Humanitarian agencies have long believed that increased consultation and participation of people affected by crises should improve accountability and the quality of humanitarian assistance. And more so, participation should acknowledge the right of affected populations to self-determination. This handbook is ultimately intended to be used by international humanitarian personnel as well as staff working for national and local organisations .
Today, women and girls everywhere still face greater obstacles claiming and enjoying their rights than do men and boys. Displacement generally exacerbates these inequalities, as does a tendency to focus on human rights abuses in public, rather than private, spheres. Gender inequality is at the heart of sexual and gender-based violence. To prevent SGBV we must therefore put an end to such inequalities.
The transitional justice mechanism in South Africa,that operated between 1995 and 1998 was not seen by women`s organizations as a priority in the years following the first democratic elections. Instead, women focused their energies on the task of building a new society. It is possible that the TRC was seen as a somewhat backward-looking project, when so much had to be done around reconstruction and social transformation.
Rather than starting out from a preconceived list of items that a gender sensitive reparations program has to abide by, it would seem that, in order to claim that women have been taken into account, a policy of reparations must begin by including the voices of women .
In the past decade there has been an increasing focus on forgiveness and reconciliation in societies coming out of conflict. The concepts were previously the domain of philosophers and theologians but have become integrally linked to questions of political transition.
Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone, are still embroiled in, or emerging from, long-term warfare. Women and girls in these countries are most vulnerable to gender-based violence and need special protection measures. This study on the situation of war-affected girls and women in the region highlights programmes being implemented with partners to address the impact of conflict, and recommends how UNICEF can more proactively champion the rights of girls – particularly adolescent girls.
On 30 December 2004, four days after the tsunami struck, the Voices of Hope voices of Youth website became a space where young people could build a support group for each other and voice opinions about the direction relief efforts should take. The discussion forum that resulted lasted for three months and became known as Tsunami terror, a name that was suggested by the young people themselves.
One year after the tsunami, UNICEF recounts its role in providing immediate relief and ongoing care to the thousands of families and children affected. Helping bring children back to school, providing immunization services, and assisting with registration, placement and reunification of the separated are but a few of the activities UNICEF undertook in the past 12 months. The report provides country-by-country breakdowns that include expenditure, plans and challenges, while highlighting children’s stories and key partners in relief and recovery.
There are many ways to improve the lives of people with mental disorders. One important way is through policies, plans and programmes that lead to better services. To implement such policies and plans, one needs good legislation that is, laws that place the policies and plans in the context of internationally accepted human rights standards and good practices. This Resource Book aims to assist countries in drafting, adopting and implementing such legislation. It does not prescribe a particular legislative model for countries, but rather highlights the key issues and principles to be incorporated into legislation (for historical reference).
These Guidelines are intended to be used by the staff of UNHCR, UN agencies, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations and host government agencies who provide protection and assistance to refugees and persons of concern to UNHCR. They are also intended to guide activities initiated by refugee communities themselves to prevent and address the problem.
Attention to psychosocial counseling as part of rehabilitation programs for vulnerable and trauma-exposed groups is relatively new in Nepal. The existence of such practices indicates a need or desire for forms of assistance that focus on psychological well-being. In response to a growing need for skilled counselors, there is a growing need for adequate training programs that deliver them. Many mental health problems exist in Nepal especially among vulnerable populations (e.g. torture survivors, refugees, youth affected by armed conflict, trafficked girls and women) and adequate assistance is not available.
Former child soldiers are considered in need of special mental health interventions. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the mental health of child soldiers compared with civilian children in armed conflicts.
Former combatants in Liberia were not exclusively male. Both female and male former combatants who experienced sexual violence had worse mental health outcomes than noncombatants and other former combatants who did not experience exposure to sexual violence.
(BMJ 2006;333:1230-1231) In a 1988 BMJ editorial,1 Marks and I reviewed the available knowledge on the mental health effects of torture and their treatment and presented a critical look at rehabilitation programmes for survivors. Eighteen years later, it is time to cast another look at the advances in our understanding of torture and its treatment and how this progress has translated into rehabilitation work with survivors. Such an update is timely: given the political developments of the last two decades, torture has become an ever more serious problem.
Understanding trauma and the individuals responses to it requires a complex approach. Hardiness refers to the characteristic response some people make to adversity and involves the concept of transformative response. In this context adversity is something that can be viewed as a learning experience, a challenge rather than a catastrophe. Response to adversity becomes a commitment rather than simply being reactive, and the individuals sense of control over outcomes remains positive, rather than emphasising that persons vulnerability (9 pages, .pdf, for historical reference).
