AsianSTSS was founded for professionals to advance knowledge about the nature and consequences of highly stressful events and to provide a forum for the sharing of research, clinical strategies, public policy concerns and theoretical formulations on trauma around the Asian region, as well as promoting high standards and ethical practice in the trauma field.
HealthNet TPO is a Dutch aid agency that works on health care in general but also mental health in spesific, in areas disrupted by war or disasters. In these areas people are facing the immense task of rebuilding society while they suffer from poverty, diseases and the emotional consequences of conflict. We use health as both a goal and means: the goal is to reach accessible health care for all. By working on that together with local communities we use health as a means to bring people together and to restore mutual trust.
The main beneficiaries of FAVL are people suffered from military operations (hostages, war prisoners, missing people and their families, refugees, forced displaced persons), victims of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, without difference of race, nation, religion and political views, as well as ethnic minorities/other unions, groups, communities, especially suffered from the infringement of their civil and political, social, economic and cultural rights.
The primary goal of Vive Zene is to improve mental health of torture victims. Those are the persons tortured during and after the war in Bosnia Herzegovina. By doing this, we contribute to the torture prevention through multidisciplinary approach and intervention psychotherapy, psychosocial, social, medical and legal counseling. Our goal is to minimize the effects of trauma-related disorders in the lives of tortured, raped or abused victims, and helping their emotional healing.
A global transdisciplinary network and fellowship of concerned academics and practitioners. They wish to stimulate systemic change, globally and locally, to open space for equality in dignity and mutual respect and esteem to take root and grow, thus ending humiliating practices and breaking cycles of humiliation throughout the world.
An website with links to different articles related to public health and social justice. The thematic page on War and Peace is relevant for our users. This page contains articles and slide shows on militarism, war, peace, nuclear weapons, terrorism, rape in war, genocide, and violence against women in the military.
PBB is committed to international leadership in evidence-informed psychosocial preparedness, prevention and response to disasters, armed conflict and terrorism. As part of this broad mission, Psychology Beyond Borders is committed to enhancing understanding, policy and practice in four key areas: Preparedness,Prevention,Repetitive exposure to disaster and Resilience.
The CPC Learning Network is an active cadre of member organizations who are capable of collaboratively employing assessment methodologies and able to identify, quantify, and understand the causes and consequences of key child care and protection concerns.
The SVRI aims to promote research on sexual violence and generate empirical data that ensures sexual violence is recognised as a priority public health problem. The SVRI does this by building an experienced and committed network of researchers, policy makers, activists and donors to ensure that the many aspects of sexual violence are addressed from the perspective of different disciplines and cultures.
The primary objective of the “Support for TortureVictims” association and the individual outpatient clinics is to help refugee victims of torture and war overcome their traumatic experiences, thus enabling them to regain control of their life.
PDHRE is a non-profit, international service organization that works directly and indirectly with its network of affiliates primarily women’s and social justice organizations to develop and advance pedagogies for human rights education relevant to people’s daily lives in the context of their struggles for social and economic justice and democracy.
These Trauma Pages focus primarily on emotional trauma and traumatic stress, including PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) and dissociation, whether following individual traumatic experience(s) or a large-scale disaster.
(HREA) is an international non-governmental organisation that supports human rights learning; the training of activists and professionals; the development of educational materials and programming; and community-building through on-line technologies. HREA is dedicated to quality education and training to promote understanding, attitudes and actions to protect human rights, and to foster the development of peaceable, free and just communities.
The Children and War Foundation has been created to ensure that more solid knowledge about children can be gathered, and then used to improve the care of all children affected by war and disaster. Two professional groups, the Center for Crisis Psychology in Bergen, Norway and the Institute of Psychiatry in London, UK, have been instrumental in setting up this foundation.
Brandon Hambers homepage, an academic that focuses on the psychological implications of strategies for dealing with a violent political past such as truth commissions, reconciliation as a theoretical and applicable concept, truth recovery processes and transitional justice more broadly, healing and dealing with the psychological legacy of violence, as well as comparative research on violence and crime in countries in transition.
Transitional justice is a response to systematic or widespread violations of human rights. It seeks recognition for victims and to promote possibilities for peace, reconciliation and democracy. Transitional justice is not a special form of justice but justice adapted to societies transforming themselves after a period of pervasive human rights abuse. In some cases, these transformations happen suddenly; in others, they may take place over many decades.
War Child International is a network of independent organisations, working across the world to help children affected by war. War Child was founded upon a fundamental goal: to advance the cause of peace through investing hope in the lives of children caught up in the horrors of war.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) is the primary mechanism for inter-agency coordination of humanitarian assistance. It is a unique forum involving the key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners.
The Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists (ATSS) has internationally recognized certifications for trauma responders. It is a membership Association which develops standards of service and education for those who provide critical emotional care to trauma victims and survivors. ATSS has always endeavored to recognize and support both service providers and the consumers affected by all aspects of trauma in the international setting. ATSS is dedicated to excellence in training, education and experience to ensure that victims of crime, abuse, war, terrorism and disasters receive the most compassionate and effective care as possible.
The Ignacio Marin-Baro Fund fosters psychological well-being, social consciousness, and active resistance in communities affected by violence, repression, and social injustice. Through grants, networking and technical support, the Fund works in partnership with grassroots projects that promote progressive social change.
The original idea of founding the network can be traced back to a number of international events. The widening of transnational co-operation began with the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993. This conference established that acts of violence committed against women constituted severe human rights violations. These violations related, for instance, to the right to inviolability and the right to freedom from fear and coercion.
CIESPI is a non-profit research center dedicated to applied research, policy analysis and training about the needs of children, particularly disadvantaged children, and their families. CIESPI, registered as an independent non-profit organization, is located at, and works in collaboration, with the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) of Rio de Janeiro.
WHO is actively strengthening its role in providing technical, intellectual and political leadership in the field of health and human rights. The main objectives are to:
* Strengthen WHO`s capacity to integrate a human rights-based approach in its work
* Support governments to integrate a human rights-based approach in health development
* Advance the right to health in international law and international development processes
An innovative psychotrauma research- and outpatient clinic has been established by the University of Konstanz, Department of Clinical Psychology in joint collaboration with VIVO (victim`s voice), focusing on the treatment of refugees who have suffered traumatic events.
SACH -struggle for change is one of the few organizations in Pakistan, which is presently working on the issue of Torture and Human Rights Abuses. SACH has a team of professional and experienced staff, which includes health and social workers and professionals working for the rehabilitation and reintegration of the violence survivors.
The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Centre for Human Rights, A.C. (Centre PRODH) is a non- governmental organization that, through the defense and promotion of human rights, works towards attaining the structural conditions in society such that the people of Mexico can enjoy and exercise without discrimination their fundamental human rights.
The Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project is a non-political organization funded entirely by private donations. It was created in response to the dire and growing need for public health care for the Tibetan community-in-exile, living both in resettlement camps in India, and throughout the world, and to be a support for The Tibetan Government-in-exile, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Department of Health. All projects are reported to them.
The NSHC`s main area of focus is in taking care of the needs of the most vulnerable people in Novi Sad and Vojvodina. Our priorities are children and youth, the disabled, single parents, families who have lost loved ones, the elderly, shut-ins, those suffering from illness, refugees and displaced persons, victims of torture and violence, the unemployed, the homeless, those deprived of their rights and the poor.
The goal of the International Trauma Treatment Program is to undermine the use of torture through establishing an international network of practitioners who fight torture by transforming torture victims into survivors. By preparing practitioners from war zones to treat, and to train other practitioners to treat, trauma survivors in their home countries, we seek to leverage our resources by creating a snowball effect that greatly increases the number of practitioners worldwide who fight torture.
The Johannes Wier Foundation is a Dutch human rights organisation for doctors, dentists, nurses and paramedics. The focus of the organisation is on the specific responsibility of all health care workers regarding human rights.
The International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations (IFHHRO) was established as a network of organisations with similar human rights agendas, upon an initiative of the Johannes Wier Foundation (the Netherlands) and Physicians for Human Rights (USA) in 1989. The organisation has affiliated and observer organisations; in 1996 the organisation was transformed into a federation.
The DMHI was founded in 1993, and was designated a South Dakota Board of Regents Center of Excellence in 1997. The mission of the DMHI is the promotion, development, and application of both practice and research in disaster mental health.
The mission of the Finnish Association for Mental Health FAMH is to promote mental health and to have good mental health considered essential on all levels of society and in all spheres of life.
The Refugee Therapy Centre provides help and support to refugees and asylum seekers. Mother tongue counselling and psychotherapy are available in a number of languages and our staff have intercultural support and supervision.
ECRE is a pan-European alliance of 82 NGOs protecting and advancing the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons. Our mission is to promote the establishment of fair and humane European asylum policies and practices in accordance with international human rights law.
Animus Association Foundation is a women`s non-governmental organisation created to help victims of violence in Bulgaria. The team of the Foundation consists of clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, and social workers.
The Melaleuca Refugee Centre, Torture and Trauma Survivors Service of the NT provides an environment for the recovery of survivors of torture and trauma, their families and community, through confidential, high quality, holistic services.
