23 April 2020
“Volunteers in Spain are recording bedtime stories to share with children in reception centres via WhatsApp in a UNHCR-backed project. Life in lockdown for COVID-19 is tough, but for Rosalina, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, it is particularly hard. She and her three children – 8, 12 and 14 years old – share a single room at a reception centre in Madrid. She finds it difficult to keep them occupied and entertained.”

Image by Mystic Art design from Pixabay
Download the HHRI GBV manual
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict from our website for free. The manual is available in English, Arabic, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
Facebook and Twitter
On our HHRI Facebook page and Twitter account, we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our web site, as well as events and videos.
Upcoming Events
Due to the COVID-19 situation, many of these events will be postponed. Check out each specific event for further information.
Dubrovnik summer school
In the shadow of PTSD:
The heterogeneity of responses to psychological trauma in individuals, families and communities across cultures
25th- 28th May 2020
in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Summer school Ghent
Health & Migration’ and ‘Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights’
For medical students
5th until the 16th of July 2020
Ghent, Belgium
IRCT symposium in Georgia 2021
2021 IRCT Scientific Symposium & General Assembly
Overcoming the Extreme: Life after Torture
5-7 October 2020 in Tbilisi, Georgia
17th biennial conference of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Trauma and resilience through the ages: A life course perspective.
16-19 June 2021
Northern Ireland.
The 11th International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) Conference
The ISHHR Conference will take place in Medellín, Colombia, late 2021. More information will follow.
The ISHHR Conference and Capacity-Building Workshops will focus on themes relevant in a Colombian context, for both local and international participants, in cooperation with Región and Reconectando.
The Call for Papers, to be published in autumn 2020, is based on four principle thematic streams for papers, parallel sessions and workshops:
- Strengthening Women’s Rights to Mental Health and Freedom from Violence – by changing behaviour, practices and attitudes and facilitating safe and adequate care.
- Supporting Human Rights Defenders who risk their lives in difficult and dangerous situations, side by side with families of victims of enforced disappearance and internally displaced (IDPs).
- Treatment methods after traumatic human rights abuse. Remembering the body, promoting resilience; arts and culture, traditional and indigenous approaches.
- Post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and re-socialisation Community mental health, justice human ecology, ethnic approaches to social action, empowerment and reconciliation.
To receive updates, become an ISHHR member or contact coordinator@ishhr.com for more information.
We appreciate feedback and comments
The Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in disaster, war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective. We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up.
Stay well – and wishing you all the best.
Sincerely yours
The HHRI team
Health and Human Rights Info
post@hhri.org
www.hhri.org
View the original newsletter here.
Boletín en español
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We appreciate feedback and comments The Health and Human Rights Info Newsletter is a newsletter with the aim to provide insight on a certain subject across the scope of our work; human rights violations in war and conflict areas and mental health. Our intention is to deliver a newsletter as a short “lecture” where you can find relevant information regarding a specific subject with a mental health perspective.We would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions on other issues you would like to see in this newsletter or if you are planning an event on related issues, please let us know so we can include your event in our newsletter.
If you know anyone who would be interested in receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up. The HHRI team |
2019
View the original newsletter here.
Boletín en español
Newsletter No. 5 Desember 2019
Overview of content:
- Human rights defenders and torture
- Video tutorials
- New video tutorial with Nora Sveaass
- Download the HHRI GBV manual
- The woman butterfly animation
- Upcoming Events
Human rights defenders and torture
Dear friends and colleagues.
Whether you call yourself a solidarity worker, an activist, an advocate, a human rights campaigner or refer to yourself by your profession, you may fall under the OHCHR definition of a human rights defender. This term is used to describe people who, individually or with others, act to promote and/or to protect human rights. Human rights defenders are identified above all by what they do, through a description of their actions and of some of the contexts within which they work. The actions taken by human rights defenders must be peaceful in order to comply with the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
Defending human rights is often challenging and at times dangerous. Reprisals are frequently experienced by human rights defenders. Many receive life threats for themselves, their families or their colleagues. Moreover, women human rights defenders are frequent targets of gender-based violence, including rape.
State authorities are often common perpetrators of violations against human rights defenders, despite the fact that they should undertake the primary responsibility of assuring their protection.
Torture is very far from eradicated, and human rights defenders who are fighting torture are also exposed to danger and violations. As we see in Syria, in Iraq, in Belarus and other places the legal framework and judicial practice supposed to protect people’s rights may be turned against them, and lead to violations rather than protection. And in many countries, we see today that the law is used by those in power to hold back, control and suppress human rights defenders, even expose them to severe threat and danger, as in the case too many places in the world. With legal tools the scope of operation of human rights defenders are restricted and there is a constant failure to offer protection and possibilities to act in defense of basic human rights.
The result has too often been large-scale detentions, in some cases in non-authorized or secret detention facilities, where those arrested run the risk of being subjected to torture, beatings, death threats, harassment and defamation, even executions. And we are talking about targeted detentions as well as the arbitrary arrests, where no legal safeguards exist. The severity and scale of reprisals committed against human rights defenders has been one of the primary motivations behind the adoption of the Declaration on human rights defenders and the establishment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders.
For further information on torture and Human rights defenders HHRI have thematic pages on the subject. In order to strengthen the awareness of the serious challenges and dangers faced by human rights defender, we have provided information that represents valuable resources and professional
New video tutorials based on the GBV training manual.
Welcome to our tutorial videos based on the training manual Mental Health and Gender-Based Violence, Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict. If you are working with or assisting survivors of gender-based violence or involved in the training of helpers working directly with survivors, this is the right place for you.
These video tutorials seek to reach people around the world and have been developed to be used in situations where helpers have limited or no access to specialised health services, and where humanitarian workers must deal with severe human loss, sorrow and distress in the midst of insecurity, conflict and war.input in relation to the protection of human rights defenders from torture and other severe human rights violations.
New Tutorial with Nora Sveaass Awareness of human rights, and their great importance for everyone, can be a valuable resource when working with people whose rights have been brutally disrespected. Human rights values may assist us both to understand the suffering we encounter and find ways to respond to it in a respectful and helpful way.
Download the HHRI GBV manualDownload the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian Spanish and Portuguese. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.Facebook
On our HHRI Facebook page, we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our web site, as well as events and videos.
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View the original newsletter here.
Boletín en Español
Newsletter No. 4 October 2019
- Overview of content:
- Cultural Aspects of Trauma
- Recommendations
- New video tutorials
- Download the HHRI GBV manual
- The woman butterfly animation
- Upcoming Events
Cultural Aspects of Trauma
Dear friends and colleagues.
According to Anthony J. Marsella “All cultures have different patterns, rituals, and treatment protocols for dealing with survivors of disaster, trauma, and extreme stress. Depending on the culture, these mechanisms may include what Western health and medical professionals— psychological experts would classify as, nontraditional or alternative modalities of treatment or assistance. ”The increased attention to cultural differences within trauma treatment is related to the need to provide culturally suitable assistance to an increasing population of immigrants and refugees forced by the global situation of wars and armed conflict, natural disaster or for other reasons to leave their place of origin and find refuge and protection elsewhere. This is also a highly relevant issue for helpers arriving at the different places where violence and/or disaster have happened, with the aim of collaborating with local
helpers to provide suitable help. Even when people have similar origins, and also have lived through the same events, it does not mean that they have gone through the same trauma. We know that trauma and culture shape our experiences, but this does not mean that everyone from the same culture or place of origin will have the same kinds of reactions to the same events. Therefore, being attentive to the complexities and to the differences related to needs and traditions is of issue here.
John P. Wilson argues that Culture enables people with the capacity to bond, to relate with each other, to form communities, as well as transferring ideas, values, and way of living through generations. Knowing this; it is necessary that the knowledge and skills the community needs to exist and survive are passed through generations. Within our own culture and the cultural language, we «learn» how to interpret different social settings. This includes also the reactions to traumatic events, the way we cope with these, the way we interpret the traumatic events. In situations of protracted conflict, the mental health effects of violence and social struggle are not primarily due to isolated traumatic events, but also to more extensive losses of meaning, order, relationships, community and the sense of a just social world. Providers of psychological services need a sociocultural framework to enable them to
reflect upon their own values, upon how to interact and upon cultural expectations for the help they are offering. The helpers need knowledge and skills for multicultural assessment and intervention. In order to stimulate this important discussion further we are listing some articles that will elaborate on the issue. (This is a reprint of a newsletter from 2012 but with updated articles)
Recommendations
Challenges in treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in refugees: towards integration of evidence-based treatments with contextual and culture-sensitive perspectives
2015, Boris Drožđek
The field of refugee mental health intervention and clinical practice with traumatized refugees may be enriched with the use of contextual and developmental models for assessment and conceptualization of posttrauma sequelae. Multimodal and trauma-focused interventions may be applied sequentially in a course of the treatment trajectory.
Culture-sensitive Psychotraumatology
2016, Ulrich Schnyder
Although there is some evidence of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) construct’s cross cultural validity, trauma-related disorders may vary across cultures, and the same may be true for treatments that address such conditions. Experienced therapists tailor psychotherapy to each patient’s particular situation, to the nature of the patient’s psychopathology, to the stage of therapy, and so on. In addition, culture-sensitive psychotherapists try to understand how culture enhances the meaning of their patient’s life history, the cultural components of their illness and help-seeking behaviors, as well as their expectations with regard to treatment. We cannot take for granted that all treatment-seeking trauma survivors speak our language or share our cultural values. Therefore, we need to increase our cultural competencies.
Culture And Trauma Cultural factors in mental health, psychotherapy and help-seeking
2018, Carla Schubert
The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen the understanding of the crucial role of cultural factors in the symptom representation after complex trauma (study I), in the rehabilitation (study II), and in the help-seeking paths of refugees settled in Finland (study III). A distinct trauma connected to the lives of many involuntary immigrants is torture, a human rights violation which has a substantial effect on mental health and life far from home. While torture and refugee trauma does not halt at women, they represent a minority in rehabilitation facilities in Finland and elsewhere. Another aim of this dissertation therefore is to provide information on gender differences and increase the knowledge concerning the symptomatology.
Chapter 3 Understanding the Impact of Trauma
2014, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment
This chapter discusses psychological symptoms not represented in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013a), and responses associated with trauma that either fall below the threshold of mental disorders or reflect resilience. It also addresses common disorders associated with traumatic stress. This chapter explores the role of culture in defining mental illness, particularly PTSD, and ends by addressing co-occurring mental and substance-related disorders.The culture, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of Rohingya refugees: a systematic review
2019, Tay AK
The knowledge about the culture, context, migration history, idioms of distress, help-seeking behaviour and traditional healing methods, obtained from diverse sources can be applied in the design and delivery of culturally appropriate interventions. Attention to past exposure to traumatic events and losses need to be paired with attention for ongoing stressors and issues related to worries about the future. It is important to design MHPSS interventions in ways that mobilise the individual and collective strengths of Rohingya refugees and build on their resilience.
Humanitarian Intervention and Cultural Translation: A Review of the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
2008 , Abramowitz & Kleinman
This article place the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings’ within the historical context of trauma healing and humanitarian intervention. The guidelines’ recognition of su¡ering and social repair as a holistic experience is a signi¢cant boon to applied understandings of populations in crisis. This critique of the guidelines addresses some aspects of the practical application of mental health and psychosocial care. We highlight the framing of ‘ culture’ , and the institutional cultures and structural hierarchies of humanitarian intervention.
Understanding and coping with traumatic stress, Part Three: Cultural issues
2007, Headington Institute
Traumatic stress is not just a problem for western humanitarian workers who relocate (usually temporarily) to developing countries and disaster zones for the sake of their job. In fact, the majority of humanitarian workers worldwide are from non-western cultural backgrounds, working in their home country.
Ethnocultural Aspects of PTSD: An Overview of Concepts, Issues, and Treatments
2010, Marcella
The present article offers an overview discussion of ethno cultural aspects of PTSD, with special attention to major conceptual issues, clinical considerations, and therapy practices. The historical circumstances leading to the widespread acceptance of PTSD among conventional mental health professionals, and the subsequent criticisms that emerged from scholars, humanitarian workers, and ethno cultural minorities are presented as an important background to the current controversial status of the concept, especially with regard to arguments regarding the ethno cultural determinants of PTSD.
Trauma and disasters in social and cultural context
Kirmayer et al, 2010
Understanding stories of trauma requires an understanding of the collective dimensions of violence and social suffering. Trauma experience is embedded in and emerges from multiple contexts, including biological processes of learning and memory; embodied experiences of injury, pain and fear; narratives of personal biography; the knowledge and practices of cultural and social systems; and the power and positioning of political struggles enacted on individual, family, community and national levels.
New video tutorials based on the GBV training manual.
Welcome to our tutorial videos based on the training manual Mental Health and Gender-Based Violence, Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict . If you are working with or assisting survivors of gender-based violence or involved in the training of helpers working directly with survivors, this is the right place for you.
These video tutorials seek to reach people around the world and have been developed to be used in situations where helpers have limited or no access to specialised health services, and where humanitarian workers must deal with severe human loss, sorrow and distress in the midst of insecurity, conflict and war.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free.
The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian Spanish and Portuguese. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
Facebook
On our HHRI Facebook page, we are continuously posting new and relevant articles that we add to our web site, as well as events and videos.
The woman butterfly animation
Butterfly Woman, is a central part of our Gender-based violence (GBV) training manual. This animation tells the story of the Butterfly Women, a metaphorical narrative that is based on women’s encounter of gender-based violence in armed conflicts. This animation should be used as a complement to our GBV-training manual. The complete written Butterfly woman story can be found on our website.
View the original newsletter here.
Boletín en Español
Newsletter No. 3 August 2019
Overview of content
- The butterfly woman story
- New video tutorials based on the GBV training manual
- Portuguese version of our Training Manual
- Upcoming Events
The woman butterfly animation, directed by Andrés Pedraza, HHRI
Dear friends and colleagues
As a part of our work with the manual “Mental health and gender-based violence Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict – a training manual”
We are happy to launch the story of the Butterfly Woman, which is a central part of our Gender-based violence (GBV) training manual. This animation tells the story of the Butterfly Women, a metaphorical narrative that is based on women’s encounter of gender-based violence in armed conflicts.
Metaphors are stories or images that convey something that can inspire or open the mind and can be simple and effective tools for teaching and learning.
In this training, we use a single metaphorical narrative to describe the experience and consequences of GBV. We explain the course that trauma takes in generic terms through the story of the Butterfly Woman; it remains a story but at the same time it is clinically accurate.
After being violated by soldiers, the life of the Butterfly Woman is turned into chaos. By the support of the good helper she learns ways to cope in order regain dignity. The story is created from the testimonies of the survivors in various parts of the world. We hope this animation will be a useful tool, for those working with survivors of gender-based violence. This animation should be used as a complement to our GBV-training manual. The complete written Butterfly woman story can be found on our website.
New video tutorials based on the GBV training manual.
Welcome to our tutorial videos based on the training manual Mental Health and Gender-Based Violence, Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict. If you are working with or assisting survivors of gender-based violence or involved in the training of helpers working directly with survivors, this is the right place for you.
These video tutorials seek to reach people around the world and have been developed to be used in situations where helpers have limited or no access to specialised health services, and where humanitarian workers must deal with severe human loss, sorrow and distress in the midst of insecurity, conflict and war.
So far, we have made 4 video tutorials, the first one is a short introduction to the manual. This part gives you a general idea of the intention for making the manual, where to download it, how it is outlined and how to read it. (Page 1-6 in the manual.)
The second one, talks about how to be a good helper, especially what is a good helper in your community? We are focusing on the tools we as helpers already use and what new tools can be acquired from the manual?
In the third one, we explain how and why we use metaphors and in specific the metaphor of the butterfly woman in our manual. The story about a woman who is raped by soldiers is presented.
And the fourth one tutorial is about how to support the helpers. For helpers, empathy is an essential aspect of good assistance. This is also a source for compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization or secondary traumatic stress. Early recognition and awareness are crucial to be resilient to these symptoms.
All these videos will be part of an online course, which we will launch at the end of 2019.
Portuguese version of our Training Manual
Good news! We are happy to publish the Portuguese version of our Training Manual “Mental Health and Gender Violence, Helping Survivors of Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations”. With this translated version of the manual, we hope we can reach more people and that the manual can be a useful and practical tool for people working in countries where Portuguese is the spoken language. By this, we hope to support more people working with survivors or who are involved in training helpers.
The manual is free of charge, and you can download it from our website. We would appreciate it if you can share this information with your friends, colleagues, and collaborating organisations.
Download the HHRI GBV manual
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict. The manual is also available in Arabic, Russian and Spanish. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
View the original newsletter here.
Boletín en Español
Newsletter No. 2 May 2019
Overview of content
- Course on GBV Training Manual
- New video tutorials on GBV Training Manual
- Download the GBV Training Manual
- Upcoming Events
Dear friends and colleagues
The 25th and 26th of April we had a two-day training in the manual ‘Mental health and gender-based violence: A training manual on how to help survivors of sexual violence in conflict’ at HHRI’s office at the Human Rights House in Oslo. In total there were 25 participants with different backgrounds and varying years of professional experience, including students, psychologists, advisors from different organizations, and network leaders, among others. We had an international group with participants from South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
The goal of the training was to allow participants to come together to get to know the content and possible ways of working with the manual, to learn from each other by exchanging experiences and perspectives, and to discuss important issues in this field of work with the trainers and each other. HHRI’s overarching goal is that the training will allow participants to spread the knowledge of the manual and to use it in their work directly with survivors or indirectly by passing the knowledge on to others through trainings and seminars. In this way we hope that more survivors will receive some form of psychological aid. This is of crucial importance both from a human rights perspective as well as for the resilience and future of the societies harmed by conflict and by this type of gross human rights violations.
The trainers were Dr. Nora Sveaass – clinical psychologist, Professor at the University of Oslo, founder of HHRI and member of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, Doris Drews – specialist in psychiatry, Ragnhild Dybdahl – Associate Professor of psychology at Oslo Metropolitan University, and Elisabeth Ng Langdal – Director of HHRI.
The training was a big success and HHRI received positive feedback from the participants after the training. We want to thank all of you who took part in the training.
Video Tutorials GBV Training Manual
HHRI has created a series of video tutorials to make easier for you to learn about the content and of the GBV training manual Mental Health and Gender Based Violence, Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict. The manual has been written for the many people who in different ways provide direct assistance to women who survive gender-based violence and trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts, where helpers have limited or no access to specialized health services.
Watch the different tutorials, read the GBV training manual and answer the final paper of reflection to apply for a certificate. Send us an e-mail post@hhri.org with your qualifications and let us know that you have submitted your answer.
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How to be a good helper?
What is a good helper in your community? What are the tools we already use and what are the new tools we can acquire from the manual.
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free. The manual is also available inArabic, Russian and Spanish. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
View the original newsletter here.
Boletín en Español
Newsletter No. 1 April 2019
Overview of content
- Transitional justice and mental health
- Further reading on transitional justice
- Download the HHRI GBV manual
- Upcoming Events

Dear friends and colleagues
Transitional justice and mental health
“We want to know the truth. Who ordered the killings of my family and the people in my village?” Legitimate questions from Marino Cordoba, a Human rights defender and a social leader from Riosucio in Colombia. These were some of the expectations that the truth commission was met with, when set to work in Colombia in December 2018.
The question is of course – will the people of Colombia be provided with the full truth through the work of the truth commission? Few of us are in doubt as to the importance of transitional processes in situations following a conflict, when peace agreements are signed, and the reconstruction of society is needed. As part of such processes, truth commissions, investigations and legal procedures, as well as different forms of reparations, are vital. In this context, forgiveness, in addition to reconciliation, is often described as important parts of this.