The report focuses on grave violations perpetrated against children in the Central African Republic and identifies parties to the conflict, both State and non-State actors, who commit grave abuses against children. In particular, the report highlights the fact that children have been consistently recruited and used by non-State armed groups, including Government-backed self-defence militias. The report shows worrisome trends of rapes and other grave sexual violence perpetrated by all parties to the conflict throughout the territory. The report also notes the systematic and widespread use of abductions, especially in the north-west, by non-State armed groups and armed bandits as a means of recruiting children and to threaten and extort ransom from the population.
A Comparative Analysis of Legislative and Preventative Tools in the Netherlands,France, the United Kingdom, and Austria, Every year, 3 million girls and women are subjected to the harmful traditional practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Worldwide, the number of girls and women who have undergone this practice is estimated to lie between 100 and 150 million. FGM is not only an important issue in Africa, the Middle-East, and Asia where it has been traditionally practised, but due to the arrival of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from these countries to the West, to Europe, North America, and Australia, FGM has also become a Western concern.
The Field Guide to Child Soldier Programs in Emergencies is intended for Save the Children staff and partners designing and implementing either a program focused fully on child soldiers, or a child soldiers-focused component of a broader program for war-affected children. This field guide is meant to be useful both for staff that have limited experience with child soldier programming and for experienced staff that wish to improve their understanding of particular aspects of child soldier programs.
Countries going through democratic transition have to address how they will deal with the human rights crimes committed during the authoritarian era. In the context of amnesty for perpetrators, truth commissions have emerged as a standard institution to document the violent past. Increasingly, claims are made that truth commissions have beneficial psychological consequences; that is, that they facilitate ‘catharsis’, or ‘heal the nation’, or allow the nation to ‘work through’ a violent past. This article draws upon trauma counseling experience and anthropological fieldwork among survivors to challenge these claims in the context of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Conflicts subject people to frequent and gross human rights violations. This Declaration is intended to serve as a working instrument. It provides a framework to achieve increased consensus and cooperation in operational models, including policy strategies, and programs. It is aimed at promoting evidence-based, holistic and community-based approaches that are effective and which can be implemented rapidly (for historical reference).
Meeting the mental health needs of those persons in conflict and post-conflict situations in the eastern Mediterranean region (EMR) is an important goal of the World Health Organization. Of the 22 countries in the EMR, 85% of the population has been affected by conflict in the past two decades. This has resulted in a high prevalence of mental disorders, most commonly depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety. A number of innovative, culturally sensitive interventions have been developed to meet the mental health needs of the population. These include the use of ‘focusing’ in Afghanistan, the Education for Peace Programme in Lebanon, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s work with refugees in Gaza, life skills education in Iran and the training of professionals in Afghanistan. (Only an abstract, but cited by many publications – How to Rebuild a Nation: Improving Mental Health in Post-Conflict Countries by Raushun Kirtikar among others.)
This module is part of the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service guidance package, which provides practical information to assist countries to improve the mental health of their populations. Important for countries that are rebuilding their governance.
The Handbook for Repatriation and Reintegration Activities (the Handbook) is a guide for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and partner staff in the field to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate repatriation and reintegration activities.
This policy analysis provides insight into the ongoing process of mental health reform and the difficulty of sustaining such reform in post-conflict areas. It is based on experiences in Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia.
Various transitional-justice mechanisms were included in Nepals Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in November 2006. The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), together with Advocacy Forum (AF), decided to carry out a study on victims perceptions of issues such as truth, justice, reparations, reconciliation, and the general transition in Nepal. This study seeks to contribute to the debate about the transitional process in Nepal, bringing to the discussion the perceptions and opinions of the people who were directly affected by violence during the conflict. The ICTJ and AF consider it important to bring the voice of the victims into a debate involving all sectors of society.
The article is based on the experiences of a recent pilot project to develop a participatory approach to the monitoring and evaluating of psychosocial interventions with children affected by armed conflict. Some of the main challenges encountered while utilizing these tools are discussed, along with the value of the data generated and the implications of using participatory methodologies for planning, monitoring and evaluation (Intervention 2007, Volume 5, Number 1).
The incidence of PTSD After the Madrid March 11, 2004 terrorist attacks, ranged from what can be expected as a normal prevalence in general population in Spain under non-traumatic conditions to values that, when applied to the general population, could be considered a dramatic epidemic of PTSD. These results demonstrate that inferences about the impact of traumatic events on the general population largely depend on the measure, definition and criteria used by the researcher. Slightly changing the criteria for PTSD makes an enormous difference to the amount of traumatization that is found (Intervention 2007, Volume 5, Number 1).
This article presents the methodology and results of a study on the effectiveness of two psychosocial interventions targeting female victims of war related and sexual violence in Liberia. One intervention provided counseling, the other offered support groups and skill training. Qualitative research suggests that the participants of both interventions were positive with regard to the help provided (Intervention 2007, Volume 5, Number 1, Page 18 26).