The Cambodian Women`s Crisis Center (CWCC) is a local, non-governmental, non-profitable, and non-political organization. It was founded in Phnom Penh in March 1997 by a group of women who believed that violence against women and children was severe and that the assistance services were lacking.
Autonomous Women`s Center Against Sexual Violence was founded in Yugoslavia in 1993 with the primary aim to work with women raped in war, as well as to support women survivors of all kinds of male violence against women.
Action for Children in Conflict (AfCiC) works to break cycles of violence, hatred and despair by providing psychological, emotional and educational support to the survivors of conflict. AfCiC focuses its activities on children and young people, who have the greatest capacity to transcend the conflicts of their communities and to bring about change in the future.
APAV is a non-profit making and a charitable organisation. Its objective and primary statutory activity is to provide confidential and free services to victims of crime, namely information, counselling and emotional, legal, psychological and social support, at a national level.
ASPIS strongly believe that victims of crime, severe incidents, torture and war have a right to receive medical treatment and psychotherapeutic support irrespective of their financial situation and/or legal status.
The Genesis Project is a local non-governmental organization, set up in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in June, 1996. One of the organizations main goals is to help war traumatized children and their families.
MATESO treats the following client groups: victims of torture by law enforcement officials; victims of rape/sexual violence in police cells and prisons; and victims of domestic violence.
The primary objectives of VI.TO are:
*The early identification of torture survivors.
*Awareness-raising and training of staff at the national health service and other organisations on torture issues.
*Medical, psychological, legal and social assistance during the asylum-seeking process and once refugee status has been granted. Focus is on avoiding re-traumatisation and providing adequate care.
The Community Stress Prevention Centre (CSPC) in Israel was founded in Kiryat Shmona in 1981 with the aim of giving support to the population of the northern border (children, adults, education system, municipality, welfare, health and psychological services).
The primary objectives of EMPATHY are the identification of torture victims; treatment and medical/psychosocial rehabilitation of torture victims; prevention of torture and persecution of torturers; research and training; consultations and education; information and mass media activities; investigating allegations of torture, providing independent expertise and monitoring prisons/detention facilities; and networking and facilitating activities with governmental, non-governmental, international and local institutions working in the field of human rights and rehabilitation.
(from IRCT directory, page 40)
CPMRVT/SOPROP is an association which is dedicated to the effective struggle against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Our activities take place in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in a small part of the South Kivu province, as the only NGO working in this field.
CRAT provides psychosocial support programmes for victims (all sectors of population), including refugees, depending on the availability of resources. Financial assistance can be provided to speed up the rehabilitation process.
This document is based on research conducted in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka between January and April 2001. (for historical reference)
VIVO works to overcome and prevent traumatic stress and its consequences within the individual as well as the community, safeguarding the rights and dignity of people affected by violence and conflict. vivo further aims to strengthen local resources for the development of peaceful, human rights-based, societal ways of living.
FIACAT brings together ACAT national associations from four continents, and has been serving them since 1987. FIACAT helps the ACAT network to thrive by encouraging exchanges between the various groups. It initiates joint actions and campaigns and organises regional and international training seminars. FIACAT represents ACATs in international and regional bodies or in Coalitions.
Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-France) is an ecumenical organisation fighting against torture and the death penalty around the world and defending asylum rights (only available in French).
TPO Cambodia vision is to contribute to the development of Psychosocial and Mental Health Care in Cambodia within a local cultural context.
A Palestinian non-governmental, civil institution which focuses on human rights issues. Established in 1992 by a group of activists interested in human rights, the center`s activities focus on offering support for Palestinian prisoners, advocating the rights of political prisoners, and working to end torture through monitoring, legal procedures and solidarity campaigns.
The centre VIVRE is a project within an organisation called CAPREC. The purpose of the centre is to offer medical, social and legal assistance to victims of torture and violence, among them refugees, displaced people and local people.
OASIS is a private treatment center for traumatized refugees, asylum seekers and their families. OASIS holds a holistic view of refugees` suffering, which is reflected in the center`s interdisciplinary treatment model.
(only available in Danish) The center has since 1986 treated people that have been exposed to traumatic events such as torture, persecution, imprisonment, war, death threats and other forms of organized violence, and thus suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and a number of other complications.
DIGNITY’s vision is a world without torture. Their mission is to be the leading global organization for research-based prevention of torture, rehabilitation of traumatized victims, and documentation of serious human rights violations. (DIGNITY, former known as RCT.) DIGNITY is headquartered in Copenhagen and currently employs around 140 staff globally. We have active partnerships with more than 30 local and international NGOs and research institutions around the world.
Medica Mondiale acts to support traumatised women and girls in war and crisis zones and views its role as that of an advocate for the rights and interests of women who have survived sexualised wartime violence.