But what does it take for those who have lost and suffered, to forgive, or to reconcile with persons formerly seen as enemies or even oppressors? What role does the truth commission play in this? It is evident that people have the right to know, but it is not always so clear that truth alone provides the sense of restoration that the victims and survivors are looking for and that the peace process requires when a conflict is over.

As a means of supporting victims and as a way for them to move forward, the role of the truth commissions and their effects have been much debated. Pathak also underlines that the budget often allocated to the commissions and the amount defined for reparations to the victims, are usually very inadequate, and the lack of official policies and inadequate legislation and regulations to govern these processes, are factors that can jeopardies these important and needed processes.
Hayes in Hamber (2007) claims that “Revealing is not simply healing; the process of healing depends on how we reveal, the context of the revealing, and what it is that we are revealing”. The truth may be a collection of past events, consisting of different interpretations and recollection of what happened. It is vital that victims, the survivors and those participating in the transitional processes consider these as fair and just, and that those involved are met with respect and in a dignified manner in order for them not to be revictimized in the process. These are some of the important issues that must be taken into consideration when working with victims engaging in truth commissions.
Please have a look at the links below and at our thematic page on transitional justice for more information related to the topic.
Further reading on transitional justice
A Comparative Study of World’s Truth Commissions: From Madness to Hope
Pathak 2017
Truth Commissions have been established, are being established and will be established based primarily on three notions: Let’s forget the victims to forgive the perpetrators; let’s not forget the victims and forgive the perpetrators; and let’s not forget the victims and not forgive the perpetrators, too. These notions apply to both restorative and retributive justices.
To Prosecute or Not to Prosecute: The Need for Justice in Post-Conflict Sri Lanka
Since the mid-1970s, social psychologists and legal scholars have surveyed people around the world who have participated in judicial proceedings involving crimes committed in domestic jurisdictions to understand what it is about such processes that lead participants to consider them fair or unfair, and ultimately to accept or reject the outcome of such proceedings. Almost universally, these procedural justice studies have found that witnesses define a “fair process” as one that is based largely on three criteria described; benevolence, the degree to which they perceive that the court officials, from judges to social workers, care about them and their experiences; neutrality, the extent to which they have been able to talk about their experiences in a neutral and unbiased forum; and respect, the extent to which they have been treated in a professional and dignified manner.
El Espectador 2018
“We hope we can contribute to Colombia seeking the truth in a sincere, transparent way, which is a public good and is the responsibility of all of us in Colombia. We hope to contribute in depth with our communication and pedagogy and with the Casas de la Verdad that we are starting to open in different regions in the form of a mobile team with the communities,” he said in an interview with the Justice for Peace chapter of Colombia 2020.
From a psychological (psychoanalytic) perspective, sleeping dogs do not lie and past traumas do not simply pass or disappear with the passage of time; but testimony and telling (and hearing) the truth will not instantaneously result in healing (Hamber, 1995;1998a). Revealing is not simply healing; the process of healing depends on how we reveal, the context of the revealing, and what it is that we are revealing (Hayes, 1998). In the final report of the TRC, the Commission acknowledges the healing potential of storytelling, whilst noting that it initiated more than it closed when it came to individual healing (TRC, 1998).
For sale Ruthledge
This book addresses current developments in transitional justice in Latin America – effectively the first region to undergo concentrated transitional justice experiences in modern times. Using a comparative approach, it examines trajectories in truth, justice, reparations, and amnesties in countries emerging from periods of massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law. The book examines the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, developing and applying a common analytical framework to provide a systematic, qualitative and comparative analysis of their transitional justice experiences. More specifically, the book investigates to what extent there has been a shift from impunity towards accountability for past human rights violations in Latin America.
Download the HHRI GBV manual
Download the manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict for free. The manual is also available inArabic, Russian and Spanish. This training material has been written for those who provide assistance and support to women who survive gender-based violence and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts. Furthermore, we hope it may be helpful as well to those who work with gender-based violence survivors in other settings. Please share the manual and spread it among your colleagues, organizations or in your community.
2018
View the original newsletter here.
Newsletter No. 6 December 2018
Overview of content
- Survivors and their right to rehabilitation
- Refurbished HHRI website
- Download the HHRI GBV manual
- Upcoming Events
Nobel Peace Laureates Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad. Illustration- Niklas Elmehed. Copyright- Nobel Media AB 2018.
Dear friends and colleagues,
Survivors and their right to rehabilitation
We congratulate Nadia Murad and Dennis Mukwege warmly as this years’ Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. This great prize was awarded to these brave individuals in Oslo, December 10. Their tireless efforts to put the survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) in war and armed conflict high up on the international agenda, finally succeeded and the world could focus on the hard and brutal reality that women and children in war and conflict face in many places. Both laureates spoke strongly about the atrocities that civilians are exposed to, in particular women and children. They were likewise clear in the claim for justice and reparation for the survivors.
The director of HHRI´s Board, Nora Sveaass, who was awarded ‘s the University of Oslo Human Rights Prize this year, under-lined the importance of this year’s peace prize and that it will, hopefully, bear fruits long into the future:
“The hope is that this year Nobel Peace Prize will strengthen the work of preventing and ending sexual violence against women – both in war and in peacetime. That this prize will contribute so that the responsible perpetrators will be punished, and that the vulnerable women receive the recognition they need as survivors of brutal human rights violations, and that the obligations and promises to provide them the support and assistance they need in terms of rehabilitation, mentally, physically as well as socially, be realised in practice.”
The availability of redress to survivors of GBV after what they have suffered, constitute an important step in re-establishing their dignity and integrity. Recognizing the violations as serious crimes that must be addressed through truth and justice seeking, may form an important platform in the lives of survivors. Both justice and truth must be combined with reparation in form of rehabilitation, such as care and support with regard to physical, psychological or social needs through a wide range of services. The right to a remedy and reparation is articulated as an integrated right that consists of access to justice, reparation, including economic compensation, and rehabilitation.
We have, pursuant to the adoption of General Comment no 3, to article 14 of the Convention Against Torture (https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/GC/CAT-C-GC-3.pdf), been particularly aware of the importance of ensuring psychological support to survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence, both immediately after the violence, if possible, and as part of a more long term reparation. On this note we remind our readers of the HHRI -GBV manual developed to assist helpers who meet victims of these crimes in situations where specialized services may be scarce. See more information on our manual below.
Refurbished HHRI website
We are also delighted to introduce to you our refurbished and updated website. Our wish is that you will find the new website more intuitive to use and that you easily will find what you are looking for.
Our site contains of three sections where we share information about human right violations and mental health in war and conflict areas.
The Data base: Here you will be able to search for publications by name of publication, by author, by tags or organisation.
The Thematic pages: cover the core topics of mental health and human rights violations in disaster, war, and conflict areas, under relevant headlines.
Our Newsletters: are written with a thematic focus. You will find links according to the content of our theme.
Please try it out and give us some feedback.
Download the HHRI GBV manual
The training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict also known as “HHRI GBV Manual” is a tool on approaches and techniques that address the psychological needs of survivors of gender-based violence. It is a tool to approach survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence in contexts of disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with psychological or psychiatric expertise usually is very limited.
The Arabic, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish versions of our training manual is available for free. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail (post@hhri.org) explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual it. Please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page.
Human Rights Defender in English and Spanish
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View the original newsletter here.
Dear friends and colleagues,We have gathered some links for those who work with survivors of the Indonesian Earthquake.
“This natural disaster will create untold mental health consequences – not just for the survivors who live and work in the communities and villages that were in the centre of earthquake. This is truly a global natural and human disaster. Yet, the major and continuing task to address the disaster’s aftermath will fall on volunteers and professionals living and working in extremely difficult conditions in Nepal. Their jobs will remain the most difficult and most wrenching, long after the television news teams are gone, and the world’s attention moves to new events and occurrences. Mental health professionals and volunteers, of all the relief workers, have some of the hardest and longest lasting work ahead of them”.
General information on the situation in Indonesia
- Humanitarian response Indonesia
The HumanitarianResponse.info platform is provided to the humanitarian community by OCHA as a mean to help responders coordinate their work on the ground. Here you will find updated information on Indonesia. Situation analysis provided by UN OCHA to support humanitarian operations globally and are continuously updated. - Day to day report
Offers day to day information about the situation in Palu and the surrounding areas. Says something about the situation before the latest earthquake on the 28th September, next will be issues the 29th September. - Humanity First International Situation Report – Report No. 001 7.4M Earthquake Sulawesi, Indonesia 30.09.2018
- SITUATION UPDATE No. 3 – Sulawesi Earthquake – 01 October 2018
- The Mental Health & Psychosocial Network – Earthquake Response
A A public group for sharing updates, resources and coordination information relevant to the 28th September Earthquake in Indonesia.
Guidelines for relief workers
- HHRI thematic page on disaster
A webpage with useful links to guidelines on disaster. By definition is a disaster a tragedy of a natural or human-made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. Often developing countries suffer much greater costs when a disaster hits because these countries are much more vulnerable, and have less appropriate disaster management measures. Earthquakes, floods, volcano eruptions and man-made disasters, can cause – in addition to all damages on the infrastructure – significant psychological and social suffering to the population that has been affected. The psychological and social impacts of disasters may be acute in the short term, but they can also undermine the long-term mental health and psychosocial well-being of the affected population. - Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
IASC 2008
These guidelines reflect the insights of practitioners from different geographic regions, disciplines and sectors, and reflect an emerging consensus on good practice among practitioners. The core idea behind them is that, in the early phase of an emergency, social supports are essential to protect and support mental health and psychosocial well-being (191 pages pdf). - The National Child Traumatic Stress Network gives you information on how to help children in a situation of earthquake
These pages covers the impact on Children and Families during emergencies. - Guidelines for integrating gender-based violence interventions in humanitarian action
IASC 2015 We also know that in times of crises and disaster there is an increased level of violence, in particular in gender based violence (GBV) . GBV is a serious problem in the context of complex emergencies and natural disasters where normal structures of society are seriously affected and alternative safeguards not yet in place. Women and children are often targets of abuse, and are the most vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and abuse simply because of their gender, age, and status in society. Women and girls that are displaced from their home will often experience multiple traumatic experiences. - Managing distress about earthquakes from afar – Guidelines for Good Practice
For mental health workers empathy is an essential aspect of good help. This is also a source for compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatisation or secondary traumatic stress (STS). Early recognition and awareness is crucial to be resilient to these symptoms. Awareness of this is important for workers in areas of conflict and disaster, and in extreme environments such as these, people may be more vulnerable to secondary traumatization. We also know that professionals under this kind of stress may be at risk to perform less efficiently and not perform as they would normally do. (Antares Foundation, for more languages) - Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
WHO (2007) These guidelines reflect the insights of practitioners from different geographic regions, disciplines and sectors, and reflect an emerging consensus on good practice among practitioners. The core idea behind them is that, in the early phase of an emergency, social supports are essential to protect and support mental health and psychosocial well-being. - Managing Traumatic Stress: Tips for Recovering From Natural Disasters
APA Help Center (2005)
When a natural disaster affects a community, the resulting trauma can reverberate even with those not directly affected by the disaster.
Disasters of this type can be sudden and overwhelming. In addition to the often catastrophic toll on lives and property, a disaster like a tsunami(tidal wave), hurricane or fire can have an impact on those who have lost loved ones and even those who feel more vulnerable as a result of learning about the disaster. - Inter-Agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and separated children
Children separated from their parents and families because of conflict, population displacement or natural disasters are among the most vulnerable. Separated from those closest to them, these children have lost the care and protection of their families in the turmoil, just when they most need them. They face abuse and exploitation, and even their very survival may be threatened. They may assume adult responsibilities, such as protecting and caring for younger sisters and brothers. Children and adolescents who have lost all that is familiar – home, family, friends, stability – are potent symbols of the dramatic impact of humanitarian crises on individual lives.
Download the HHRI GBV manual
The training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict also known as “HHRI GBV Manual” is a tool on approaches and techniques that address the psychological needs of survivors of gender-based violence. It is a tool to approach survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence in contexts of disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with psychological or psychiatric expertise usually is very limited.
The Arabic, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish versions of our training manual is available for free. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail (post@hhri.org) explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual it. Please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page.
View the original newsletter here.
Newsletter No 3 2018 September 5th
Overview of content:
- Challenges for local staff
- Further reading on challenges for local staff
- Are you familiar with HHRI GBV manual?
- Upcoming events
Challenges for local staff
Dear friends and colleagues,
There has been little focus on the consequences of the stress and hardships that local staff members working in natural disasters, war and conflicts situations are exposed to. Even though local staff far outnumber foreign NGO workers and often constitute the majority of the workforce in many humanitarian organizations and NGOs, they are given little of the benefits. Health care, psychological support, medical evaluation, salaries and other benefits, organizational support structures, and security policies—are often less available for local compared with the foreign staff. So – how does local staff handle their psychological wellbeing during and after conflicts or emergencies?
According to Eriksson, Bjorck, & Abernethy, 2003 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4834541/) much of the challenge of local staff lies in the day-to-day stressors or difficulties that they are facing on a daily basis. Exposure to such chronic stressors may often inflict on their mental health. The local staff is frequently left to cater for their own needs related to psychological reactions to what they experience at work. Effective self-care requires ongoing awareness and practice. We will argue that the Humanitarian agencies and NGOs should develop routines to raise awareness of reactions to stress and the impact it has on their staff and ways to cope. Through a process of continual attentiveness to their level of stress, the staff will be able to identify and implement appropriate stress management techniques. By observing the effectiveness of such techniques, they will be better equipped to select those tools that are the most effective for themselves in
specific situations.
Humanitarian workers, local as well as foreign, often work in unstable and insecure environments. Their work often brings them into contact with human suffering and misery. Visits to places of detention, shelters for survivors of human trafficking and villages destroyed by armed violence are deeply marking experiences that can potentially traumatize workers if not handled properly.
We will also argue that there may be particular risks for the local staff, and many may struggle with fears for their personal safety, as possible targets of violence. Work associated with human rights related issues are in many places met with reprisals (https://www.upr-info.org/sites/default/files/general-document/pdf/2017_01_24_guideline_on_reprisals_web_version.pdf) and threats in order to scare them away or silence them from the work they are doing. This includes persons who are working to defend human rights locally or participate in international conferences and meetings, including those organized by the United Nations. Such reactions and threats are unacceptable and must be protested on a national as well as international level. During the last years, there has been stronger focus on the risk of reprisals to persons engaged in human rights work, and important initiatives have been taken – see overview over relevant resolutions and guidelines below.
When all this is said, we must not forget that the work that helpers, local staff and humanitarian workers continue to do every day, has rewarding or positive aspects to the workers themselves. According to David Gangsei (http://www.healtorture.org/sites/healtorture.org/files/Vicarious%20Trauma%2C%20Vicarious%20Resilience%20and%20Self-Care%20-%20Gangsei.pdf) , a clinical psychologist who has worked for 30 years in the field of rehabilitation for torture survivors.
“As with vicarious trauma, awareness is a key factor in vicarious resilience because when we know such an experience exists we are more likely to recognize and benefit from it. Vicarious resilience specifically recognizes the value of observing resilience in our trauma-survivor clients. This is not only noticing positive dimensions of trauma work, although that is important. It’s how bearing witness to our clients’ resilience can change how we are, not just as therapists, but as persons in our own lives, dealing with our own sorrows and challenges.”
Further reading on challenges for local staff
Guidelines for the prevention and management of vicarious trauma among researchers of sexual and intimate partner violence
Sexual Violence Research Initiative 2015
These guidelines outline recommendations for the prevention of, and response to, vicarious trauma in researchers working in the field of sexual and intimate partner violence but can also be of use and relevance to those researching other sensitive topics including other forms of gender-based violence.
Using the Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) Core Competencies in Trauma-Informed Supervision NCTSN
Quality supervision is an important support that organizations can provide to staff members at risk of developing secondary traumatic stress, and The field hasn’t defined what comprises “quality supervision” in the context of secondary trauma support. The STS Supervisory Competencies is a tool that individuals and organizations can use as a benchmark of the competencies needed to provide effective STS supervision and is also a map to resources that can help address gaps in those competencies.
Vicarious trauma and staff support
Alicia Boccellari, Ph.D. and Stacey Wiggall, LCSW 2017
The Trauma Recovery Center model incorporates special attention to the risk of vicarious trauma—a combination of emotions and attitudes that can render staff incapable of effectively helping survivors of trauma. This chapter describes vicarious trauma and discusses how team culture, staffing, training, and institutionalizing support for staff can prevent the effects of vicarious trauma from undermining a program’s effectiveness.
Headington Institute
This institute provides a collaborative network of mental health professionals offering a variety of services to humanitarian workers. The aim is to provide psychological and spiritual support for humanitarian relief and development workers worldwide. It offers training programs/also e-learning, counseling, debriefing etc.
Antares Foundation
This is a non-profit organization, its mission is to improve the quality of management and staff support and care in humanitarian and developmental organizations.
Manual on human rights monitoring – trauma and self-care
OHCHR 2011 from page 20
Reading about stress management is only the first step in building resilience to stress. Successful stress management requires a commitment to the regular practice of stress reduction skills, even during periods of relative calm. Managers must fulfil their responsibilities by creating and maintaining a healthy work environment and by helping their staff manage stress.
Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare Practice: Trauma-Informed Guidelines for Organizations
Chadwick Trauma-Informed Systems Dissemination and Implementation Project 2016.
Child welfare workers not only experience an indirect connection with trauma, hearing the stories and seeing the effects of trauma on children and families, but they are also in the position to potentially experience and witness trauma directly as they intervene with potentially volatile family situations. These guidelines are not intended to be used as a checklist. The information provided is grounded in theory and in the fledgling research in this area. New research continues to come to the forefront and the field continues to learn more about the impacts of trauma exposure on helping professionals and ways to intervene.
Vicarious Trauma, Vicarious Resilience and Self-Care
David Gangsei
This essay examines the phenomenon of vicarious trauma, its impact on those who work with traumatized clients and the importance of self-care.
Reprisals guidelines for participants of the UPR Info precessions
UPR-INFO 2017
The purpose of this handbook is to share information to make sure that human rights defenders and others exposed to reprisals will understand the risks they could face due their engagement in the promotion of human rights, and what means are available to protect themselves in case of intimidation and reprisals.
Helping the helpers HHRI thematic page (http://www.hhri.org/thematic/helping_helpers.html)
A selection of links related to the topic helping the helpers
Are you familiar with HHRI GBV manual?
The training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict also known as “HHRI GBV Manual” is a tool on approaches and techniques that address the psychological needs of survivors of gender-based violence. It is a tool to approach survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence in contexts of disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with psychological or psychiatric expertise usually is very limited.
The Arabic, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish versions of our training manual is available for free. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail (post@hhri.org) explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual it. Please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page.
View the original newsletter here.
Newsletter No 2 2018 June 20th
Overview of content:
- Torture in the Context of Migration
- Further reading on Torture in the Context of Migration
- Manual for stabilisation and skills training after traumatic events (#Manual for stabilisation and skills training after traumatic events)
- Are you familiar with HHRI GBV manual?
- Upcoming events
- Enforced disappearance
Torture in the Context of Migration
Dear friends and colleagues,
“I recently visited an immigration removal centre for men – not as an MP,
but as a normal visitor, under the radar. The reality is brutal.”
Kate Osamor, Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Edmonton, Canada
As the International Day on Support of Victims of Torture- June 26 approaches, HHRI wishes to expose the global relevance of Torture in the Context of Migration. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced from home. Worldwide nearly 20 people are forcibly displaced every minute, many of them fleeing from torture, violent conflict, persecution and repressive regimes.
