TABLE OF CONTENTS

Highlights

  • United Nations International Children’s Day – November 20
    An occasion to raise awareness and celebrate children’s rights and to improve child welfare worldwide; read the Blog by Kerstin Söderström and Derek Indoe.
    November 20th is the UN Universal Children’s Day, an occasion to raise awareness and celebrate children’s rights and to improve child welfare worldwide. We wish to draw attention to the plight of the indigenous and their children. Indigenous people can be found all around the world, but the focus of this press release today is the indigenous children of the Norwegian Sapmi and the Ticúna children in Brazil. Despite the distance between them in terms of time and space, there are strong similarities in the misery they have and are undergoing.
  • New Blogs:
    • Night of Broken Glass / Kristallnacht, 9 November 2020. Read more:
    • Psychology, History and Human Rights. October 2020, by Antoon de Baets, Network of Concerned Historians. Can it be a surprise that the study of history owes a lot to the work of psychologists? Think of the insights that come from the study of motives for human conduct: psychologists made historians aware that it is far from simple to pinpoint motives unambiguously or that individuals demonstrate a quasi-universal tendency to rationalize their behaviour after the fact.
    • Psychology and Human Rights: Holding on to Truth. By Derek Indoe.One would hope that all psychologists would appreciate the strengths of qualitative research or case studies that emphasise phenomenology. Perspectives which give insights into the subjective experience of others so that we do not confine the mentally ill to the categories contained in classification systems such as DSM5 and ICD 11 are central to our understanding of each other.
  • Welcome to Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS). A global transdisciplinary network and collaborative community of concerned scholars, researchers, educators, practitioners, creative artists, and others, wishing to stimulate systemic change, globally and locally, to open space for dignity, mutual respect, and esteem to take root and grow. https://www.humiliationstudies.org/
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GNPHR Activities

Human rights in times of Covid19

  • Ethnicity and clinical outcomes in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine, The Lancet (Open Access), November 2020. Patients from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
  • unMASKed Pandemic Stories: Reflections from Youth Around the World. This StoryMap is a window onto the personal reflections of youth around the world who are adjusting to life during the pandemic. https://quaranteening.netlify.app/ and http://www.generationhumanrights.org/unmasking-pandemic-curriculum
  • The poor have a more resilient psychological make-up to deal with Covid-19. (Saths Cooper, Coronavirus Monitor)
  • What you should know about RACISM-20: A fact sheet in the time of COVID-19. (Petteway, Ryan J., “What You Should Know About RACISM-20: A Fact Sheet in the Time of COVID-19” (2020). OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations. 397.)
    Drawing from social epidemiology literature related to structural racism, and rooted in critical race theory and critical theory related to narrative power, this paper—in the form of a “RACISM-20” fact sheet/health promotion flyer—uses satire and humor as critical commentary on mainstream public health discourse of/responses to COVID-19, transposing structural racism and COVID-19 to accentuate how individualist, apolitical, and “colorblind” downstream frames of COVID-19 risks and solutions curtail productive discourse and action to advance racial and health equity.
  • Statement on Covid-19 and Vulnerable Populations From the Special Interest Group on Coronavirus of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatry (September 6, 2020). Since the COVID-19 virus first manifested, in the last days of 2019 and the first months of 2020, numerous countries have taken measures at the level of national governments, states or provinces, or cities to lower the spread of infection in their populations. At this time, it is important to point out that these measures and policies have differentially affected the mental health, physical health, and economic well-being of vulnerable populations around the world.
  • To Promote Change, Support Teachers. (October 2, 2020, by Camilla Croso,
    Open Society Foundations). According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted learning on a scale not seen since World War II. In parallel, the global crisis has leveraged authoritarian governments to further restrict the rights of their citizens and stifle debate.

General Human Rights 

  • The Colonialism of Human Rights: Ongoing Hypocrisies of Western Liberalism. ‘Do so-called universal human rights apply to indigenous, formerly enslaved and colonized peoples? This trenchant book brings human rights into conversation with the histories and afterlives of Western colonialism and slavery. Colin Samson examines the paradox that the nations that credit themselves with formulating universal human rights were colonial powers, settler colonists and sponsors of enslavement.’ Colin Samson Wiley, September 2020.
  • Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Network of Concerned Historians (NCH) contains news about the domain where history and human rights intersect, in particular about the censorship of history and the persecution of historians, archivists, and archaeologists around the globe, as reported by various human rights organizations and other sources. It mainly covers events and developments of 2019 and 2020.

Human rights Education for Psychologists

  • UnMASKing: Using Covid-19 to engage young people in human rights education. Webinar Prof. dr. FELISA TIBBITTS, Chair in Human Rights Education, SIM, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. LINK
  • Right to a Better World – a video series on sexual and reproductive health and rights and the SDGs. (OHCHR, November 2020) The lessons in this series created through a multi-disciplinary partnership are invaluable and make it clear that securing rights for all, is not only the right way, but the smart way to achieve truly sustainable development.