In this article the literature on psychosocial assistance to children in war-affected areas is reviewed. Two main types of interventions are identified: the curative approach and the developmental approach. The effectiveness of each of these approaches is discussed.( Intervention 2007, Volume 5, Number 1, Page 3 – 17)
Argentina is undergoing significant changes regarding the investigation and prosecution of human rights violations that occurred from 1976 to 1983, when the country was ruled by a military dictatorship and an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people disappeared.2 This paper outlines transitional justice developments in Argentina and explores the history behind these advances.
As part of a larger strategy to rebuild Iraq’s health care system, the coordinating body could also oversee the training of local forensic scientists in the recovery and analysis of skeletal remains and other health care professionals in the assessment and treatment of the mental health of the surviving families of the missing. At the same time, any future internationally coordinated search for the missing should not undermine the capacity of local institutions to develop culturally appropriate responses to what are ultimately local problems that the people of Iraq will continue to face for decades to come.
The ending of overt violence via a peace agreement or military victory does not mean the achievement of peace.2 Rather, the ending of violence or a so-called post-conflict situation provides a new set of opportunities that can be grasped or thrown away.3 The international community can play a significant role in either nurturing or undermining this fragile peace building process. Both justice and reconciliation are fundamentally significant goals that need to be addressed in the design of successful post-conflict peace building processes and mechanisms, especially in the aftermath of genocide.
The international community now recognizes that accounting for what happened during the conflict, seeking justice for those who were wronged, and promoting peaceful reconciliation among combatants and their broader societies are among the most important needs of countries emerging from violent conflict. While much has been written about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)the psychological distress that individuals may develop following exposure to an upsetting event outside the range of normal human experiencethe role that trauma plays in these processes on the broader societal level is less well understod.
Floods, earthquakes and storms have routinely displaced tens of thousands around the world. Over the past few years, the international community’s response to these catastrophes has become ever swifter and more sophisticated. Until very recently, however, and in the rush to deliver life-saving aid, little attention was paid to the rights of these displaced people.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings clearly state that protecting and promoting mental health and psychosocial well-being is the responsibility of all humanitarian agencies and workers. Until now, many people involved in emergency response have viewed mental health and psychosocial well-being as the sole responsibility of psychiatrists and psychologists.
This book is divided into four sections. Section I presents the theoretical bases for mental health and psychosocial support activities following a major disaster. Section II provides the reader with six specific examples of how mental health and psychosocial needs of affected populations have been addressed in Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Iraq, the Philippines, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Section III moves from mental health and psychiatry into a community model of psychosocial support. These sections present a transition from psychiatry to psychosocial support in India and are followed by two case studies; one from Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India, and the other addressing the tsunami response during the acute to early reconstruction phases of the disaster cycle in the south and western provinces of Sri Lanka. Section IV proposes tools for monitoring and evaluation of community-based psychosocial support needs and interventions.
This report combines information collected from a variety of sources to document violations against children and adolescents in the context of the armed conflict in Nepal ( in Nepali and English).
The report addresses violations against children in six major categories identified by the United Nations Security Council. These categories include killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction, denial of humanitarian assistance, attacks on schools and hospitals and recruitment and use of children into armed forces and groups. In addition, the report discusses various other violations that continue to be committed against children and their families, such as forced labor, displacement and trafficking. (both .html and .pdf,
This handbook deals with the mandate and functioning of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the standards it has developed concerning the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty and conditions of detention. The handbook will be composed of ten brochures, six of which have been published to date. The brochures are also available in French.
In 2006, DRC continues to endure the world’s deadliest humanitarian crisis, with more than 38,000 people dying every month as direct and indirect consequences of the armed conflict, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Approximately 45 percent of these deaths occur among children under age 18. In addition, children are targets of human rights violations committed by armed forces and groups on a daily basis. The overwhelming majority of these crimes are committed in an environment of utter impunity. (Both in French and English)
Most people experience considerable distress and avoidance after being exposed to a severely traumatic experience. This is a normal and adaptive response and often includes reliving the event in thoughts, images, and dreams. This initial reliving of the event may in fact contribute to the healing process and provide a way of achieving mastery over the event. For most people, these symptoms usually become less severe and gradually disappear over time. For others, the symptoms persist and become chronic, leading to PTSD.
PFA is 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 mental health specialists including first responders, incident command systems, primary and emergency health care providers, school crisis response teams, faith-based organizations, disaster relief organizations, Community Emergency Response Teams, Medical Reserve Corps, and the Citizens Corps in diverse settings.
The Iraq War Clinician Guide was developed by members of the National Center for PTSD and the Department of Defense. It was developed specifically for clinicians and addresses the unique needs of veterans of the Iraq war.
Rebuilding Lives focuses on five Fund-supported projects in Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Pakistan and Rwanda, representing the five regions of the world. The projects are described in brief articles supplemented by a series of photographs. These should allow readers to have a greater understanding of the experiences of torture victims and the rehabilitative services provided by the organizations.