Asylum seekers present a serious challenge for asylum authorities who, generally, are poorly prepared to receive and support overwhelming numbers of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. In this context, torture victims do not receive the support they need, nor are assisted in the way they should, given the lack of systematic procedures to identify survivors of torture, which is key to prevent further physical and mental health harm. Without identification, there is no referral to urgently needed rehabilitation services, and survivors may risk being placed in immigration detention. This is something that often endangers the already vulnerable situation of the individuals and their families.
Identification of survivors of torture is essential for refugee status determination. It is critical that physical and psychological signs of torture are assessed and documented, as part of the asylum procedure. Torture survivors struggling with torture related trauma should be provided with flexible processes suited to assess their protection claims. These procedures should assess both somatic and mental health problems, such as: depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and suicidal thoughts, which should be addressed as part of rehabilitation services to enable them to live in safety.
In this regard, since July 2015, EU Member States shall ensure and support torture victims who apply for asylum, (https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/asylum/reception-conditions_en) as specified by the directive 2013/33/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 26 June 2013, standards for the reception of applicants for international protection (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013L0033&from=EN) . This directive includes specific recommendations to provide torture victims with adequate reception conditions, special procedural guarantees, the possibility of having their torture claims documented and treatment for the damage caused by torture.
Ultimately, a well-placed identification process will stablish the bases for redress and reparation of torture survivors. In particular, it is important to note that the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – also known as the Istanbul Protocol (https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/training8Rev1en.pdf) , has been developed to serve as a set of international guidelines for the assessment of persons who allege torture and ill treatment, for investigating cases of alleged torture, and for reporting such findings to the judiciary and any other investigative body. Health professionals all over the world have a special obligation to ensure that torture survivors are received in ways that provide them with health care as well as documentations of torture related problems, both to substantiate protection needs, and enable rights to redress.
Further reading on Torture in the Context of Migration
Sudden and unexpected family separation, can lead to emotional trauma in children,
American Psychological Association (APA), open letter to President Trump
Decades of psychological research have determined that it is in the best interest of the child and the family to keep families together. Families fleeing their homes to seek sanctuary are already under a tremendous amount of stress. Sudden and unexpected family separation, such as separating families at the border, can add to that stress, leading to emotional trauma in children.
New standards on support and protection for torture victims in the context of migration,
In the beginning of 2018, the UN Committee against Torture and the Special Rapporteur on Torture published updated standards on support and protection for torture victims in the context of migration. These standards draw extensively on IRCT’s health-based expertise and knowledge about how to ensure a trauma informed approach to asylum procedures and reception of refugees.
Torture Victims in the Context of Migration: Identification, Redress and Rehabilitation,
Migration is part of who we are as a human species. Since the dawn of time, people have. Today, there are more people on the move than ever before. Many flee their homes because they have no other choice. They are in flight from extreme poverty, economic or political instability, generalized violence, gender inequality or other forms of discrimination. There is often a perilous and precarious migration journey ahead. Many run the risk of losing their own lives and those of their loved ones in the hope of finding safety and security.
Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Humanitarian or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
1. 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…
EU Migration and Home Affairs – Reception conditions,
Directive also provides particular attention to vulnerable persons, especially unaccompanied minors and victims of torture. Member States must, inter alia, conduct an individual assessment in order to identify the special reception needs of vulnerable persons and to ensure that vulnerable asylum seekers can access medical and psychological support.
(Chapter six) UNHCR Resettlement Submission Categories,
UNHCR resettlement activities constitute a means of providing international protection and appropriate durable solutions to refugees. As seen in previous chapters of this Handbook, offering refugees a durable solution through resettlement is also a tangible expression of international responsibility sharing.
Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors,
The resource kit is produced by the IRCT, the umbrella organisation for more than 140 independent international torture rehabilitation centres promoting and supporting torture rehabilitation and working for the prevention of torture worldwide. This resource kit is produced as part of a three-year project entitled “Developing the Capacity of IRCT Member Centres to Deliver Holistic Torture Rehabilitation Services through South-South and South-North Peer Supervision and Support”.
Ensuring torture victims’ 17 rights in the global compact,
Torture has devastating consequences for victims, their families and the broader community. Its severe physical and psychological effects disrupt the lives of victims and often prevent them from continuing their life plan. Clients at IRCT member centres describe their experiences after torture as living in an empty shell, being in a prison without bars, and being unable to imagine a future.
Falling Through the Cracks, Asylum Procedures and Reception Conditions for Torture Victims in the European Union,
Torture victims are not receiving the specialised support they need to get better and to engage effectively with the asylum process. One reason for this is that most EU Member States, including the eight countries featured in this report, do not have a procedure for systematic identification of torture victims in the asylum procedure. This key issue has a range of negative consequences on the individual, such as deteriorating physical and mental health and flawed consideration of their asylum claim.
Victims of torture: Identification and follow up (presentation),
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment.
Universal declaration art. 5; International Covenant on CPR, art.7; European HR convention, art. 3; UN convention against torture, 1- 16.
I’m an MP, and I visited an immigration detention centre undercover – what I discovered was shocking,
I recently visited an immigration removal center for men – not as an MP, but as a normal visitor, under the radar. The reality is brutal. The UK is the only EU country that does not set a specific time limit on immigration detention. Knowing that their detention could be indefinite damages the mental health of those in detention.
Manual for stabilisation and skills training after traumatic events (#Manual for stabilisation and skills training after traumatic events)
By Torunn Støren, Sveinung Odland and Helen Johnsen Christie (2018)
We would like to introduce this helpful stabilisation manual that has been developed to help stabilise symptoms in people who have experienced traumatic events. Their need is first of all to obtain skills to deal with their symptoms. They need to recognise that the painful events are no longer happening, to acquire a sense of safety in the present and to gain more perceived control over thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. The manual can be used as a first-stage intervention prior to processing traumatic events. The manual was written after NKVTS (Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies) published findings from the study of survivors from the massacre on Utøya, Norway on 22 July 2011. The study found that many of the victims continued to have sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, somatic disorders, traumatic grief, withdrawal and loss of interest in day-to-day activities. The manual is also
suitable for different kinds of trauma. The different themes of the manual are:
• Post-traumatic symptoms
• Difficulties sleeping
• Concentration
• Triggers, different types
• Triggers, handling
• Emotions
• Mindfulness
• Identity and meaning
• Grief
Are you familiar with HHRI GBV manual?
The training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict (http://www.hhri.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/HHRI_EN_GBV.pdf) also known as “HHRI GBV Manual” is a tool on approaches and techniques that address the psychological needs of survivors of gender-based violence. It is a tool to approach survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence in contexts of disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with psychological or psychiatric expertise usually is very limited.
The Arabic, (https://www.hhri.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hhri_web_AR_HR.pdf) Russian (https://www.hhri.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/HHRI_RU_GBV.pdf) and Spanish (https://www.hhri.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/hhri_es_v2.pdf) versions of our training manual is available for free. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail (post@hhri.org) explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual it. Please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page. (https://www.hhri.org/gbv-training-manual/)
Dear friends and colleagues“Victims are put through the wringer of having their credibility questioned, their integrity questioned, their behavior questioned, so that they are the focus of the investigation rather than the offender’s behavior.”
Rebecca Campbell, Community Psychologist, Michigan State University
As the International Women´s Day approaches, HHRI wishes to call the attention to the need for greater awareness and understanding as to the characteristics of traumatic memory, and the necessity of taking this information into consideration in the different situations in which victims are questioned about violations and threats, that is as part of medical examination, in public courts, at college campuses and by media. By educating personnel engaged in this kind of work on trauma and memory those who speak up and report the assault may hopefully have a better chance of being listened to and having a fair trial.
What may seem as discrepancies in the survivor´s testimony often reinforce the prevailing tendency to doubt sexual assault victims. Trauma survivors frequently have fragmented recollections and difficulty with some of the details. This can sometimes make it difficult for the person to tell the story in a consistent way. It is therefore of essence to understand that the victim may be trying to make coherence out of an incredibly disorganized and painful set of elements and experiences.
To understand the mechanics of how memories may seemingly become inconsistent, we must know the way the brain functions in response to trauma. The intense fear that comes from experiencing a traumatic event, alerts the victim of a threat to her survival. This immediately, and without any conscious deliberation, activates the amygdala —an area of the “older” brain involved in both fear processing and stress response. When the amygdala starts sending out alerts, humans —as well as animals— go into survival mode, putting the brain and body on high alert. These reactions are automatic responses, and include both hormonal and behavioral patterns, but may also have some individual variation.
When a person is in this state of high stress, it is natural to focus her attention on the most immediate aspect of the threat —at the expense of other details—. Therefore, the peripheral details fade away, in terms of our attention. Extreme stress may in some individuals, especially in those who have been traumatized several times at an early age, lead to a form of stress reaction where the person “disconnects”, that is, psychologically, escapes the situation and thus becomes less aware and attentive. This is often termed “dissociation”, and describes the situation with low level of consciousness, indicating less likelihood that information be encoded in the way it would otherwise be. This has an impact on what we are able to recall after the event has taken place, it diminishes our memory of the traumatic event.
What further aggravates the situation is what is termed “mental avoidance”, that is, the tendency to avoid anything that resembles or triggers the traumatic event. This means avoidance of activities, places and thoughts about the event. This is also one of the “hallmarks” of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. Fragmented memories and difficulties in recalling memories, must be understood in the context of dissociation, physiological reactions and avoidance. The problems that victims may face in such situations, and their difficulties in replying “adequately” to questions during trials, may be the reason for which they are discredited or disbelieved.
By being aware of how human memory often functions in the aftermath of traumatic events, —including the pain involved in revisiting such events for the victim—, is vital for law enforcement, family members, friends and others involved with survivors. This may contribute to a better understanding and reduce risk of additional stressors in relation to narrating difficult experiences.
As a closing remark, the most important take-home lesson —from work with women who have survived severe human rights abuses and are facing challenges in the care system as well as in the legal system—, is the following: for a fair process to take place, a good dialogue, room for listening and exploring in respectful ways, and showing respect to the dignity and integrity of the person subjected to violence, are of utmost importance.
And finally, our main focus must always be on the prevention of such violence, on combating that these abuses happen and on the process of holding those responsible to account.
Further Reading on Fair Trials for Survivors of Rape
- Tonic immobility during sexual assault – a common reaction predicting post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression.
Anna Möller, Hans Peter Söndergaard, Lotti Helström June, 2017
Active resistance is considered to be the ‘normal’ reaction during rape. However, studies have indicated that similar to animals, humans exposed to extreme threat may react with a state of involuntary, temporary motor inhibition known as tonic immobility. The aim of the present study was to assess the occurrence of tonic immobility during rape and subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression. - The impact of trauma on the brain, experience, behavior and memory
Jim Hopper, Ph.D., April, 2016
This article provides an introduction to the impact of trauma on memory and recollection, including how traumatic events may affect an individual’s ability to recall or give proper sequence to details, including information that an objective observer (and even the victim/survivor/complainant) would deem vital and seemingly “unforgettable.” - Animation (video) – Trauma and the Brain: Understanding abuse survivors responses NHS Lanarkshire
Abuse is a traumatic experience. When a person experiences abuse, their responses to protect them – in the short and longer term – are instinctive. Knowing how and why means that you can recognise these responses and be more effective in what you do. - Sexual Assault & the Brain
Jim Hopper
Why are memories of sexual assault so often fragmentary and confusing? The answer has big implications for people who’ve been sexually assaulted, for those who investigate and prosecute such crimes, and for everyone else who knows or works with someone who’s been sexually assaulted. - Transcript “The Neurobiology of Sexual Assault”
Rebecca Campbell, Ph.D. December, 2012
Dr. Campbell discuss the research on the neurobiology of trauma and the criminal justice system response to sexual assault. She will explain the underlying neurobiology of traumatic events, its emotional and physical manifestation, and how these processes can impact the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault. - What Sexual Assault Does To The Brain
Carolyne Gregoire, The Huffington Post. Dec. 2014
There are more complications to proper recall: “We may become hyper focused on what we perceive to be the threatening stimuli,” said Lisak. “Very often when we become focused on that, we lose attention to everything else. So the peripheral details really fade away in terms of our attention. That has an impact on what we recall after the fact.” - Prosecuting sexual assault: ‘Raped all over again’
The Guardian. April, 2013
The process of telling a crowded court what had happened to her was profoundly upsetting. ” You don’t have to bring back the memories – they don’t go away – but it is difficult to talk about them because of the shame you feel as a victim.” - How Brain Science Can Help Explain Discrepancies in a Sexual Assault Survivor’s Story
Cognitive Neuroscience Society, December 2014
The rate of false report in sexual violence is actually low, estimated by most studies to be around 7 percent (to compare, this is considerably lower than the rate of insurance fraud). Moreover, research shows that sexual violence is in fact underreported. - Why Rape and Trauma Survivors Have Fragmented and Incomplete Memories
James Hopper and David Lisak, December 2014
In states of high stress, fear or terror like combat and sexual assault, the prefrontal cortex is impaired– sometimes even effectively shut down– by a surge of stress chemicals. - The Neuroscience of Trauma from Sexual Assault
Cognitive Neuroscience Society, May 2015
A relatively new area of the literature on human response to trauma, particularly the trauma experienced during sexual violence, is that of “tonic immobility.” Defined as self-paralysis, or as the inability to move even when not forcibly restrained, tonic immobility has long been studied in non-human animals as the “freeze” response to extreme stress.
Are you familiar with HHRI GBV manual?
The training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict also known as “HHRI GBV Manual” is a tool on approaches and techniques that address the psychological needs of survivors of gender-based violence. It is a tool to approach survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence in contexts of disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with psychological or psychiatric expertise usually is very limited.
The Arabic, Russian and Spanish versions of our training manual is available for free. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual it. Please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page.
2017
Dear friends and colleagues“Women and girls who risk sexual violence as they flee their home countries are getting contraceptive injections as a precautionary measure. For someone to know that they are at such risk of sexual violence, and yet they are determined to continue on that journey.”
Hillary Margolis, New York-based Human Rights Watch
Migrant and refugee women and girls are at risk of sexual violence throughout their entire journey, on their way to find refuge or reunite with their beloved ones. A study from 2014 estimated that around 21% of women in 14 conflict countries reported sexual violence.According to the UNHCR many women and girls who are fleeing their homes because of fear of being sexually assaulted, still encounter that same fate on their journey to freedom. For instance, there are estimations that up to 80% of women and girls from Central America crossing Mexico into the US have been raped.
Rape, often occurs in combination with physical, emotional or socio-economic violence and the lack of information and unnecessary detention also put migrating women at increased risk for sexual violence. According to a study conducted in 2012, 66.3% of female migrants, including refugees, have experienced sexual violence after having entered Europe. Furthermore, such acts were often perpetrated by European professionals or citizens. This is in stark contrast to the 11% lifetime prevalence of sexual violence in European girls and women aged over 15 and indicates the possible magnitude of the issue of sexual violence against refugee and migrant women in Europe.
And we should never forget that sexual violence is also directed towards men and boys before, during or after migration -including detention-. In general, there have been less focus on this form of violence against men and, when it is addressed, it is described or defined as torture, as it may happen as part of interrogation, arrest or punishment. Methods of torture, inflicted both on women and men, often attack sexuality as this may have particular serious repercussions on those who are victimized (Genefke, I.K. 1986.)
Despite various reports calling for action and for better ways of addressing the survivors acute; situation and condition, no comprehensive response is in place, limited assistance is provided, and the problem often not recognized by aid workers. Moreover, a weak coordination between government and humanitarian actors and language barriers challenge a gender-sensitive response. Thus, referral to relevant GBV services where mental health support and information about their rights is hardly provided. As a consequence of poor protective measures, people remain in unsafe passages to their destiny with limited or no assistance to reunite with their families. This increases the risk of exploitation by traffickers and smugglers.
Sexual violence can result in unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and can adversely affect the mental health of those exposed to this form of violence, leading to post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. In addition, stigma and shame associated with rape, in many cultures, can lead to underreporting of cases, social rejection, suicide or murder of women and girls by family or community members.
Those subjected to sexual violence require immediate emotional and physical health support and protection. Sexual violence guidelines specific for migrants and refugees recommend confidentiality, providing safety and protection from further suffering, as well as acting in the best interest and according to the wishes of the victim.
Further reading on rape within the migration journey
- Gender-Based Violence against Women: Both Cause for Migration and Risk along the Journey
Migration Policy institute 2017
Each year, countless women and children flee violence at home and take an uncertain journey in the hope of finding safety in a new country. While many escape conflict zones or generalized human-rights abuses, some also run from more intimate forms of violence—namely, sexual and domestic violence perpetrated by men. Setting off on the journey is no guarantee of safety; many are vulnerable to gender-based abuse in transit and even at destination. - Women migrants fearing rape take contraceptives before journey – rights groups
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2017
Women migrants fleeing wars, political instability and poverty are taking contraceptives in the expectation of being raped but are so desperate they still embark on the journey, a human rights group said on Wednesday. - Women in detention: a guide to gender-sensitive monitoring
Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), 2017
In this paper, “Women in detention” is addressed to monitoring bodies responsible for the external scrutiny of places of deprivation of liberty. It outlines the risks faced by women deprived of their liberty of being subjected to torture and ill-treatment and measures that can be taken to reduce such risks. - Sexual violence against refugee women on the move to and within Europe
WHO European Region, 2017
The objective of this overview is to present the issue of sexual violence (SV) against refugee women and girls and to discuss countermeasures that have been suggested or initiated by the Member States of the WHO European Region and national nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) between January 2015 and May 2016. A literature review was undertaken using Google scholar, the WHO publication database and a cross-search of journal databases. - I didn´t Have Anywhere to Run: Migrant Women Are Facing a Rape Epidemic
Anna-Cat Brigida, 2016
An estimated 60 to 80 percent of female migrants from Central America are sexually assaulted on their journey—and perpetrators often act with total impunity. As thousands of Central American women weigh the risks of migrating to the US each year, they must take into account an extra peril: An estimated 80 percent of female migrants from Central America are victims of sexual abuse at the hands of criminal groups, human smugglers, or corrupt officials during the journey. - New report: women refugees at risk in Europe
Novel´s Women Initiative, 2015
The report finds that women are vulnerable a bottleneck points along the route, and even more vulnerable when they reach reception centres that do not have secure and separate sleeping areas for women. Women also experience sexual violence at alarming rates and there is currently 100% impunity for gender-based crimes committed against refugee women. High numbers of refugee women are pregnant with no access to pre- or post-natal care. - INITIAL ASSESSMENT REPORT: Protection Risks for Women and Girls in the European Refugee and Migrant Crisis
UNCHR, 2015
For the first time since World War II, Europe is experiencing a massive movement of refugees and migrants, women, girls, men and boys of all ages, fleeing armed conflicts, mass killings, persecution and pervasive sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Many seek refuge in Europe from the ongoing armed conflicts that have torn apart their societies, and are entitled to protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention, its subsequent Protocol, and other international instruments. - 80% of Central American women and girls are raped crossing to the US
IMPACT, September 2014
According to a stunning Fusion investigation, 80 percent of women and girls crossing into the U.S. by way of Mexico are raped during their journey. That’s up from a previous estimate of 60 percent, according to an Amnesty International report. Through May, the number of unaccompanied girls younger than 18 caught at the US-Mexico border increased by 77 percent. - What the eye does not see: a critical interpretive synthesis of European Union policies addressing sexual violence in vulnerable migrants
Ines Keygnaert & Aurore Guieu, 2015
In Europe, refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are more vulnerable to sexual victimisation than European citizens. They face more challenges when seeking care. This literature review examines how legal and policy frameworks at national, European and international levels condition the prevention of and response to sexual violence affecting these vulnerable migrant communities living in the European Union. - Hidden violence is silent rape: sexual and gender-based violence in refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands
Ines Keygnaert, 2012
Although women, young people and refugees are vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) worldwide, little evidence exists concerning SGBV against refugees in Europe. Using community-based participatory research, 223 in-depth interviews were conducted with refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands. Responses were analysed using framework analysis. - Sexual Violence and Migration The hidden reality of Sub-Saharan women trapped in Morocco en route to Europe
MSF 2013
The exact proportions of sexual violence are impossible to measure, yet MSF’s medical data reveals that it is a problem of alarming proportions. Information provided by our patients reveals the high risk of sexual violence throughout the migration process, with survivors experiencing rape and other forms of sexual violence by numerous different perpetrators in their countries of origin, in route and in Morocco itself.