Academic freedom

Forced migration

  • Torment of the Uyghurs. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghur children may have been separated from one or both detained parents. Rules against having too many children are strictly enforced on Uyghur women; some are sterilised. This amounts to the most extensive violation today of the principle that individuals have a right to liberty and dignity simply because they are people. Democracy and human rights are in retreat around the world. Resistance to this erosion of human rights should begin with the Uyghurs; . If liberal countries say nothing about them, how can anyone believe their criticism of other, lesser abuses? (The Economist, October 15 2020, Zanny Minton Beddoes) The persecution of the Uyghurs is a crime against humanity.

Refugees and Migration

  • Arrested, Tortured, Imprisoned: The U.S. Contractors Abandoned in Kuwait. (NY Times, By Doug Bock Clark, October 28, 2020). Dozens of military contractors, most of them Black, have been jailed in the emirate — some on trumped-up drug charges. Why has the American government failed to help them?
  • Missing Migrants Project tracks incidents involving migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, who have died or gone missing in the process of migration towards an international destination.

Mental Health and Human RIghts

  • A Call to Action for an Antiracist Clinical Science. Representing the collective work of numerous graduate students and postdoctoral trainees from multiple institutions, this call to action instantiates the need for prompt and consistent efforts towards dismantling institutionalized racism and inequity in clinical science.
  • WHO QualityRights aims to improve the quality of care in mental health and related services and to promote the rights of people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities. Through capacity building, service assessment, civil society engagement and policy reform, this project offers a comprehensive approach to ending coercion and promoting a recovery approach, in order to leave a lasting legacy of respect for human rights.
    QualityRights Objectives:

    • Build capacity to understand and promote human rights, recovery and independent living in the community.
    • Create community based and recovery oriented services in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
    • Improve the quality and human rights conditions in inpatient and outpatient mental health and related services.
    • Develop a civil society movement to conduct advocacy and influence policy-making.
    • Reform national policies and legislation in line with best practice, the CRPD and other international human rights standards.
      QualityRights materials for training, guidance and transformation

Climate Change

  • Automated Hardship; How the Tech-Driven Overhaul of the UK’s Social Security System Worsens Poverty(Human Rights Watch, September 2020)
    This report documents how the government’s drive to promote efficiency and personal responsibility through Universal Credit has led to flawed design choices that are depriving people of essential social security support in the UK. As they borrow money to cope and turn to food banks to provide for their families, these restrictions on their right to social security are also undermining their rights to food and other essential elements of the right to an adequate standard of living.

Racism

Commentaries and Blogs

  • Freedom From Fear; Terrorism. November 5, 2020. BDP president dr. Meltem Avci-Werning and prof. Dr. Ulrich Wagner spoke to each other about extremist violence and the possibilities of preventive counter-terrorism through psychological intervention. (in German)

International Human Rights news

Regional News

EUROPE

FRA/ FRP

Council of Europe Strategic Action Plan for Roma and Traveller Inclusion (2020-2025). Combating anti-Gypsyism and discrimination, supporting equality, and fostering democratic participation, promoting public trust and accountability, and supporting access to inclusive quality education and training: these are the aims of this Strategic Action Plan on Roma and Traveller Inclusion.

Conferences, Events, Education and Grants

  • Join SAR on November 19-20 for “Free to Think 2020: Responding to Attacks on Higher Education,” a virtual conference for the release of the annual Free to Think report. This year’s report documents over 300 attacks on higher education communities worldwide, including violent attacks and killings, prosecutions and imprisonments, dismissals, crackdowns on student expression, the impact of COVID-19, and more. The conference will feature expert discussions on academic freedom issues in China and Hong Kong, India, Yemen, Turkey, and Eastern Europe, as well as shared experiences from SAR partners and SAR-assisted scholars. Register Today »
  • Equity Flattens the Curve: The Importance of Diverse Populations in Combating COVID-19. (AAAS – Science and Human Rights Coalition)
  • 32nd International Congress of Psychology (ICP2020), Prague, Czech Republic. Rescheduled to 18-23 July 2021. https://www.icp2020.com/
  • IACCP2020. Rescheduled to 24-29 July 2021. 25th International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. Olomouc/ Czech Republic. https://www.iaccp2020.com/
  • The Centennial Congress of Applied PsychologyDecember 13-17 of 2020, in Cancun, Mexico has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For a more detailed resource, International Association of Applied Psychology: A Centennial History 1920–2020, our newly published book, includes the history of Applied Psychology during the first hundred years of IAAP as we celebrate our Centennial Anniversary in 2020. Access an online version for free here!
  • CRCP2020, virtual, online, interactive CANPA TALKS. November 19: Racial Injustice, November 20: Indigenous Healing. Registration and more information  on www.Canpanet.org
  • International Council of Psychologists 78th annual conference. Human rights, dignity and justice: Intersectionality and Diversity. ICP2020 will be held online through an interactive virtual conference platform. December 11- 12-13. Scientific Program, Breakout Chat Rooms, Poster Sessions, Discussions.
  • 14TH European Public Health conference; 10 – 13 November 2021. Our food, our health, our earth: A sustainable future for humanity. Welcome to Dublin, if possible. Call for abstracts: https://ephconference.eu/abstract-submission-10
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