Terrorist attacks like the ones we experienced on September 11, 2001 have left many concerned about the possibility of future incidents of terrorism in the United States and their potential impact. They have raised uncertainty about what might happen next, increasing stress levels. There are things you can do to prepare for terrorist attacks and reduce the stress that you may feel now and later should another emergency arise. Taking preparatory action can reassure you and your children that you can exert a measure of control even in the face of such events.
A hub of global information on the rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention of torture. IRCT have published a growing number of reports, documents, handbooks, and guides, which can be found here.
The abuse of women during the police operations last May in San Salvador Atenco, which we document in this alternative report, demonstrates the gender-based violence that the Mexican State and its agents are capable of, using the justification of reestablishing the rule of law and social peace. This situation is not unique, but rather demonstrates a pattern of violence against women that is carried out by the Mexican State and enjoys total impunity. There are other similar cases of State violence against women, including those documented by Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) (46 pages, .pdf, for historical reference)
Although the promises made by the Georgian Republic in the aftermath of the Beijing conference are now starting to be fulfilled at a fast pace, after many years of inaction, much still remains to be done in order to advance womens rights and ensure gender equality in Georgia. Indeed recent measures have been taken with regard to domestic violence and trafficking in persons but they have not been extended to women victims of other types of violence (40 pages, .pdf, for historical reference).
The objective of this article was to conduct a systematic review of long-term follow-up studies on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms in children and adolescents. The MEDLINE and PsycINFO databases were searched from 1980 through January 2014. Studies that examined PTSD symptoms in children for over three years after mass natural disasters were selected. Ten studies, including four cohort studies, four cross-sectional studies, one descriptive study, and one case-series study following disaster-exposed children, met all the selection criteria and thus were included in this review. The follow-up period ranged from three to 20 years after the disasters (21 pages, pdf).
Recent research in the social sciences and experience in dealing with children in stressful situations, are providing new insights that challenge much conventional wisdom about how to assist affected children. Because it is increasingly clear that many notions of childhood and of childhood vulnerability, development, and well-being are contextually constructed, serious doubt is being cast on the relevance of many traditional prescriptions for protecting children, especially interventions imposed from outside the child’s social and cultural context.
Mental-health intervention strategies with a focus on trauma-related symptoms including those of PTSD, depression, and suicidal ideation are needed to assist survivors in reducing their burden of mental suffering and to improve their performance in school. Impaired functioning was very frequently related to having experienced these stressors; therefore ways on how to cope with ongoing stress also appear to be essential in psychosocial programing. As long as the mental suffering of youth in post-war contexts and equally their human right to treatment and care are not fully acknowledged by the world community, attempts to enhance support structures will remain limited.
Alternative report prepared for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women 36th session 7-25 August 2006
An own web site with a lot of material related to the tsunami disaster in 2004.
This workshop is part of an interactive process of reflection launched by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the tragedy of people unaccounted for as a result of armed conflict or internal violence.
Representing a different crisis, our aim is to contribute to the discussion of and the search for new coping mechanisms needed in such a situation. Our focus goes on children and the way how the Tanzanian society is looking to them.
The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture adopted in December 2002, provides a novel and realistic approach to preventing this unacceptable human rights violation and crime against humanity. For the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR) and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), it is therefore a great honour to jointly present this manual aimed at putting such an innovative and indispensable international instrument into practice.
The PS Centre’s web site features news stories from all over the world on psychosocial support as part of the IFRC intervention in humanitarian crisis. Formerly published articles and stories can be found in the news archive.
World Mental Health Day was observed for the first time on 10 October 1992. It was started as an annual activity of the World Federation for Mental Health by the then Deputy Secretary General Richard Hunter. The day is officially commemorated every year on October 10th.
The need for guidelines for psychological services practice is evidenced by the different context in which psychological services need to be delivered to disaster affected persons. In the disaster context, psychological services are delivered within a community structure which is typically disrupted whereas these services are normally delivered within a functioning social structure in an orderly patterned existence. Where formal intervention is required it is usually delivered in a clinical, office based setting. Disaster generates varying degrees of chaos and renders many everyday systems and coping mechanisms dysfunctional or impotent. Service delivery therefore has to be flexible, mobile and creative.
Humanitarian organizations today are more professionally managed and better equipped and prepared than years ago. However direct exposure to misery, the ever-growing numbers of people affected by humanitarian crises, deteriorating safety and security conditions, and limited available resources mean that humanitarian workers remain exposed to a wide variety of sources of stress. Good staff care and psychosocial care have proven to be an important asset in stress management and the prevention and treatment of traumatic and post-traumatic stress. However, although there is awareness of these issues in most organizations, adequate care systems for national and international staff are often underdeveloped and lack attention and resources.