Are you familiar with HHRI GBV manual?
The training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict also known as “HHRI GBV Manual” is a tool on approaches and techniques that address the psychological needs of survivors of gender-based violence. It is a tool to approach survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence in contexts of disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with psychological or psychiatric expertise usually is very limited.
The Arabic, Russian and Spanish versions of our training manual is available for free. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual it. Please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page. We would like to encourage you direct your questions or feedback to us through our e-mail.
Become a member of the International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR)!
The International Society for Health and Human Rights is an international network of professionals, specialists, civil society stakeholders, advocates, and students who are committed to promoting human rights, and delivering health services to survivors of human rights violations, and to other vulnerable communities. For over 30 years, ISHHR has been dedicated to bringing together these likeminded individuals to exchange knowledge, experience, developments, research, and to informally network with one another.
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Dear friends and colleagues,
“Enforced disappearance is a shameful practice and a crime under international human rights law, whether it is used to repress political dissent, combat organized crime or carried out under the guise of fighting terrorism.”
Suela Janina, Chair of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances
Enforced disappearance is a global problem, not restricted to a specific region of the world. The figures differ, some reports say that as many as 100 000 might be missing in Colombia and after the war in the Balkans in the 1990s almost 15 000 people remain unaccounted for. In Peru the number of people missing is 15 000, Nepal 1300, El Salvador 9000 and so it continues.
In December 2006 the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from enforced Disappearance, was adopted and it entered into force in 2007. The Convention is now signed by 49 states and ratified by 58. Every day people go missing, and thousands of people are forcedly disappeared, every year due to circumstances such as internal conflict, or as a means of political repression of persons in opposition to the dominant political power. The threats that are directed towards human rights defenders, witnesses and lawyers fighting the practice of enforced disappearances, are very serious and must be reacted to. Also, relatives of victims of enforced disappearance are unsecure and under threat. On the 30 of August each year the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances commemorates the International Day of the Disappeared. All over the world, events are organized by the families and associations of victims to remember those that have suffered the terrible fate of being disappeared, often with impunity for those who are responsible.
An important aspect of this, and something which could need more attention is the mental health situation for family members, relatives and friends of persons disappeared. The uncertainty that the relatives are living with, is extremely stressful and are scars or open wounds that may threaten the psychological health of those involved. For many this represents serious psychological trauma or even lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The terror and trauma of living without the beloved ones who have disappeared, are described by in the article of Margriet Blaauw and Virpi Lähteenmäki “Denial and silence’ or ‘acknowledgement and disclosure” and in the book of Paz Rojas Baeza La interminable ausencia. Estudio médico, psicológico y político de la desaparición forzada de personas, (“The neverending absence. A medical, psychological and political study on enforced disappearances of persons”, the book is only in Spanish). In which, the consequences for the family and the community, where enforced disappearances are described and discussed from a psychosocial health point of view.
“The disappeared are denied a place among the living and also denied a place among the dead.”
Shari Eppel, Amani Trust Zimbabwe.
The lack of a body to mourn similarly causes serious psychological distress amongst the relatives. Without the possibility to identify the loved one, and provide a burial and a last farewell for those lost, the relatives cannot grieve in the way that seemed right to them, or adjust to the loss, reorganize the future and go on with their lives.
Often the person that has been forcefully disappeared is the breadwinner in the family. Thus the loss is made worse by lack of income. Without a death certificate it is difficult to acquire the rights that they are entitled to, in the form of pensions or compensations. Forced disappearances, constitute in all possible ways, one of the most severe human rights violations, forcing both victims and families into long-lasting suffering, with strong psychological and social consequences, even over generations.
There are several organizations that work with the human rights of disappeared persons and their families:
- UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances
- UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
- Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP)
with an example of a workshop From victims to healers. - International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances
with a list of the website of its coalition members - ICRC Missing persons and international humanitarian law
- The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
- Trial International – Enforced Disappearance
- International Commission on Missing Persons
Get assistance – from the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Under article 30 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearances, it states that the Committee has competence to receive and consider requests for urgent action submitted by the relatives of a disappeared person or their legal representatives, their counsel or any person authorized by them, as well as by any other person having a legitimate interest, that seek to ensure that the State party take, as a matter of urgency, all necessary measures to seek and find a disappeared person.
- Guidance for the submission of a request for urgent action to the Committee in several languages
- Download forms to submit urgent requests to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Further reading on enforced or involuntary disappearances
- Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
OHCHR, Fact Sheet 6/Rev.3, July 2009
A disappearance has a doubly paralysing impact: on the victims, frequently tortured and in constant fear for their lives, and on their families, ignorant of the fate of their loved ones, their emotions alternating between hope and despair, wondering and waiting, sometimes for years, for news that may never come. The victims are well aware that their families do not know what has become of them and that the chances are slim that anyone will come to their aid. - No place for enforced disappearances in 2017, UN experts say
OHCHR, October 2017
Enforced disappearance should not exist in the 21st century, but reports of the “heinous” crime continue to be received in unacceptably high numbers, two UN experts* say, stressing that the cases they receive represent only a small percentage of a much worse and gruesome reality. - No More “Missing Persons”: The Criminalization of Enforced Disappearance in South Asia
International Commission of Jurists, August 2017
This report analyzes States’ obligations under international law to ensure acts of enforced disappearance constitute a distinct, autonomous offence under national law. It also provides an overview of the practice of enforced disappearance, focusing specifically on the status of the criminalization of the practice, in five South Asian countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal - Missing Persons: A Handbook for Parliamentarians
ICRC, 2009
Disappearances are a tragedy not just for the individual but also for families, who are left in the dark. Not knowing what has become of a husband or wife, child, father, mother, brother or sister is a source of terrible anguish for countless families affected by armed conflict or internal violence all over the world. - We Need the Truth: Enforced Disappearances in Asia
Katharina Lauritsch, 2010
People working in several countries with families of enforced disappeared persons, came together and write jointly an article about the situation of enforced disappearances in their countries, explaining the political and historical background, the current context and sharing some thoughts about future perspectives. - Enforced Disappearances – An Information Guide for Human Rights Defenders and CSOs
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) January 2016
This publication speaks about enforced disappearances and underscores why it is an important issue of human rights concerns globally. It begins by seeking to demystify the phenomenon of “disappearance” itself, exploring the various circumstances in which people disappear, thereby disaggregating the various scenarios into categories of disappearance. - International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
PART I. Article 1
1. No one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance. 2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance - Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
UN General Assembly, December 1992
Considering that enforced disappearance undermines the deepest values of any society committed to respect for the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and that the systematic practice of such acts is of the nature of a crime against humanity - Inter/American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons (1994)
Article I. The States Parties to this Convention undertake:
a. Not to practice, permit, or tolerate the forced disappearance of persons, even in states of emergency or suspension of individual guarantees; b. To punish within their jurisdictions, those persons who commit or attempt to commit the crime of forced disappearance of persons and their accomplices and accessories; c. To cooperate with one another in helping to prevent, punish, and eliminate the forced disappearance of persons; d. To take legislative, administrative, judicial, and any other measures necessary to comply with the commitments undertaken in this Convention. - Between prison and the grave enforced disappearances in Syria
Amnesty November 2015
Amnesty International’s research shows that the enforced disappearances carried out by the Syrian government since 2011 were perpetrated as part of an organized attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and therefore amount to crimes against humanity. - Toward a Better Understanding of Psychological Symptoms in People Confronted with the Disappearance of a Loved One
A Systematic Review. Lonneke I. M et al. 2017
The small number of studies and the heterogeneity of the studies limit the understanding of psychopathology in those left behind. More knowledge about psychopathology post disappearance could be gained by expanding the focus of research beyond disappearances due to war or state terrorism.
The international Day of on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
In the context of the International Day on the Elimination of Violence against women 25th of November, we just want to remind you of our GBV manual and how to access it. The Arabic, Russian and Spanish versions of our training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict is available for free. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mailexplaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual it. Our sponsors have kindly covered the printing and mailing costs. A few weeks after sending the manual, we will send you a link to a Google questionnaire. We hope you can give us a few minutes to provide us with your feedback on your experience in using the manual and how you applied it in your working practice. please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page. We would like to encourage you direct your questions or feedback to us through our e-mail.
Dear friends and colleagues
HHRI has developed a manual in order to provide input, tools and ways of working and assisting women who have been exposed to sexual violence in conflict… the idea is to provide something practical and easily accessible to those who are working in the field. The strength of the manual is that it is based on a human rights perspective, standards and values and it is gender oriented to respond to a very specific form of trauma: sexual violence.
Nora Sveaass, Chair of the Board at HHRI. June 2017
Health and Human Rights Info. (HHRI) has just released the Arabic, Russian and Spanish versions of our training manual Mental health and gender-based violence: Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict also known as “HHRI GBV Manual”.
As some of you know, this tool is not a therapy manual, but a training manual on approaches and techniques that address the psychological needs of survivors of gender-based violence (GBV). It is a tool for helpers assisting and providing care to individuals who are exposed to this form of violence. It focuses especially on ways of understanding how trauma affects the lives of survivors, and how we can assist them in getting a better understanding themselves of their own reactions. At the same time, it focuses on the strengths, resilience and resources. The manual presents ways of approaching women exposed to rape and other forms of sexual violence in contexts of disasters, conflicts and emergency situations, where access to health professionals with psychological or psychiatric expertise usually is very limited.
It may also supplement and deepen the understanding of trauma and its consequences for health workers, who already have knowledge and experience. It may be a tool for helpers who train other helpers and for groups of helpers who need self-study materials. The manual can be read, studied or discussed, and the exercises it contains can be tested and applied in groups working on the subject.
The manual explores the psychological meaning of trauma and how traumatic events affect mental health. It describes the signs of severe stress as well as information on how these reactions can be assessed and understood. It offers advice on how helpers can approach women immediately following GBV, respecting their own limits, and how to deal with the distress they are experiencing. In particular, the creation of safe spaces that permit supportive dialogue and ways of stabilizing and “grounding” a person feeling fear and anxiety. The manual also describes how the survivor can be prepared to report a violation with an emphasis on ensuring the rights and safety of those involved, and the importance of supporting a woman in such a situation.
The editions in more languages, in addition to the original one in English, came as a request of helpers who have tried the original tool and found it useful, in countries such as Lebanon, Cambodia, Colombia, Sudan, Iraq, Rumania, Papua New Guinea, Norway, and Turkey. Through the availability of the manual in these key languages, HHRI hopes to assist many helpers around the world and, ultimately, provide hope and basic, but critical, mental health assurance to survivors in greater need.
These translations into languages has meant a great effort, and it would not have been possible without the very generous assistance and contribution done by UNHCR and Norwegian Church Aid. We are warmly indebted to their great support to make it possible.
Furthermore, in June 2017, HHRI initiated a training of trainers in order to increase its capacities to respond to requests from different entities -inside Norway and abroad- who wish to use the manual and, finally, we have also conducted trainings on skype, in order to reach more people close to where they work, and we hope to develop this methodology further.
Further reading on HHRI GBV Manual
- Video interview with Nora Sveaass on HHRI GBV Manual
Human Rights House Foundation/Oslo office. June, 2017
“The Manual is clearly gender orientated… that does not mean that some of the information on trauma is not useable in other forms of traumatic events or contexts where violations occur. I am thinking especially about human rights defenders who may be exposed to reprisals of different sorts, and many of them may be survivors of severe human rights violations as well.” - HHRI Gender based Violence Manual Report
April, 2017
The manual was developed by clinical psychologists and researchers associated with Health and Human Rights Info. Preliminary training sessions have been conducted in Jordan, Cambodia, Colombia, Turkey and Norway. Further face-to-face trainings have taken place in Norway, Sudan, Iraq, Colombia, Romania as well as a webinar focusing on helpers related to the Syrian crisis. The last training happend in Tbilisi, Georgia. Health and Human Rights Info held a joint training seminar with the Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) at Human Rights House Tbilisi from 11 to 13 September 2017. Twenty-three professionals – doctors, psychologist and social workers – benefited from the training on working with survivors of GBV. - A webinar based on the training manual
September, 2016
This e-training material is based on the manual and will give an introduction to how you can use the manual and arrange a training by yourself. The manual has been written for the many people who in different ways provide direct assistance to women who survive gender-based and sexual trauma during disasters, wars and conflicts, where helpers have limited or no access to specialized health services. Listen to all 6 sessions and answer the final reflection to apply for a certificate. - Presentation of HHRI GBV Manual
November, 2016
If you are working with survivors, or involved in training of helpers working directly with survivors or in other ways engaged in the topic of assisting survivors of gender based violence, we hope that the manual can be useful for you. - Thematic pages
This is in addition to the database. Here we have gathered selective information essential to the different topics. The topics have been chosen on the basis of their actuality, relevance and importance. Here you can also find a thematic page on Torture with Russian links
How to access HHRI GBV manual
If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual. Our sponsors have graciously covered the costs of printing as well as shipping of the manual. In return, we would highly appreciate if you could provide us with feedback on how you used the manual; in training; as part of supervision; or in any other way that facilitated your work/helped the beneficiaries. A few weeks after you have received the manual, we will send you a link to a google questionnaire covering these issues. We hope that you will be able to spend some minutes to give us some feedback on your experience of using the manual and how it was applied in practice. Also, please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish, Korean, Georgian and Romanian if you visit our GBV manual web page. We would like to encourage you direct your questions or feedback to us through our e-mail.
Featuring an additional tool
Women’s rights country by country – interactive
Which countries have laws preventing violence? Which legislate for gender equality? And which countries allow abortion? Using World Bank and UN data we offer a snapshot of women’s rights across the globe. Select a region and hover over a country to see how it has legislated for violence, harassment, abortion, property and employment rights, discrimination and equality. Click on a country to tweet a message on the figures. Country data can be viewed in relation to its population size and those of its neighbouring states.
Introduction of our new Project coordinator for the Spanish speaking readers
We are proud to announce Silvia Gurrola Bonilla as our Project coordinator for our work in the Latin American and Spanish speaking region. Silvia is a pedagogue with a post degree in psychotherapy with over 19 years of experience in managing, coordinating, and providing technical assistance to Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS programs in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Eastern Europe with expertise on gender-related issues such as: gender assessments, gender mainstreaming, gender-based violence (GBV), women and girls´ empowerment and masculinities. Her main area of responsibility at the HHRI now is being in charge of the work with the GBV manual and adapting it for application in Spanish-speaking countries, maintain the Spanish part of our data search engine and our thematic pages. Silvia is happy to receive any feedback, comments and ideas regarding her engagement with these issues.
In no other area is our collective failure to ensure effective protection for civilians more apparent… than in terms of the masses of women and girls, but also boys and men, whose lives are destroyed each year by sexual violence perpetrated in conflict
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 2007
Dear friends and colleagues,
Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war used against women. And men are also becoming subjects of this horrendous human rights violation which, at times, reaches endemic proportions in wartime and conflicts.
HHRI acknowledges that women are more frequent targets of this horrific crime and, at the same time, through this edition, we wish to present the evidence that sexual violence against men is becoming a more frequent occurrence in the context of war and conflict. Therefore, it must be addressed as a serious human rights violation, and one with devastating mental health consequences.
Perhaps male rape is one of the most hidden atrocities of war. This may be so because it is denied or kept secret, given that both the perpetrator and the victim enter into a form of “conspiracy of silence”. However, when the stories are unveiled, those who have been victims to these crimes risk losing the support of those around them. Male survivors of sexual violence are often disdained and marginalized by their own communities. In patriarchal societies, a man who has been exposed to this type of violence may be seen as a “women”, and given stereotypical gender-role definitions, no man is allowed to be vulnerable.
Further, there has been a failure, including human rights advocates and states, in acknowledging the problem described. As Lara Stemple –one of the few academics to have looked into the issue– states: “There are well over one hundred uses of the term ‘violence against women’ – defined to include sexual violence – in U.N. resolutions, treaties, general comments, and other documents.” While this statement remains relevant, it must be acknowledged that until recently (2012) the UN, started to address this issue. For instance, the UN Agency for Refugees, UNHCR, developed some guidelines to address the needs of men and boy survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (see list of related literature below).
Stemple´s study Male Rape and Human Rights presents cases of male rape used as weapon of war or political aggression in a number of countries, such as Chile, Greece, Croatia, Iran, Kuwait, the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia .
The belief that rape cannot happen to men is of course a false one. The increasing number of reported incidences underlines that male rape is a huge problem. The overview over literature on this issue listed above, underscores this serious situation.
The men affected suffer not only deep physical and emotional traumas, but many may become socially ostracized, isolated and often at risk of danger, and rejected by family and friends. Also, there is the chance that their spouses may abandon them because they do not see them as “real men” any more.
We know today that helping services supporting female survivors often do not address male survivors, maybe because they are not sensitized, trained or equipped to deal with their needs, in particular when they chose to give up their “secret” and talk about the violence. Given the seriousness of this situation, it is of priority to break the silence and create the opportunity for raped men to speak up and be protected and supported.
Those of us working with the psychological consequences of human rights abuses should strengthen our commitment and readiness to help male survivors. In this way, we will strengthen our understanding and ability to fight against human rights abuses perpetrated on all victims, men, women and children alike.
On this regard, HHRI will be proactively addressing this important matter by including GBV perpetrated on male as a subject on its database, and will aim to include a module in its manual: Mental health and gender-based violence, Helping Survivors of sexual violence in conflict (GBV Manual), in order to give basic, but crucial, psychosocial support to male survivors of sexual violence in the context of war and conflict.
Further reading on male GBV as a weapon of war
- Male victims of sexual violence: war’s silent sufferers
Allan Ngari, Institute for Security Studies (ISS). 2016
Sexual violence is a tactic of war, used to humiliate, dominate and instil fear. It is also increasingly being used as a tactic of terrorism. While the focus has largely been on women and girls as victims of sexual violence, boys and men are equally at risk. Sexual violence against men and boys takes on a range of heinous acts, including anal and oral rape, genital torture, castration and coercion to rape others. Many of these acts are seen as emasculating, and while many male victims are willing to give accounts of what they witnessed, they are less likely to express what they themselves had experienced in conflict. - Identifying and Responding to Urban Refugees’ Risks of Gender-Based Violence Men and Boys, Including Male Survivors
Women´s Refugee Commission (WRC). 2016
Throughout 2015, WRC conducted research in urban settings, the first phase of a multi-year project to improve the humanitarian community’s understanding of and response to GBV risks in urban contexts. Quito, Ecuador; Beirut, Lebanon; Kampala, Uganda; and Delhi, India, were chosen because they are host to diverse refugee populations, have different policy environments for refugees, and are at different stages of humanitarian response. The project looked separately at the GBV risks of different urban refugee subpopulations: women; children and adolescents; LGBTI individuals; persons with disabilities; and male survivors of sexual violence. - Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse
Christopher Anderson, American Psychological Association. 2015
Common Types of and Prevalence Estimates for Exposure to Traumatic Stressors. Within the U.S. as many as 1 in 4 males will experience some form of sexual abuse during their lifetime. The number of males who are sexually abused during military service is greater than the number of female service members. As many as 50% of the children who are sex trafficked in the US are males. - Male Rape Victims in the Lord’s Resistance Army war and the Conflict in Eastern Congo
Linda Lanyero Omona, International Institute for Social Studies. December, 2014
Sexual violence against men in Uganda is an underreported crime. Sexual violence against men is considered a taboo in most cultures. It is an issue not talked about because many consider the rape of men nearly impossible. It is clear that men have also been victims of rape in armed conflicts all over the world. The laws that define rape should be revised to include men and boys as victims of rape. - Working with men and boy survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in forced displacement
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 2012
Refugee men and boys can be subjected to sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). Survivors have specific health, psychosocial, legal, and safety needs, but often find it hard to discuss their experience and access the support they need. The objectives of this note are to emphasise that programmes on SGBV need to include men and boys and to provide guidance on how to access survivors, facilitate reporting, provide protection and deliver essential medical, legal and social services. - International Human Rights Law and Sexual Violence Against Men in Conflict Zones
Tom Hennessey and Felicity Gerry, Halsbury´s Law Exchange.
Sexual violence occurs in times of peace and of war. It takes place within committed relationships and between strangers, between people of any gender and sexuality, and for reasons that can be complex. However, despite common misconceptions, it is widely accepted amongst academics and charities that rape and other forms of sexual offences are usually about dominance and control rather than sexual gratification; a form of physical violence that has the power to fundamentally undermine the victim’s confidence and self-identity. Because of this, sexual violence is a common feature of war zones. As armies or militias struggle to assert their dominance, civilians within contested areas often find themselves subjected to widespread sexual abuse. The result is fear, humiliation and trauma. - In some refugee groups, more than one in three men are said to have suffered sexual violence
Katie, Nguyen, Thomson Reuters Foundation. May, 2014
Sexual violence against men is one of the least told aspects of war. Yet men and boys are victims too of abuse that is frequently more effective at destroying lives and tearing communities apart than guns alone. It can take the form of anal and oral rape, genital torture, castration, gang rape, sexual slavery and the forced rape of others. It is so taboo that few survivors have the courage to tell their story. Besides feeling ashamed and afraid of being ostracised, many victims dare not challenge powerful myths about male rape in their cultures, experts say. A common belief is that a man who is raped becomes a woman. - Hope in the Shadows: Male Victims of Sexual Assault in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Miya Cain, Harvard Kennedy School. 2014
As a result of ongoing conflict, poverty and instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congolese men and women have been subjected to various forms of sexual violence by warring rebel militia, government forces, and noncombatants. Most humanitarian aid, money, and international attention supports female victims of sexual violence, but male victims are largely left in the shadows. Simplified narratives of gender violence often define men as “villains” and women as “victims.” This narrative aligns with traditional conceptions of gender roles; however, the oversimplification often leaves male victims overlooked by policy responses designed to address sexual violence. - UNHCR issues guidelines on protection of male rape victims
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). October, 2012
Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) against men and boys has generally been mentioned as a footnote in reports. There are no detailed statistics on the number of male victims of SGBV but, the phenomenon is increasingly being recognized as a protection concern in conflict and forced displacement situations. Despite the prevailing taboo, there had been progress over the last decade in reporting of incidents. - Access to Justice for Male Victims of Sexual Violence; Focus on Refugees in Uganda
Meg McMahon, Legal Aid Board.
Sexual violence against men has garnered increasing publicity in recent years[2] but still remains extremely under-researched and under-reported. This paper will examine the challenges facing male victims of sexual violence. The paper will look at the broad international framework, including definitions of sexual violence and international jurisprudence in the area as well as generally looking at how the term sexual or gender based violence has come to be associated with violence against women. - The rape of men: the darkest secret of war
Will Storr, The Guardian. July 2011
Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world’s conflicts. Of all the secrets of war, there is one that is so well kept that it exists mostly as a rumour. It is usually denied by the perpetrator and his victim. Governments, aid agencies and human rights defenders at the UN barely acknowledge its possibility. - Male Rape and Human Rights
Lara Stemple, Program for the Study of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Human Rights, Columbia University. 2009
For the last few decades, the prevailing approach to sexual violence in international human rights instruments has focused virtually exclusively on the abuse of women and girls. In the meantime, men have been abused and sexually humiliated during situations of armed conflict. Childhood sexual abuse of boys is alarmingly common.
News related to the HHRI GBV- manual
The Civil Society Development Foundation (CSDF) and HHRI conducted a training on the use of the Mental health and gender-based violence, Helping Survivors of sexual violence in conflict (GBV Manual) in Bucharest, Romania 11-13 April 2017. The 24 participants to the training, included representatives of Romanian NGOs working in the field of welfare and basic services for vulnerable people. The training aimed to promote a human rights approach in social services, with a focus on victims or persons at risk of violence and abuse (women, children etc.) and to develop capacity of Romanian NGOs for more efficient and specific interventions to answer the needs of vulnerable groups. Participants to the training appreciated both theoretical and practical tools and referred that gained knowledge and tools will be useful for their day-to-day work. Some of them, will reproduce the training to scale up the number of beneficiaries.
The Arabic version and the second edition of the manual can be downloaded from our GBV manual web page. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual. Our sponsors have graciously covered the costs of printing as well as shipping of the manual. In return, we would highly appreciate if you could provide us with feedback on how you used the manual; in training; as part of supervision; or in any other way that facilitated your work/helped the beneficiaries. A few weeks after you have received the manual, we will send you a link to a google questionnaire covering these issues. We hope that you will be able to spend some minutes to give us some feedback on your experience of using the manual and how it was applied in practice.
Also, please note that complementary to the GBV Manual, we have developed a tool box which you also can accessed for free in English, Spanish and Romanian if you wisit our GBV manual web page.
Being a woman and a woman´s human rights activist mean actively regaining
my space and rights in places from which they are trying to exclude me”
Lara Aharonian, Director of Women´s Resource Center HRH Yerevan, Armenia
Dear friends and colleagues,
In her third report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, in chapter III, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, addresses the situation of women human rights defenders (WHRD). This includes both female human rights defenders, and any other human rights defenders who work in the defence of women’s rights or on gender issues. As we commemorate the International Women´s Day, we want to highlight the special circumstances that WHRD are living under and are exposed to, and at the same time honour them for their brave and important engagement to eradicate human rights violations of women and girls.
It is essential to ensure that all human rights defenders, women and men, are protected and supported in their work, and that those who are engaged in defending the rights of women are fully recognized as human rights defenders.
In many communities women, may be perceived as an extension of the community itself. When acting as a human right defenders, they can be exposed to different forms of reprisals, including being targeted with gender-based violence (GBV) or experience gender-specific risks. Furthermore, they can be subject to violence because they challenge existing norms and stereotypes within their communities. If a WHRD, because of her human rights work is exposed to GBV, such as rape, the community may also see that as a shame inflicted on the whole community. Therefore, she has to bear with the burden not only of the trauma as a consequence of the rape, but also with the shame she has “brought” on her community.
State authorities are the most common perpetrators of violations against human rights defenders, despite the fact that they have the obligation to undertake the primary responsibility for assuring their protection. In addition, a variety of “non-State/official” actors also commit, or are implicated in violent acts against human rights defenders. Therefore, it is important that this form of violence ends and that perpetrators are held accountable for such acts.
Thus, it is necessary not only to raise awareness of the danger and reprisals that WHRD are exposed to, but also to be conscious of the impact that such aggressions have on their lives and their activism. According to the AWID publication; ” it is necessary to adopt protection mechanisms that address the different needs and realities of WHRDs. Similarly, it is necessary to move away from the concept of protection solely focused on physical aspects, towards a more embracing understanding of protection that also addresses the need to create an enabling environment for WHRDs, in order to carry out their work safely”
Further reading that highlight different aspects of Women Human Rights Defenders
- Politicizing Self-Care and Wellbeing in Our Activism as Women Human Rights Defenders
AWID 2015
Stress, burn out, uncontrollable emotional outbursts, depression, anxiety, migraines and cancer, are some of the effects that human rights defense work has on WHRDs around the world, and the ones that often make them quit their important work. AWID spoke with Jessica Horn, Senior Advisor for the African Institute for Integrated Responses to Violence Against Women and HIV/AIDS (AIR) about the politics of self-care and well being for women human rights defenders (WHRDs). - Women human rights defenders and the struggle for justice in Colombia
ABColombia, Oidhac, U.S. Office on Colombia 2011
Colombia continues to suffer one of the worst humanitarian and human rights crises in the world. In this context, those who defend human rights and the rule of law in Colombia have continuously been victims of systematic stigmatization, threats, sexual violence, unfounded criminal proceedings, violent attacks and killings carried out by all armed actors in the conflict. Amongst this group of defenders, women play a crucial role. - Protection manual for human rights defenders
Enrique Eguren, Peace Brigades International, European Office 2005
The gravity of the risks faced on a daily basis by human rights defenders are such that it is also important to pursue other means to strengthen their protection. In this regard I hope that this Protection Manual will support human rights defenders in developing their own security plans and protection mechanisms. Many human rights defenders are so engaged by their work to protect others that they give insufficient attention to their own security. Although this manual is written for all HRD, men and women alike, chapter 10 is specifically on women. - Self-care and self-defense manual for feminist activists
Marina Bernal, Artemisa, Elige and CREA 2008
This important manual is a valuable asset for all women engaged in the task of constructing and inhabiting a world in which all of us can fulfill our best potential. An indispensable tool, it invites us to stand our ground while attempting to undo the injustices meted out to us, and nurture the inherent resources that are so easily depleted: our bodies, affection, intelligence, creativity, spirituality…and ourselves. - UN mandate created to reduce reprisals against human rights defenders
International Justice Resource Center
On October 3, 2016, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in consultation with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced a new mandate for the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, Andrew Gilmour, to lead UN work on ending intimidation and reprisals against human rights defenders.
News related to HHRI GBV- manual
We have recently conducted a HHRI GBV training in Dohuk in cooperation with the Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), The Norwegian People’s Aid and the local Government of the region in Northern Iraq (DOH). For this training NCA has generously covered the cost of translating the manual to Arabic. The final Arabic version will be available at the end of May.
The second edition of the manual has arrived and can be downloaded from our GBV manual web page. If you would like a hard copy, please send us an e-mail explaining what kind of work you are doing and why would you need the manual. Our sponsors have graciously covered the costs of printing as well as shipping of the manual. In return, we would highly appreciate if you could provide us with feedback on how you used the manual; in training; as part of supervision; or in any other way that facilitated your work/helped the beneficiaries. A few weeks after you have received the manual, we will send you a link to a google questionnaire covering these issues. We hope that you will be able to spend some minutes to give us some feedback on your experience of using the manual and how it was applied in practice.
2016
Dear friends and colleagues,We all have a tool-box we use when we work with survivors, that we have acquired through our work. You as a helper are the most important tool. It is important for those who work with survivors to know how traumatic reactions may inflict on the survivor. A helper who is knowledgeable about traumatic reactions will be more sensitive to the survivors need to feel humanized and respected, especially after a serious sexual gender based violation. This knowledge of traumatic reactions can also be useful for helpers working with people affected by other types of human rights violations.
As an extraction of the main tools in our manual “Mental health and gender-based violence Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict – a training manual” we have made a toolbox. Our intention is to provide tools and approaches that can stabilise survivors after they have been exposed to traumatising events, help them to deal with events that trigger traumatic memories, and teach them possible ways to regain control of their lives. The purpose is to give you a small sized, easy to handle sample from the manual that can be easily translated into your own language. If you in relation to your work, want to translate the toolbox, please feel free to do that crediting hhri.org when appropriate. We would be delighted to post it on our GBV-manual website so that others also can make use of it.
During these last months, we have conducted a webinar pilot directed towards helpers in and around Syria related to GBV and the crisis happening right now. The webinar is recorded and if you are interested you can follow the 6 recorded sessions and answer the questions and submit your reflections. The answers will be evaluated and you can obtain a certificate for taking the training.
For your information, we are happy to announce that the manual will be available in Arabic in May 2017. We highly appreciate the work Norwegian Church Aid and Norwegian People´s Aid have put into this. Hopefully, there will also be a Russian version in 2017. We are working with the Ukrainian UNHCR regarding this. If you are interested in any of these versions, please contact us and we will put your name on our list.
We are in a process of reviewing our training manual “Mental health and gender-based violence – Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict” for a second edition. Here is a link to an evaluation questionnaire regarding the use of our training manual. If you have received or used the manual we would highly appreciate if you could answer the following questions. It will take you less than five minutes to helps us improve the manual to become a more practical tool for workers in the field of gender-based violence. Thank you so much in advance.
Further reading that highlight different aspects of working with survivors
- Women’s Access to Justice for Gender-Based Violence: A practitioner’s Guide
Lisa Gormley, Ian Seiderman, Briony Potts and Alex Conte. International Commission of Justice, 2016.
Under international human rights law, persons who suffer violations of their human rights have the right to effective remedies and reparation for the harm they have suffered. Gaining access to justice for acts of gender-based violence is important to secure relief at the individual level, but also to promote change at the systemic level in terms of laws and practice. This Practitioners Guide seeks to assist lawyers and other human rights advocates, but ultimately it is designed to benefit the women on whose behalf lawyers and advocates act and who are seeking justice. - Handbook for Coordinating Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings
GBV AoR Global cluster protection 2010
This coordination handbook represents a key tool for all sectors of the humanitarian community to work together in the prevention of and response to gender-based violence. Drawing from and building upon a growing body of international tools and resources, it provides the most comprehensive guidelines to date on how to establish coordination mechanisms to address gender-based violence in emergencies. - Working with Gender-Based Violence Survivors Reference Training Manual for Frontline Staff
The first-ever pan-Arab training guide on practical ways to engage men and boys in the fight to end violence against women throughout the region, titled ‘Women and Men…Hand in Hand Against Violence,’ was unveiled in Beirut at a high-level event. This training resource was developed for use in Arab countries in order to teach the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to promote gender equality and to prevent violence against women (VAW) through the effective engagement of men. It explores the concepts surrounding VAW, what factors are involved, and the consequences of VAW. In Arabic - The Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women and Girls
is an online resource in English, French and Spanish, designed to serve the needs of policymakers, programme implementers and other practitioners dedicated to addressing violence against women and girls. The Centre is an initiative of UN Women, bringing together the valuable contributions of expert organizations and individuals, governments, United Nations sister agencies, and a wide range of relevant actors. Part of the overall effort is encouraging shared ownership of the site and ongoing partnership-building for its continuous development and sustainability. - Best practice guidelines for working with adults surviving child abuse
Blue Knot Foundation has conducted a review of the literature pertinent to working with adult survivors of childhood trauma and abuse. Empirical studies and clinical guidelines have been considered. - Caring for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Emergencies
IASC 2010
This workshop is designed to introduce participants to a new resource related to addressing GBV in conflict and other emergency affected contexts. The Caring for Survivors Training Pack is designed to assist all professionals who come into direct contact with survivors to understand key concepts related to GBV and apply basic engagement skills that promote the safety and well-being of survivors.
Dear friends and colleagues,The 26th of June is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. One of the themes this year will be on Life after torture. This important topic is raised by the IRCT. A number of institutions and organizations all around the world will mark this day with activities and information with a view to strengthen the combat against torture and in particular, strengthen international attention on rehabilitation and recreating life after torture. In this newsletter we will present some links that touch upon ways of helping families living with torture survivors and ideas as to how they can manage and deal with daily life and all the challenges that a family may encounter. Torture, as is well known, affects the individual as well as the family in many ways.
There is not much literature on how life in families develops in the after math of torture. There has been some research on family therapy with refugee families (Sveaass & Reichelt, 2001), and some studies based on families where member have disappeared, such as Paz Rojas’ book on “La interminable ausencia. Estudio médico, psicológico y político de la desaparición forzada de personas” (only in Spanish). Other studies and reports have dealt with consequences of severe human rights violations for family life.
But there are far more publications that may be very relevant in this context, based on experiences of living in families where one member is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many who have survived torture develop different types of post-traumatic reactions, and many develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And as referred to above, severe reactions associated with traumatic events will of course affect the entire family.
We have focused on links that give the survivor tools to handling everyday life, how to raise children, how to keep your relationship/marriage going, how to sleep at night, how to keep your job and aging with torture memories. We hope that it might help survivors gain more knowledge and to come to terms with their experiences, with their haunting memories and build new lives. For more information about torture and for PTSD go to our thematic pages.
Further reading that highlight different aspects of life after torture
- Sur, Dictadura y después. Elaboración psicosocial y clínica de los traumas colectivos
Kordon, D. et al. (2010). Se trata entonces de la asistencia y tratamiento psicológico de víctimas de la represión, de situaciones extremas y de conflictos sociales, tratando de recomponer el equilibrio emocional, psicológico, para volver a encontrarse como persona, tener una mirada en el interior de la propia vida, de la sociedad, la identidad y la pertenencia. Es encontrar los caminos de la memoria, su diversidad y comprensión de lo vivido; no debe ser un retroceso al pasado que profundice el drama existencial y la negación de sí mismos. La memoria debe iluminar el presente para poder construir nuevos caminos de dignidad y recomponer el cuerpo social, profundamente dañado por gobiernos dictatoriales, tanto en la Argentina como en América Latina. - A new generation: How refugee trauma affects parenting and child development
E. van Ee 2013, A thesis covering different aspects of life after torture, as relationship between parents and child and broken relationships. - Politically-motivated torture and its survivors – Social, familial, and societal sequelae
J Quiroga, J. M. Jaranson Torture Journal 2005 2/3 IRCT page 27 and onwards. The social and economic consequences of torture have rarely been systematically studied. This is important for the less industrialized countries as well as for host countries providing asylum to large numbers of tortured refugees. - Cross cultural medicine – working with refugee survivors of torture
B. Chester et N. Holtan 1992 Numerous factors must be taken into account to best provide for the health and well-being of refugee patients in developed countries. One issue that is rarely considered is the awful and not uncommon occurrence of political torture. Large numbers of refugees and other displaced persons are survivors of political torture. To facilitate the “re-making” of a survivor’s world, the health care professional must recognize the multifaceted effects of torture and displacement on the individual, family, and community. - Disclosure and silencing: A systematic review of the literature on patterns of trauma communication in refugee families
N.T. Dalgaard et E. Montgomery 2015 This systematic review aimed to explore the effects of different degrees of parental disclosure of traumatic material from the past on the psychological well-being of children in refugee families. A majority of studies emphasize the importance of the timing of disclosure and the manner in which it takes place, rather than the effects of open communication or silencing strategies per se. - Lifelong posttraumatic stress disorder: evidence from aging Holocaust survivors
Y. Barak et H. Szor 2000. The literature provides ample evidence that posttraumatic stress disorder among survivors persists into old age. However, there is still a need to define the differences in frequency, clinical presentation, severity, and comorbid conditions among aging Holocaust survivors. Age at the time of trauma, cumulative lifetime stress, and physical illness are reported to have a positive association with more severe posttraumatic symptomatology. - Guidelines for psychiatric care of torture survivors
David Kinzie, 2011 In describing the best psychiatric practices for the treatment of torture survivors, it is necessary to provide background on the various syndromes the survivors suffer and their corresponding neurobiology. There are also well known clinical aspects of these conditions and unique social and cultural considerations of survivors who usually come from very different cultures than the clinicians treating them. - Psychosocial trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder and torture
C. Madariaga 2002. Over the past few years, within the teams that provide medical-psychological care to people suffering from the psychic sequels of torture in our country, there has been a permanent discussion surrounding certain categories that arise from psychiatric nosography – as is the case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSDA) – that have been put forward as descriptive or interpretative models of the whole set of effects produced by this act of violence on psychic functions. - Torture and trauma
About seven out of 10 refugees in Australia have been tortured or gone through some kind of war-related trauma. Some forms of torture (such as beatings, amputation, rape and burns) harm the body and cause lasting scars. Other torture methods are painful, but don’t cause scarring, such as starvation or being forced to stand for long periods of time. Examples of trauma include imprisonment, seeing the rape or murder of a loved one, or a dangerous journey to freedom such as an attack by pirates at sea. Some people who have been tortured develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The symptoms of PTSD include flashbacks and nightmares about the event that are so clear they seem real. - From darkness to light
Fasstt 2011 Australia’s program of Assistance for survivors of torture and trauma. - Helping a family member who has PTSD
US. Department of veteran affairs When someone has PTSD, it can change family life. The person with PTSD may act differently and get angry easily. He or she may not want to do things you used to enjoy together - Risk, Resilience and Rights: Therapeutic Approaches to Working with Children, Families and Separated Young People who have Survived Torture
Jocelyn Avigad and Tina Puryear, Freedom from Torture Governments and regimes who torture people have very clear intentions. They carry out physical and psychological acts of violence against targeted individuals and families in order to break a person and fragment families and communities. And they do this to invoke such extreme fear and shame that victims and their families will remain silent.
Award to Diana Kordon from EATIP, ArgentinaA health professional that for many years has been doing an incredibly important work in relation to assistance to torture victims, family of the disappeared, train helpers, raise awareness and has constantly been struggling against impunity, is the Argentinian psychiatrist Diana Kordon. She has recently been given the Barbara Chester award. For four decades, Dr Kordon has provided psychological services to the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and others affected by atrocities committed by the military dictatorship in her country.
Dear friends and colleagues,We would like to share some of our latest activivties. Between 5-8 April 2016 a team of three specialists of ICAR foundation(Romania) came to Oslo, Norway. The visit, was part of the project “Exploring the Romanian-Norwegian cooperation in the psycho-social area in the context of the migration flow in Europe” funded by the EEA Grants 2009-2014, through the NGO Fund in Romania, Fund for Bilateral Relations.
ICAR’s team visited several organisations/institutions and collected information about their activities, results, plans in the area of health and human rights.
Several visits took place at the Department of Psychology (UiO) – University of Oslo, where the Romanian team learned about the UiO area of interest, institutional history, researchers’ community, students and financing mechanisms. The topic of “impunity, justice in transitional societies (e.g. Romania), health consequences of human rights abuses” was identified as a topic of high interest for both the Norwegian and Romanian participants. Both parties are committed to seek funds for a partnership research in this area.
“Health and Human Rights Info” (HHRI), as a second Norwegian partner within the project, assisted ICAR team to meet other NGOs active in the human rights field. The future collaboration with HHRI is quite concrete and will consist in a series of training sessions that Norwegian experts will deliver to Romanian professionals in the area of sexual and gender based violence (Interesting opening for ICAR foundation to a new area of activity).
Translation of relevant chapters of the manual “Mental health and gender-based violence – Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict” is also foreseen, especially knowing now that it contains tools that can be easely adapted for training in similar topics, for severely traumatised categories of people.
Dear friends and colleagues,In this newsletter we take the opportunity to point to some very important decisions and initiatives to strengthen the international response to sexual exploitation, violence and abuse against women and inform about upcoming conferences.
Resolution 2272 – to prevent and combat sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers
United Nations Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 mandates women and gender to be involved in all aspects of peace and security! According to the Peace women “1325 is a historic watershed political framework that recognizes that women – and a gender perspective – are relevant to negotiating peace agreements, planning refugee camps, and peacekeeping operations and reconstructing war-torn societies”. The Peace women have made a good overview over the different UN SC-resolutions in relation to 1325.
The UN Security Council has so far adopted seven resolutions on “Women, Peace and Security”. These resolutions are: Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000); 1820 (2009); 1888 (2009) ; 1889 (2010); 1960 (2011) ; 2106 (2013); 2122 (2013); and 2242 (2015). These resolutions should be seen under one frame as they all are guiding documents for our work with women in war and conflict as well as in transitional societies and during peacetime.
In addition to these resolutions, the security council has adopted SCR 2272 (2016); to prevent and combat sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. The resolution stresses that sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations peacekeepers undermines the implementation of peacekeeping mandates, as well as the credibility of United Nations peacekeeping, and reaffirming its support for the United Nations zero tolerance policy on all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse. It further requested that the Secretary-General replace all units of the troop- or police-contributing country from which the perpetrator is from if appropriate steps have not been taken by the country to investigate the allegation, and/or when the perpetrators have not been held accountable, and/or when there has been failure to inform the Secretary-General of the progress of its investigation or actions taken.
That the fight against impunity, also for military personnel, in fact works is clearly highlighted by the victory in the Sepura Zarcocase in Guatemala. The women of Sepur Zarco have testified against their captors in a breakthrough trial;. For the first time, anywhere in history, sexual slavery has been tried as a war crime in a national court in the country where the crime was committed. Survivors of wartime sexual violence in Guatemala have secured a landmark victory in the Sepur Zarco trial: a true victory for international human rights in a domestic court. And we believe this will open doors for similar cases.
Further reading
We find it timely to repeat the information about the HHRI Training Manual “Mental health and gender-based violence Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict – a training manual” -as well as the IASC Guidelines for Gender- based Violence interventions in humanitarian settings Guidelines with focus on practical aspects and approach to GBV.
Publications that highlight different aspects of combatting military sexual abuse
- Days of ‘silence’ on sexual exploitation and abuse are over, says UN envoy in Central African Republic
The study highlighted evidence of need for family reunion support. Almost The United Nations is sending a very strong signal that the days of silence and compromission with behaviour related to sexual exploitation and abuse by its troops are over, according to the UN envoy in the Central African Republic (CAR). - Guilty: what Guatemala’s Sepur Zarco trial means for women’s rights worldwide
The women of Sepur Zarco have testified against their captors in a breakthrough trial. For the first time, anywhere in history, sexual slavery has been tried as a war crime in a national court in the country where the crime was committed. Survivors of wartime sexual violence in Guatemala have secured a landmark victory in the Sepur Zarco trial: a win for international human rights in a domestic court (Global justice 2016). - Guatemalan soldiers to answer civil war sexual slavery charges in historic trial
For the first time ever, sex slavery will be prosecuted where the war crime took place, 30 years after 11 Mayan women from Sepur Zarco were raped and enslaved (The Guardian 1. February 2016).
The 10th International Society for Health and Human Rights – ISHHR Conference 3rd- 6th October 2017 in Serbia
The title of the 2017 ISHHR Conference is “Mental health, mass people displacement and ethnic minorities” and it will focus on the displacement of communities as a result of conflict, the phenomenon of mass-traumatisation and the response of the European neighbourhood (particularly Central Europe) to the mass influx from the Middle East and North Africa (particularly as a result of the Syrian crisis). However, we will also welcome contributions from experts and speakers in Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, as mass people displacement and migration is a global challenge.
Please note that deadline for abstracts are 15th April
Dear friends and colleagues,Flight and exile divide millions of refugee families worldwide. The reality for many refugees is that they have lost track of their families or have had to leave them behind for economic or safety reasons.
The family however plays an essential role to help persons rebuild their lives and can provide critical support to adapt to new and challenging circumstances. Restoring families can also ease the sense of loss that accompanies many refugees who, in addition to family, have lost their country, network and life as they knew it.
Even so, family reunification may take time and that the rules for family reunification are strict. Some never get granted their application, while others have to wait for several years. This is straining both on those who came first and they are waiting to come by. Being separated is a serious trauma for many people, but strangely enough it is often not spoken about, and family reunification is often not put in the forefront, neither by therapists or policy makers.
This quote points clearly to a major point related to this;
”Armed conflict and war trauma are seen as the violence of others,
whereas an examination of prolonged separations highlights Western administrative violence” (Rousseau et al, 2001)
When families get back together there are of course great expectations involved. Fear, uncertainty and waiting have preceded the reunification. But the situation may also involve difficult or ambivalent feelings. Many years apart do something with both parties. Little contact during the waiting may have created distance or feelings of distrust. This is important to talk about, to explore and to deal with, as a way of creating the best possible reunification and hopefully reduce some of the stresses involved. And it is important to convey that other families are experiencing some of the same feelings in the beginning. Raising awareness about the situation in itself can thus be of great help and assistance in this process from the host society, and may be an important preventive initiative.
It might also be helpful to know more of the rights related to family reunification and what to expect. We have collected some useful publications related to family reunification.
Further reading
Articles, publications and websites that highlight different aspects of Family Reunification:
- Family reunion for refugees in the UK Understanding support needs
The study highlighted evidence of need for family reunion support. Almost 5000 visas for dependents of individuals with refugee status or humanitarian protection were issued in the UK in 2010. The British Red Cross, the main provider of family reunion travel assistance in the UK, supported just over 100 family members through this programme (White and Hendry, British Red Cross 2011). - UNHCR guidelines on reunification of refugee families
The note restates the position of the Office concerning the types of family reunification promoted by UNHCR, the categories of persons eligible for assistance, and the action to be taken by UNHCR Headquarters, by the Field Offices, and by refugees themselves to achieve the reunification of refugee families under various circumstances (UNHCR 1983). - Disrupted flight the realities of separated refugee families in the EU
Available research shows that family separation tends to be associated with poor mental and physical health, which then has an impact on peoples’ ability to learn a language, look for a job, re-train, or simply interact with others (including with officials and administrations).3 Long separation can also damage the family structure and cause conflict when the family is reunited. By way of contrast, various studies document the positive effect of family reunification, particularly on people’s general well-being, but also on their employment prospects and on the educational achievement of their children (Red Cross 2014). - Background note for the agenda item: family reunification in the context of resettlement and integration protecting the family: challenges in implementing policy in the resettlement context
The five guiding principles that sustain UNHCR efforts to protect family unity, and to promote and facilitate family reunification in the resettlement process (UNHCR 2001). - Engaging refugee families in therapy: exploring the benefits of including referring professionals in first family interviews
The possible benefits of including referring professionals in the first family interviews are being explored as a way to engage refugee families in therapy. Families in exile confront a number of problems related both to premigration traumatic exposures and to present adaptation processes. Refugee clients and the referring professionals in the larger system frequently see the problems and their solutions quite differently. This situation may often result in unclear working alliances in a context of therapy (Sveaass and Reichelt 2001 ). - The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) is a pan-European alliance of 90 NGOs protecting and advancing the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons. - Refugee Family Reunification UNHCR’s Response to the European Commission Green Paper on the Right to Family Reunification of Third Country Nationals Living in the European Union (Directive 2003/86/EC)
UNHCR has been entrusted by the United Nations General Assembly with the mandate to provide international protection to refugees and, together with Governments, to seek solutions to refugee problems. Article 35 of the 1951 Refugee Convention5 and Article II of the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees6 oblige States Parties to cooperate with UNHCR in the exercise of its mandate, in particular facilitating UNHCR’s duty of supervising the application of the provisions of the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol. - Family therapy sessions with refugee families; a qualitative study
Due to the armed conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s many families escaped to other countries. The main goal of this study was to explore in more detail the complexity of various family members’ experiences and perceptions from their life before the war, during the war and the escape, and during their new life in Sweden. There is insufficient knowledge of refugee families’ perceptions, experiences and needs, and especially of the complexity of family perspectives and family systems. This study focused on three families from Bosnia and Herzegovina who came to Sweden and were granted permanent residence permits. The families had at least one child between 5 and 12 years old (Jarkman Björn, Gustafsson, Sydsjö and Berterö 2013) - Refugee children and families psychological health, brief family intervention and ethical aspects
To investigate parent-child agreement on the psychological symptoms of the refugee children; to explore refugee children’s well-being before and after three sessions of family therapy; to explore, in more detail, the complexity of various family members’ experiences and perceptions of their life before the war, during the war and their escape, and in their new life in Sweden; and also to highlight ethical issues and conduct ethical analyses using basic ethical principles that take into account the varying perspectives of the actors involved with regard to the psychological treatment of refugee children and families (Jarkman Björn, 2013). - The European Resettlement Network
The European Resettlement Network is an inclusive network that supports the development of resettlement in Europe by connecting a variety of actors involved in refugee resettlement. Network members have a shared commitment to refugee resettlement and refugee protection, to ensuring the provision of durable solutions for refugees, and to ensuring refugees resettled to Europe receive integration support that provides them with the tools to become fully participating citizens. - Family reunification in exile – Preventive measures through family conversations (Only in Norwegian)
Many refugee families have experience that they have been separated in connection with war, disaster or escape. Family members have separately or together been subjected to stressors and traumatic events. Reunification with the family after years of separation may involve major challenges. This publication is developed a method that could be of assistance to workers meeting these families (Gravråkmo et al 2016).
2015
Introduction of our new project coordinator for the Spanish speaking readers and improvement of our Gender based violence website
We are proud to announce Diana Carolina Montoya as our Project coordinator for our work in the Latin American and Spanish speaking region. Carolina is a psychologist from Colombia, with a Master in Latin American studies from the University of Stockholm. Her thesis focuses on the social and economic reintegration of ex-combatants that were involved in the armed conflict in Colombia. She has also attended a course in Sustainable Development at the ETH Zürich and MIT, in Slovakia in 2007. She also participated in a course in Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration at the Folke Bernadotte Academy in Stockholm, Sweden in 2011. Her main area of responsibility at the HHRI now is being in charge of the work with the GBV manual and adapting it for application in Spanish-speaking countries, maintain the Spanish part of our data search engine and our thematic pages. Carolina is happy to receive any feedback, comments and ideas regarding her engagement with these issues.
We will also in this letter introduce you to our Gender based violence manual – website. This website is concentrated on our manualMental health and gender-based violence Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict – a training manual”. “On this web site, you can download the manual and have a closer look at the pilots –trainings that we organized prior to the completion of the manual. We have edited the Butterfly- woman story into one continuous story, as well presented the other tools, such as the grounding exercises, the helping the helpers part and ideas as to how you can conduct training in your context. This website is also translated to Spanish. Even though the manual itself, is not translated yet, many of the elements are now in Spanish. You will be able to read the Butterfly woman story, do grounding exercises and hopefully to set up your own training based on this. If you are interested in organizing training at your workplace, in your organization or other relevant contexts, please send us an e-mail and we will provide you with more information and advice, should you want this.
Further reading
Articles, publications and websites that highlight different aspects of Gender based violence
- HHRI thematic page on Gender based violence
An extensive selection of links related to Gender Based Violence are gathered at this thematic page. Gender-based violence has become an umbrella term for any harm that is perpetrated against a person’s (woman or man), will, and that results from power inequalities that are based on gender roles. - Gender based violence manual web site
We have gathered a few tips and instructions on how to prepare when you are conducting a training based on the training manual – “Mental health and gender-based violence Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict”. A web site to ease your way into the training manual. - IASC Guidelines for Gender- based Violence interventions in humanitarian action
New release Guidelines with focus on practical aspects and approach ( f.e. shelter, security, food). Nothing in specific about mental health. – “Prevention of and response to sexual violence in emergencies” The GBV Guidelines have been revised from the 2005 version by an inter-agency Task Team led by UNICEF and UNFPA, and endorsed by the IASC in 2015 (pdf, 334 p.) - Engaging men
Gender equality cannot be achieved without the involvement of men and boys. But change is slowly taking place, and men are increasingly working alongside women to support gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. We have gathered more links on the subject under the headline on our thematic page on GBV.
Secondary traumatisation – being a good helper
Talking to survivors of trauma also affects the helper. For all helpers empathy is an essential aspect of being a good helper. This is also a source for compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatisation or secondary traumatic stress (STS). How are helpers to manage their own stress? Early recognition and awareness is crucial to be resilient to these symptoms and prevent burnt out.
Awareness of this is important for workers in areas of conflict and disaster, and in extreme environments such as these, people may be more vulnerable to secondary traumatisation. We also know that professionals under this kind of stress may be at risk to perform less efficiently and not perform as they would normally do. Even large organizations that have the resources and knowledge about this particular kind of stress may have reduced capacity to deal with or take care of the affected personnel.
This might be because managers are not adequately trained to spot symptoms, are unprepared for early intervention and prevention, are not equipped to assist, or have poor follow-up procedures. These problems are much more acute for local helpers, who usually have few resources and very little support. All helpers who work closely with traumatised people should take the time to make themselves aware of their own emotional state, and what they need to do to protect themselves from exhaustion while continuing to work with compassion.
Being exposed vicariously to traumatic events, for example by listening to catastrophic testimonies, may generate some of the same trauma reactions that would occur if you were involved in a serious incident. You may struggle to manage your emotions, have problems in your relationships, find decision-making difficult, have physical problems (aches and pains, illnesses), feel hopeless, think your life has no meaning, or experience a collapse in self-esteem.
It is important to develop strategies to cope with situations that might cause vicarious trauma-reactions. What helps you to take your mind off your work or your thoughts? How can you rest your body as well as your mind? Does an activity inspire you or put you in a better mood?
For many local helpers, there may often not be any support or resources at all to deal with this. If possible, meet regularly with other helpers to discuss your experiences and feelings, or do things together. If there are too few helpers in your area to create a support group, find friends and other people you trust with whom you can share your feelings without breaking the confidentiality of the survivors you are helping. On HHRI´s thematic page for HHRI thematic page on helping the helpers we have gathered links that can be useful for all persons engaged in this kind of important but heavy work.
Further reading
Articles, publications and websites that highlight different aspects of helping the helper
- HHRI thematic page on helping the helpers
The helpers working in areas of conflict and disaster, and in extreme environments such as these are often trying to solve problems sometimes too overwhelming. They are also just human beings, and although they have not gone through those events themselves, they have to cope with horrible stories and impressions. This will of course leave marks and sometimes they develop severe psychological problems. On this thematic page we have collected a selection of articles high lightening some of these topics. - Compassion Fatigue, Secondary PTSD, Vicarious PTSD, Differences – You tube video
In this webcast Frank Ochberg explains the differences between Compassion Fatigue, Secondary PTSD, burn out, and Caregiver Burden. - Manual on human rights monitoring – trauma and self care
Vicarious trauma refers to the negative reactions that can occur when hearing about someone else’s traumatic experiences. Human rights defenders and officers are at risk of vicarious trauma when they interview victims of human rights violations and hear stories of their suffering. - Secondary Traumatic Stress
Each year more than 10 million children in the United States endure the trauma of abuse, violence, natural disasters, and other adverse events. These experiences can give rise to significant emotional and behavioural problems that can profoundly disrupt the children’s lives and bring them in contact with child-serving systems. For therapists, child welfare workers, case managers, and other helping professionals involved in the care of traumatized children and their families, the essential act of listening to trauma stories may take an emotional toll that compromises professional functioning and diminishes quality of life. - Self-Care Assessment Worksheet
This assessment tool provides an overview of effective strategies to maintain self-care. After completing the full assessment, choose one item from each area that you will actively work to improve.
Dear friends and colleagues
By Nora Sveaass – A clinical psychologist, member of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Chair of the HHRI Board
The “Hoffman report” published on July 10th this year was a shocking but a very important document. The report was a result of a thorough investigation looking into the many allegations that had been raised with respect to psychologists’ participation in so-called enhanced interrogation in the context of national security in the USA. For many years, terror suspects have been kept deprived of liberty in so-called black sites or in other places of detention where the detainees were deprived of the basic human rights and legal safeguards. Moreover, the concern has been to what extent psychologists have taken part in interrogation and developed ways of interrogating, applying psychological knowledge in an unlawful and unethical way, and why information about psychologists’ involvement was not actively looked into, stopped and sanctioned.
The American Psychological Association (APA) initiated the report, but the work was done in an independent way and published based on an analysis of very large material that had been revised. The report concludes very clearly that there has been a close collaboration between the US Department of Defence (DoD), CIA and the American Psychological Association during the Bush administration. APA has actively taken part in interrogations, including by finding ways of pressuring suspects for the sake of information and national security.
The report refers to a “tailoring” of the APA principles of ethics to conform with the needs of the US DoD. It also refers to a number of ways in which the APA covered these decisions as well as the many attempts at “sugar coating” this with resolutions and documents to still the strong critics and to avoid insight into the actual engagement and abuse.
Health workers’ participation in torture and other forms of serious abuses is unfortunately not something new. Psychologists and doctors tacitly accepted the sterilization laws that were adopted in Germany in 1933, resulting in 350-400 000 persons being sterilized. In addition, there were few protests against the Nürenberg laws of 1935 strictly regulating marriage, so that «German blood» would not be mixed with the blood of other «races». But the most serious was of course the Euthanasia programme implemented between 1940 – 1941 where around 70 000 adult psychiatric patients and ca. 5 000 intellectually disabled children were killed. The really scaring point is that this was put through practically without protests. But, at the Nürenberg trials in 1947, 15 out of 23 doctors who were charged were found guilty and seven were sentenced to death.
Abuse of psychiatry as a tool for persecution of persons in opposition has had a long story in the former Soviet Union, and many dissidents were silenced after wrongly having been diagnosed as mentally ill. In 1971 Vladimir Bukovsky provided a comprehensive report about this abuse to a number of psychiatrists in Europa and USA and disclosed the arguments used when forcedly hospitalizing political dissidents. In 1972 it became known that a Russian psychiatrist, dr Gluzman had been imprisoned for 10 years because he had actively documented the abuse of psychiatry. This situation was discussed at the meeting in World Psychiatric Association (WPA) in Honolulu in 1977, where this was actively condemned and an international committee was established in order to investigate this situation.
Under the military dictatorships in Latin America between 1970 and 1990 it was a well-known fact that health workers participated on the side of the oppressors and that doctors assisted in falsifying death and birth certificates so that death by torture could be masked and children born in captivity could be illegally adopted to families close to the dictators. In addition, there are allegations also that health workers participated in designing and carrying out torture. But on the other hand, nobody was so active and strong in the documenting, protesting and bringing into light what was going on. Their active condemnation of abuse as well as strong voices against impunity and for accountability for those responsible, was heard globally and their strong position on this may well have contributed to international justice for crimes against humanity. Today there are trials ongoing in Argentina, Peru and Colombia. In particular in Argentina, the responsible are sentenced to life prisons. Those affected by the violence have likewise been able to tell and to hear, and many have received reparation, despite the difficulties also surrounding this measure.
During the last years, there has been a growing engagement among health professionals concerning human rights and the principles of ethics. A number of attempts have been made to establish the principles of human rights as a basis for professional ethics. This must be seen as important steps to counteract that professionals, whose main objective is to work for health, well-being, and respect for physical and mental integrity of persons, engage in violations, destruction and abuse. The European Federation of Psychological Associations voted in July in favour of including human rights principles in the so-called meta-code of ethics, for the professional organizations ethical codes.
So, back to the Hoffman report. Many raised the question whether the report would be published in full and unedited or what would happen to it. We know that that it was published immediately at completion, and all the important and very concerning details are in the report. The allegations as to psychologists engagement had been many, over a long time, and well founded. But all attempts at doing something with this problem were met with negative comments, even scorn.
There is no doubt today that the US administration under Bush in fact violated human rights and now, it is also documented that the APA formed part of this. Torture became part of interrogation of terror-suspects after 9/11 and many were kept in places where no rights were respected. The report by the US Senate from 2014, documented this, and now the recent report has described psychologists’ role in these violations. The greenlighting by Donald Rumsfeld to «water-boarding», create fear by playing on phobias, and stressed-positions, as well as the redefining of torture in the so-called «torture memos» signalled a policy in clear violation of the international absolute prohibition of torture, and the non-derogable right not to be tortured. Furthermore, the argument that a «lex specialis» would justify impermissible acts during interrogation was clearly described as unacceptable by the UN Committee against Torture, in 2006.
Health professionals must be very aware of the rights of persons, must be informed about human rights, what these entail and what they actually mean on the ground. This must include a clear ethical position where no order from any superior justifies torture or ill-treatment. Also where reporting on violations observed or intended is part of the ethics, and were whistle-blowing is something that must happen when colleagues or others are in violations with the human rights. The unacceptable participation and contribution of the APA in interrogation must teach us a very important lesson. Our US colleagues, who for long have spoken about this publically, but to a lot of deaf ears, may be our best advisors as to what should be done to prevent this from happening again.
All professionals have a responsibility to engage in order both to avoid harm from being done, and to strengthen respect and fulfilment of the internationally agreed upon and adopted human rights. Both those relating to economic, social and cultural rights and those relating to civil and political rights. It is also important with national and international collaboration between health professionals to ensure that rights are respected and enjoyed. This must be given stronger priority by the organizations, associations and networks to which we are affiliated. The civil society voice that health professionals is part of, plays an important role in the global struggle against violence and injustice, and in promoting human rights and dignity.
Further reading
Articles, publications and websites that highlight different aspects of health workers, ethics and torture
- HHRI thematic page on Ethics
In all health care work, and particularly in work with persons exposed to injustice and human rights violations, a clear awareness of ethical codes, standards and principles is quite necessary. The knowledge and clarity about ethical and human rights principles will strengthen the involvement of health professionals in human rights violations, and fortify their actions to prevent such violations. It is in order to strengthen knowledge about these principles, that we include a thematic page on ethics. - HHRI thematic page on Torture
Torture in any form and for any reason has been banned by international law, but it is still practiced on a million people each year around the world. Survivors of torture are found everywhere. Victims of torture and their families need rehabilitation to make it possible for them to re-establish control over their lives. - The final Hofman report
The APA Board of Directors engaged attorney David Hoffman of the law firm Sidley Austin in November 2014 to conduct an independent review of whether there was any factual support for the assertion that APA engaged in activity that would constitute collusion with the Bush administration to promote, support or facilitate the use of “enhanced” interrogation techniques by the United States in the war on terror. - The Hoffman Report: Background & Introduction
In November 2014, the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association engaged our Firm to conduct an independent review of allegations that had been made regarding APA’s issuance of ethical guidelines in 2002 and 2005, and related actions. These ethical guidelines determined whether and under what circumstances psychologists who were APA members could ethically participate in national security interrogations…… By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
“If you are blind what are your options in an Earthquake?”
What happens to persons with disabilities in emergencies, war and conflict situations? The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) – article 11
“Persons with disabilities are disproportionately affected in disaster, emergency, and conflict situations due to inaccessible evacuation, response (including shelters, camps, and food distribution), and recovery efforts”.
– United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2013
Around 15% of the world’s population has a disability. According to the UNHCR, the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people who were forcibly displaced at the end of 2013 was 51.2 million. This means that at least 4.5 million of the refugees have a disability. The numbers are probably higher since wars and disasters are continuously increasing the amount of persons with disabilities. This is why it is important to highlight the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, and especially article 11, regarding situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies that claims: “States Parties shall take, in accordance with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters”.
Among the most vulnerable are children with disabilities , whose right to assistance – ranging from health to education – is often overlooked in humanitarian response. As a result, they are left more vulnerable to a life of poverty and abuse, and denied their rightful place in helping strengthen and rebuild their communities and countries. UNICEF’s publication “Including children with disabilities in humanitarian action – General guidance”, available in English and Arabic, can be a good starting point for this work. Women and girls with disabilities are at large at higher risk to being exposed to gender based violence. How can we address violence against women and girls with disabilities, and emphasis the need for a holistic approach aimed at eliminating discrimination against women and girls with disabilities? Is it possible to promote their autonomy and addressing specific risk factors that expose them to violence? In war and conflict situations, who will be the ones to make sure that the rights of people with disabilities are fulfilled? Who is responsible when the State fails to fulfill its duties? What happens with human rights in conflict situations, and how do such situations affect the most vulnerable groups in society? The Conclusion on refugees with disabilities and other persons with disabilities protected and assisted by United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) migh give us some answers. The Conclution Recognice that host States, which are often developing countries, have limited resources and face various challenges in providing such services and facilities; reaffirming, therefore, the international community and UNHCR’s role to assist States in fulfilling these responsibilities, in the spirit of international cooperation and burden sharing.
Further reading
Articles, publications and websites that highlight different aspects of human rights and disabilities
- Definition of disabilities
Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. - International norms and standards relating to disability part v. persons with disabilities and multiple discrimination – rights of special groups
Disabled persons who have to leave their countries find themselves in particularly disadvantaged situations. Disabled refugees are an extremely vulnerable group and are, therefore, in need of special attention. However, there are no legal instruments at an international level, as such, to protect the rights disabled refugees. Disabled refugees can only refer to scattered provisions of conventions, instruments and international humanitarian law. - Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and other Special Needs
For the millions of Americans who have physical, medical, sensory or cognitive disabilities, emergencies such as fires, floods and acts of terrorism present a real challenge. The same challenge also applies to the elderly and other special needs populations. Protecting yourself and your family when disaster strikes requires planning ahead. This booklet will help you get started. - Disability Inclusion: Policy to Practice –
This report presents the approaches, positive practices and ongoing challenges to operationalizing disability in¬clusion across UNHCR and its partner organizations, and provides lessons and recommendations for the wider humanitarian community. - The United Nations office of the High Commissioner of Human Right´s website on the Human rights of persons with disabilities
- Monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Guidance for human rights monitors
The adoption and the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol challenge such attitudes and mark a profound shift in existing approaches towards disability. In the Convention, the focus is no longer on a perceived “wrongness” of the person, with the impairment seen as a matter of deficiency or disease. On the contrary, the Convention views disability as a “pathology of society”, that is, as the result of the failure of societies to be inclusive and to accommodate individual differences. Societies need to change, not the individual, and the Convention provides a road map for such change.) - Thematic study on the issue of violence against women and girls and disability
It analyses national legislation, policies and programs for the protection and prevention of violence against women and girls with disabilities. It highlights the remaining challenges in addressing the root causes of violence against women and girls with disabilities and incorporating women and girls with disabilities into gender-based violence programs. The study concludes with recommendations on legislative, administrative, policy and programmatic measures to address violence against women and girls with disabilities, with emphasis on the need for a holistic approach aimed at eliminating discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, promoting their autonomy and addressing specific risk factors that expose them to violence. - Disabilities Among Refugees and Conflict-affected Populations
Based on field research in five refugee situations, as well as global desk research, the report maps existing services for displaced persons with disabilities, identifies gaps and good practices and makes recommendations on how to improve services, protection and participation for displaced persons with disabilities. It also includes a Resource Kit geared toward UN and nongovernmental organization (NGO) field staff working with displaced persons with disabilities. - Women with Disabilities: The Forgotten Peace Builders
Women across the world are standing their ground against political exclusion, but more must be done to ensure that a gender-sensitive approach is used, that all women have the opportunity to participate in building the rule of law and strengthening democracy, and that all women have a voice in decision-making processes post-conflict.
We have gathered some links for relief workers working with survivors of the earthquake in Nepal
“This natural disaster will create untold mental health consequences – not just for the survivors who live and work in the communities and villages that were in the center of earthquake. This is truly a global natural and human disaster. Yet, the major and continuing task to address the disaster’s aftermath will fall on volunteers and professionals living and working in extremely difficult conditions in Nepal. Their jobs will remain the most difficult and most wrenching, long after the television news teams are gone and the world’s attention moves to new events and occurrences. Mental health professionals and volunteers, of all the relief workers, have some of the hardest and longest lasting work ahead of them”.
General information on the situation in Nepal
- Humanitarian response Nepal
The HumanitarianResponse.info platform is provided to the humanitarian community by OCHA as a mean to help responders coordinate their work on the ground. Here you will find updated information on Nepal - Humanitarian response – Nepal: Earthquake 2015 Office of the Resident Coordinator – Situation Report No. 13
Offers day to day information about the situation in Kathmandu and the surrounding areas.Says something about the situation before the lates earthquake on the 12th, next will be issues the 13th May. - Nepal: IOM Emergency Response Situation Report (as of 12 May 2015)
- Humanitarian Response Nepal
Situation analysis provided by UN OCHA to support humanitarian operations globally and are continuously updated. - The Mental Health & Psychosocial Network – Earthquake Response
A public group for sharing updates, resources and coordination information relevant to the 12th May 2015 Earthquake in Nepal. - Nepali version of Humanitarian Emergency Settings Perceived Needs Scale
Guidelines for relief workers
- HHRI thematic page on disaster
A webpage with useful links to guidelines on disaster. By definition is a disaster a tragedy of a natural or human-made hazard that negatively affects society or environment. Often developing countries suffer much greater costs when a disaster hits because these countries are much more vulnerable, and have less appropriate disaster management measures. Earthquakes, floods, volcano eruptions and man-made disasters, can cause – in addition to all damages on the infrastructure – significant psychological and social suffering to the population that has been affected. The psychological and social impacts of disasters may be acute in the short term, but they can also undermine the long-term mental health and psychosocial well-being of the affected population. - Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
IASC 2008
These guidelines reflect the insights of practitioners from different geographic regions, disciplines and sectors, and reflect an emerging consensus on good practice among practitioners. The core idea behind them is that, in the early phase of an emergency, social supports are essential to protect and support mental health and psychosocial well-being (191 pages pdf). - The National Child Traumatic Stress Network gives you information on how to help children in a situation of earthquake
These pages covers the impact on Children and Families with headlines as Description, Readiness, Response, Recovery regarding earthquakes. - Psychological First Aid: Field Operations Guide
National Child Traumatic Stress Network and National Center for PTSD
An evidence-informed modular approach for assisting people in the immediate aftermath of disaster and terrorism: to reduce initial distress, and to foster short and long-term adaptive functioning. It is for use by disaster responders including first responders, incident command systems, primary and emergency health care providers, school crisis response teams, faith-based organizations, disaster relief organizations - Guidelines for gender-based violence interventions in humanitarian settings IASC 2005 We also know that in times of crises and disaster there is an increased level of violence, in particular in gender based violence (GBV) . GBV is a serious problem in the context of complex emergencies and natural disasters where normal structures of society are seriously affected and alternative safeguards not yet in place. Women and children are often targets of abuse, and are the most vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and abuse simply because of their gender, age, and status in society. Women and girls that are displaced from their home will often experience multiple traumatic experiences.
- Managing stress in humanitarian workers – Guidelines for Good Practice
For mental health workers empathy is an essential aspect of good help. This is also a source for compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatisation or secondary traumatic stress (STS). Early recognition and awareness is crucial to be resilient to these symptoms. Awareness of this is important for workers in areas of conflict and disaster, and in extreme environments such as these, people may be more vulnerable to secondary traumatization. We also know that professionals under this kind of stress may be at risk to perform less efficiently and not perform as they would normally do. You can dowload the guidelines ( English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Albanian) at the bottom of the page. - Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings
These guidelines reflect the insights of practitioners from different geographic regions, disciplines and sectors, and reflect an emerging consensus on good practice among practitioners. The core idea behind them is that, in the early phase of an emergency, social supports are essential to protect and support mental health and psychosocial well-being. - Managing Traumatic Stress: Tips for Recovering From Natural Disasters
APA Help Center (2005)
When a natural disaster affects a community, the resulting trauma can reverberate even with those not directly affected by the disaster. Disasters of this type can be sudden and overwhelming. In addition to the often catastrophic toll on lives and property, a disaster like a tsunami(tidal wave), hurricane or fire can have an impact on those who have lost loved ones and even those who feel more vulnerable as a result of learning about the disaster. - Inter-Agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and separated children
Children separated from their parents and families because of conflict, population displacement or natural disasters are among the most vulnerable. Separated from those closest to them, these children have lost the care and protection of their families in the turmoil, just when they most need them. They face abuse and exploitation, and even their very survival may be threatened. They may assume adult responsibilities, such as protecting and caring for younger sisters and brothers. Children and adolescents who have lost all that is familiar – home, family, friends, stability – are potent symbols of the dramatic impact of humanitarian crises on individual lives.
2014
Dear friends and colleagues,“As men and women of conscience, we reject discrimination in general, and in particular discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. When individuals are attacked, abused or imprisoned because of their sexual orientation, we must speak out … Today, many nations have modern constitutions that guarantee essential rights and liberties. And yet, homosexuality is considered a crime in more than 70 countries. This is not right. Yes, we recognize that social attitudes run deep. Yes, social change often comes only with time. But let there be no confusion: where there is tension between cultural attitudes and universal human rights, rights must carry the day. Personal disapproval, even society’s disapproval, is no excuse to arrest, detain, imprison, harass or torture anyone, ever. “ –
UN Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon, 10 December 2010
The Universal Declaration of Human rights states in Article 2: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” This article is an important reminder of the absolute right not to be discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
OHCHR claims that protecting LGBT people from violence and discrimination does not require the creation of a new set of LGBT-specific rights, nor does it require the establishment of new international human rights standards. The legal obligations of States to safeguard the human rights of LGBT people are well established in international human rights law on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequently agreed international human rights treaties. All people, irrespective of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, are entitled to enjoy the protections provided for by international human rights law.
Even so, in many countries it is not only illegal to be LGBT, but if you, as a parent, neighbor, fellow worker or physician fail to report someone if you find out, you might face charges and imprisonment.
In addition to judicial difficulties and the lack of full enjoyment of civil rights in many countries, the stigma of being LGBT may lead to a number of other serious issues, including health problems. According to the American Psychological Association (APP) several studies suggest that gay men, lesbians and bisexuals appear to have higher rates of some mental disorders compared with heterosexuals, although not to the level of a serious pathology. Discrimination, also in the area of health system may help fuel these higher rates. We are talking about the serious consequences of human rights violations on persons’ health, well-being and possibility to live according to own choices and preferences.
To follow up on the human rights perspective in relation to this, we have added a new thematic page on LGBT rights where we have collected publications on UN resolutions and documents, articles regarding LGBT and mental health and organizations that are working with LGBT issues. We would very much appreciate feedback, comments and suggestions on relevant publications to add to this page. Please check our thematic page on LGBT rights for more links.
For many, gender orientation may be related to serious and painful events, for some even traumatic experiences with the consequences known from the trauma field in general In our search for good links we found limited information regarding psychological trauma in persons with LGBT background due to stigma and persecution. But we would nevertheless take the opportunity to refer to our recently published manual about GBV where outline of what is trauma, what are trauma reactions and how to deal with them are outlined and described rather concretely. Our manual is freely available from our website.
Child survivors of sexual violence
According to UNOCHA during the last civil conflict in Liberia, local media reported on a massive increase of sexual violence. Of the 658 rape survivors, nearly 50 per cent were between 5 and 12 years of age. In 90 per cent of the cases involving children, the perpetrator was someone known to the victim. This situation, we know, is not unique for Liberia.
In our work on and piloting of the training manual “Mental health and gender-based violence Helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict” we have been asked several times about how to approach child survivors of sexual violence. The manual we have developed refers primarily to women and girls as victims of sexual violence. However, we know that men and boys are also victims of rape and other sexual violence, what we have observed is that it tends to be especially difficult for them to overcome these experiences, to the point of avoiding in most of the cases, talk about it. In our manual we have introduced a number of bibliographic references related to gender violence that can be used to understand a little better the situation in which men and children are trying to overcome and although in the manual are not developed in detail its own needs, links and bibliographical references included there, can help answer the questions that may arise in relation to such support specifically to them.
When talking to child survivors the use of metaphors may be a useful tool. We have used the metaphor of the butterfly woman in order to speak of the trauma event. With children you might want to use another story where the child is the hero/heroine. The grounding exercises in our manual may also be suitable for older children. For younger children you will find some good grounding exercises here.
Nevertheless we believe this manual is suitable for work with male survivors of gender-based violence as well, provided it is adapted appropriately. But a separate training module would be required for working with children (boys and girls) who survive GBV.
When preparing the manual, we did a desk review study. When doing this we found that there is little written about how to assist, and how to heal children after sexual violence in war and conflict. We have seen that a majority of publications related to this topic is related to sexual violence in close relationships.
The importance now is to focus more clearly on the situation of children survivors of sexual violence in war and conflict, who in addition to sexual violence, usually have endured other traumatic experiences as well, in situations defined by insecurity and lack of basic needs All this may inflict strongly on the short as well as long term consequences of sexual violence.
A large part of the literature concerns children, sexual violation focus on legal protection, legal provision and legal measures. We have here listed a few publications, guidelines and websites that will say more about the mental health aspect and the difference in how children and grownups react to the traumatic experience of sexual violence.
Some of you have received the manual already. For others we would like to invite you to have a closer look at the manual. It can be downloaded directly from the webpage. Please let us know if you are interested in receiving a copy of the manual, free of charge by sending us an e-mail.
Articles, publications and websites that highlight different aspects of children and sexual violence.
- Caring for Child Survivor’s Resources Guidelines for health and psychosocial service providers in humanitarian settings
The Caring for Child Survivors (CCS) of Sexual Abuse Guidelines were developed to respond to the gap in global guidance for health and psychosocial staff providing care and treatment to child survivors of sexual abuse in humanitarian setting. The CCS Guidelines are based on global research and evidenced-based field practice, and bring a much-needed fresh and practical approach to helping child survivors, and their families, recover and heal from the oftentimes devastating impacts of sexual abuse. (International Rescue Committee 2012). - Mapping of Psychosocial Support forgirls and boys affected by Child Sexual Abuse in Four Countries in South and Central Asia
Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is one of the most serious violations of children’s rights in the South and Central Asian region. The extent of the problem is not known exactly as it is difficult to obtain data on it. However, there are clear indications that the problem is widespread and that it takes place in all spheres of life: families, schools, workplaces, communities etc. It is a well-known fact that sexual abuse has severe consequences for the concerned children and that the violation affects them for the rest of their lives. (Save the children 2003) - Helping families from war to Peace: trauma – stabilizing Principles for helpers, parents and children.
What are the implications of modern trauma theory for teachers, therapists, community health workers, youth workers and parents to support the healing processes after horrors of war? This article is intended as a translation of modern trauma theory into 10 practical principles for people working with war traumatized refugee families. Complex trauma exposure can be caused by war, and children exposed to complex trauma often experience lifelong problems. (Cecilie Kolflaath Larsen, Judith van der Weele 2011) - Caring for Kids: What Parents Need to Know about Sexual Abuse
that research has repeatedly shown that child sexual abuse can have a very serious impact on physical and mental health, as well as later sexual adjustment. Depending on the severity of and number of traumas experienced, child sexual abuse can have wide-reaching and long-lasting effects on an individual’s physical and mental health. Sexual abuse also tends to occur in the presence of other forms of child maltreatment and life adversity. (National Child Traumatic Stress Network) - Treatment for Abused and Neglected Children: Infancy to Age 18
Therapy is the art and science of helping children make sense of their feelings, thoughts, and behavior and learn how to control their behavior and improve interactions with others. It is art because it calls on the therapist’s creativity, intuition, and spontaneity. It is a science because therapy with abused and neglected children is based on theory, research, and clinical studies. The goals that need to be accomplished and the techniques or interventions that help children address and grow beyond the experience of abuse and neglect are gleaned from theory and clinical literature, research, and experience. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) - Exercises for Grounding, Emotional Regulation & Relaxation for children and their parents
Grounding is an important therapeutic approach for handling dissociation or flashbacks, and reducing the symptoms of anxiety and panic. It is important to practice the exercises until the skill becomes automatic and can be called on even during moments of distress. The aim of grounding is to take the survivor out of whatever traumatic moment that is remembered. (National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health) - The national child traumatic stress network
The kit provides parents and caregivers with tools to help them support children who have been victims of sexual abuse, information on the importance of talking to children and youth about body safety, and guidance on how to respond when children disclose sexual abuse. Also included is advice on how to cope with the shock of intra-familial abuse and with the emotional impact of legal involvement in sexual abuse cases (both in English and in Spanish). (National Child Traumatic Stress Network) - Qué Es el Abuso y la Negligencia de Menores? Reconociendo los Indicios y los Síntomas
Qué Es el Abuso y la Negligencia de Menores? Reconociendo los Indicios y los Síntomas El primer paso para ayudar a los niños que han sido abusados o descuidados es reconocer los indicios del maltrato de menores. La presencia de un solo indicio no necesariamente significa que haya ocurrido el maltrato en una familia, pero merecen tomarse en cuenta si estos indicios aparecen con frecuencia o en combinación. Esta hoja informativa está diseñada para ayudarle a entender mejor la definición legal de abuso y negligencia de menores, aprender sobre los diferentes tipos de abuso y negligencia y reconocer los indicios y síntomas de abuso y negligencia. También se incluyen recursos sobre el impacto del trauma al bienestar personal. - Ayudando a Niños y Adolescentes a Superar la Violencia y los Desastres: Que Pueden Hacer los Padres
Los padres y demás miembros de la familia juegan papeles importantes. Ellos ayudan a aquellos niños que experimentan violencia o desastres. Ellos ayudan a los niños a superar el trauma. Ellos ayudan a proteger a los niños de traumas adicionales. Ellos ayudan a los niños a obtener atención médica y asistencia psicológica. Ellos también ayudan a los jóvenes a evitar o superar problemas emocionales. Estos problemas pueden ser resultado de un trauma.
Dear friends and colleagues,HHRI is proud to – finally, after 3 years of work – present our manual
a manual intended to assist helpers in their direct work with survivors of gender based violence.
Gender-based violence in war and conflict areas has for decades been a constant threat to civil society, and in particular women and children, and this form of violence has also been termed, a tool of war. Thousands of women have been affected by gross violations of their rights, including reproductive rights, and are struggling to get their lives back on track. Gender-based violence is a serious attack on the dignity of the survivor, and it strongly affects family and community as well. Different UN resolutions have over time aimed at placing these women’s lives on the agenda – that is to prevent, to stop, to hold to account those who are responsible and provide redress to survivors. And many good manuals and handbooks have been made to follow up on these objectives.
The Manual that we are now presenting addresses the trauma of rape and aims at creating an understanding of the impact that such events have on individuals, what kind of reactions a survivor may have and that these may be reactions that are frequently observed after violent events. There is also focus on reactions as being painful, strong and distressing. By following a story, practicing exercises, and being active in group work, the participants will explore understandings of trauma, and practice ways of dealing with trauma-related reactions. The exercises will offer the participants skills that are useful in their work with trauma survivors and give them an opportunity to discuss and share their experiences as helpers and their own good practices. At the same time much weight will be given to the importance of having a respectful and human rights based approach in this work. The aim is to enable helpers to apply these skills in a practical context, as well as approaches and attitudes addressed in the training. This is important regardless of whether they work with survivors over long periods of time or meet with them only briefly.
This manual is a training-manual, not a therapy manual. The training is designed for individuals who directly provide care, help and assistance to people who have been exposed to human rights violations and abuse, notably gender-based and sexual violence, and for personnel who support other care providers involved with the same survivor group.
To ensure its cultural applicability we have conducted trial-trainings of the manual in workshops in 5 different places or regions. You can read more about these workshops and our experiences on our website directly connected to the manual.
Some of you may have received the manual already, while some will find it in their mailbox soon. For others we would like to invite you to have a closer look at the manual at GBV-manual website. The manual can be downloaded directly from the webpage.
Let us know what you think. It is very important for our further work with the implementation of the manual that you let us know if you want to use it for training, group work or inspiration in your own work. Please send us an e-mail if you have queries regarding how it can be used in practice, we will be glad to provide some ideas and advice.
If you would like a free hard copy or a memory stick with the manual, please send us an e-mail with your address to postmaster@hhri.org and we are happy to mail it to you. We hope that this manual will be a useful tool to enable survivors to regain dignity and be empowered to be in charge of their own lives.
For further information about the team that has developed the manual please click into our new GBV-manual website.
Articles and publications that highlight different aspects of GBV: in the following we are presenting other very relevant manuals and reports.
- Revision of the Guidelines for GBV Interventions in Humanitarian Interventions to protect the mental health of survivors must take account of broader humanitarian guidance. “Guidelines for Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings”, published by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC 2005), indicates the minimum support that should be in place to prevent and respond to GBV. Survivors of GBV need help to cope with immediate physical injuries, as well as psychological and social support, security, and legal redress. This guideline is now being revised and will be updated. The GBV Area of Responsibility Working Group. (“GBV AoR”), the global coordinating body for GBV in humanitarian settings, has received funding from the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration for this two-year revision project. The first year of the project will be undertaken by two consultants (Jeanne Ward and Julie Lafreniere) and be overseen by an advisory group within the GBV AoR.
- The GBV Prevention Network
The Network is over 500 members strong, working in 18 different countries in the Horn, East and Southern Africa to build a just and violence-free world for women. We are dedicated organizations, individuals, academics, and activists. We come from rural and urban areas, community-based organizations, academic institutions and more. We are both women and men from all walks of life. We are people who believe that violence is an injustice and that we have the power and responsibility to prevent it! - Course E054: Gender-based Violence Human Rights Education Associates
This e-learning course introduces participants to general definitions, concepts and normative and legal frameworks related to concepts of gender-based violence. The course will cover forms, causes and consequences of GBV in conflict contexts, as well as on an endemic basis. Prevention and response programming, as well as models underpinning mainstreaming and targeted actions on GBV, and the need for coordinated approaches will be covered. The course will provide basic knowledge and skills on GBV to staff of international humanitarian and development organisations aiming to deepen their understanding and engagement on GBV responsive programming. - Humanitarian Practice Network´s Special feature GBV in emergencies
For those who missed this special edition from February 2014 that feature GBV in humanitarian crises. International concern over GBV in emergencies has grown significantly in recent years, and good practice standards, guidelines, training resources and other tools have been developed. Yet as Dharini Bhuvanendra and Rebecca Holmes point out in their article on the findings of their recent review of literature on GBV in humanitarian contexts, very little of the evidence and learning from good practice has been adequately documented or disseminated, and there is a profound lack of agreement amongst humanitarian practitioners on how to define, prevent and respond to GBV. - Verdad, justicia y reparación:Cuarto informe sobre la situaciónde derechos humanos en Colombia www.cidh.org
COMISIÓN INTERAMERICANA DE DERECHOS HUMANOSOEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 49/1331 de diciembre 2013 Original: Español Verdad, justicia y reparación : Cuarto informe sobre la situación
La Comisión constata en su informe el grave impacto que continúa teniendo el prolongado conflicto armado interno colombiano en la situación de derechos humanos en el país. La guerra ha conjugado todas las formas de violencia y ha acontecido en los lugares más apartados, perpetuando y acentuando contextos de discriminación y exclusión social histórica, en especial con los sectores en mayor situación de vulnerabilidad, en particular, personas afrodescendientes, raizales y palenqueras; niños, niñas y adolescentes; pueblos indígenas; mujeres; periodistas y comunicadores sociales; personas lesbianas, gays, trans, bisexuales e intersex, y personas privadas de libertad. - Mujeres en territorios urbanos de inseguridad
HUMANAS 2011
This report of Corporación Humanas, which is the result of cooperation with scholars, representatives of NGOs and religious organizations, is a recollection of information regarding the cities of Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Kennedy, suburb of Bogotá, in order to understand how the dynamics of the violence and the armed conflict affect the lifes of women.
Desde 2011 la Corporación Humanas viene recogiendo información en las ciudades de Barranquilla, Cartagena y San Marta y en la localidad de Kennedy de Bogotá, para comprender mejor cómo las dinámicas de la violencia urbana afectan la vida de las mujeres y si estas dinámicas tienen relación con las transformaciones que en los últimos años ha tenido el conflicto armado en Colombia. - Desplazamiento Forzado y Violencia Sexual Basada en Género BUENAVENTURA, COLOMBIA: REALIDADES BRUTALES, NRC 2014
El vínculo existente entre el desplazamiento forzado y la violencia sexual basada en género, en el marco del conflicto armado en Colombia es cada vez más evidente. Este documento describe cómo la violencia sexual se ha constituido en una práctica habitual y frecuente en el contexto colombiano. A través de la visión de sobrevivientes de este delito y de la experiencia de trabajo de varias mujeres de Buenaventura (una de las ciudades más afectadas por el conflicto armado) se exponen elementos para la comprensión de esta práctica regular e invisible, que afecta miles de mujeres en Colombia. - Forced Displacement and Gender-based Sexual Violence BUENAVENTURA, COLOMBIA: BRUTAL REALITIES, NRC 2014
The relationship existing between forced displacement and gender-based sexual violence within the framework of the armed conflict in Colombia has become ever more obvious. This document describes how sexual violence has become a habitual, frequent practice within the Colombian context. Through the viewpoints of survivors of this crime and the work experience of several women from Buenaventura (one of the cities most affected by the armed conflict), factors are explained which help to understand this common yet invisible practice that affects thousands of women in Colombia1 . - The Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (SVAC) Dataset sexualviolencedata.org 2014
The Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (SVAC) Dataset measures reports of the conflict-related sexual violence committed by armed actors (state forces, pro-government militias and rebel groups) during the years 1989-2009. The dataset includes information about the prevalence, perpetrators, victims, forms, timing, and locations of the reported sexual violence by each armed actor in each conflict-year.
The right to redress for GBV survivors
“Victims of sexual violence bear the cost of the harm they suffered with dramatic physical, psychological and material consequences which destroy not only their lives but often also the lives of their children. This creates irreparable damage to the very fabric of societies and in turn poses serious threats to the prospects of reconciliation and sustainable peace and development.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
Rape, being recognized as torture or other ill-treatment, may today be prosecuted as an act of torture (and therefore subject to universal jurisdiction). Rape is furthermore identified as a war crime (state and non-state actors), a crime against humanity (state and non-state actors) and as genocide (state and non-state actors). This means that the right to redress is enforceable for victims of GBV according to the Convention against torture art. 14, and outlined in General comment no 3 on the implementation of article 14.
For survivors of GBV to seek redress after what they have suffered may be important steps in reestablishing the survivor´s dignity and integrity. Recognizing the violations as serious crimes that must be addressed through truth and justice seeking, may form an important platform in the lives of survivors, but this must often be combined with forms of reparation such as providing care and support with regard to physical, psychological or social needs through a range of services. The right to a remedy and reparation is thus, articulated as an integrated right that consists of access to justice, compensation, rehabilitation and other forms of reparation. We have, pursuant to the adoption of General Comment no 3, to article 14 of the CAT, been particularly aware of the importance of ensuring psychological support to survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence, both immediately after the violence if possible, and as part of reparation. In order to strengthen the focus on psychological needs of survivors, HHRI has developed a manual to assist helpers who meet victims of these crimes in situations where specialized services may be scarce and the level of insecurity high. See more information on our manual further down.
As for the main theme in this newsletter we have gathered important articles that address the issue of redress to GBV survivors, including the legal as well as the physical, psychological and social aspects.
Articles and publications that highlight the importance of securing redress for GBV survivors
- What is reparation? Challenges and avenues to reparation for survivors of sexual violenceRedress 2013
For many victims, monetary compensation, while helpful, is not necessarily the first form of reparation that comes to mind. In many instances, victims will be living in dire physical, psychological or social conditions and have immediate as well as long term needs, both for themselves but also for their dependents. They may need services or the financial means to access services. However the mere provision of compensation or services would not amount to full and adequate compensation on account of the absence of recognition of wrongdoing. - Redress for Rape Using international jurisprudence on rape as a form of torture or other ill-treatment Redress 2013
It is now clearly established at the international level that rape is a crime of the highest order, that states do have the responsibility to prevent and respond to it, whoever commits it, and that survivors of rape are entitled to the same level of protection and response as any other victim of violence. Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment3 are high profile international crimes and human rights violations. Advocates and others have drawn on the torture framework to pursue individual cases and to push for policy change. The primary aim of this report is to bring together the developing international human rights law jurisprudence and significant other writing linking rape and torture and other ill-treatment in a comprehensive and useable way. - Gender and torture – conference report
Conference report the recognition of certain forms of harm inflicted by both state and non-state actors including rape, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and denial of reproductive rights as torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the practical effect this recognition has had in actual cases to hold states to account for their failure to prevent such violations, and to provide a remedy to victims. - Protection and restitution for survivors of SGBV in Uganda 2008 ACORD Uganda
Some forms of reparation may find a legal basis in domestic law or in international human rights law, while other forms are a matter of government policies and priorities. The right to compensation for survivors of torture is an individual subjective right in Uganda’s domestic legal system and is justiciable in criminal, civil, administrative or other proceedings. - Healing the spirit: Reparations for survivors of sexual violence related to the armed conflict in Kosovo OHCHR 2013
OHCHR commissioned this study with three primary aims: to highlight the most prevalent consequences of sexual violence committed during the armed conflict in Kosovo; to analyse the current state of affairs with respect to reparations for these crimes; and to highlight the most desirable forms and methods to provide redress for these crimes from the perspective of its survivors. - DRC victims of sexual violence rarely obtain justice and never receive reparation – Major changes needed to fight impunity FIDH 2013
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), victims of sexual crimes are facing insurmountable obstacles to obtain justice and reparation. The cost of proceedings is prohibitive and judicial decisions are hardly implemented. This is the damaging picture described in a report FIDH and its member organisations in DRC are publishing today, following several missions in that country.
Report of the Panel on Remedies and Reparations for Victims of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the High Commissioner for Human Rights OHCHR 2011
This need to raise the status of victims of sexual violence and publicly shift the blame from victims to their perpetrators is integral to the reparation of victims of sexual violence and adds a unique dimension to the task. The reparations fund envisioned by the National Strategy to Combat Gender-Based Violence in the DRC is a fund specifically for victims of sexual violence. - Seeking justice for the victims of sexual violence from the armed conflict in Kosovo, OHCHR 2013
OHCHR commissioned this study with three primary aims: to highlight the most prevalent consequences of sexual violence committed during the armed conflict in Kosovo; to analyse the current state of affairs with respect to reparations for these crimes; and to highlight the most desirable forms and methods to provide redress for these crimes from the perspective of its survivors.
Latest about our training manual on GBV and Mental Health consequences
We are now in the final stage of our training manual for helpers working with GBV survivors. The manual is designed for individuals who directly provide care, help and assistance to people who have been exposed to human rights violations and abuse, notably gender-based and sexual violence, and for personnel who support other care providers involved with the same survivor group. To ensure the quality and that the manual is useful in different cultural settings, we conducted four pilots in 2013. This was done in cooperation with LIMPAL-Liga Internacional de Mujeres por la Paz y la Libertad, in Colombia, Human Rights Foundation Turkey in Adana, Turkey. In Cambodia we cooperated with AFESIP-Cambodia on the third pilot training and with Kristin Andrea Wilmann on a mini-pilot in Oslo, Norway. The last training was conducted together with Arab Resource Collective in Amman, Jordan. Please let us know if you are interested in receiving a copy of the manual, free of charge.