January 2026

Table of Contents

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DAY FOCUS

Special Focus: Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day 2026: Bridging Generations 

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2026, ‘Bridging Generations’, is a call-to-action. A reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn’t end with the survivors – it lives on through their children, their grandchildren and through all of us. This theme encourages us all to engage actively with the past – to listen, to learn and to carry those lessons forward. By doing so, we build a bridge between memory and action, between history and hope for the future. 

2026 Holocaust Remembrance for Dignity and Human Rights 

The theme, “Holocaust Remembrance for Dignity and Human Rights” will guide United Nations Holocaust remembrance and education in 2026. Remembrance dignifies the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. It keeps alive their memories of the communities and traditions and loved ones the Nazis sought to erase. The Holocaust warns us of the deadly consequences of antisemitism and hatred, dehumanization and apathy left unchallenged. Over eighty years after the Holocaust, we witness daily assaults on our fellow global citizens. Antisemitism and hatred surge. Denial and distortion of the Holocaust persist. Remembrance of the Holocaust defies denial and distortion, rejects falsehoods, confronts hatred, and insists on the humanity of the victims. The defence of universal rights is essential for sustainable peace and lies at the heart of the United Nations. In remembering the victims of the Holocaust, we affirm our shared humanity and pledge to defend the dignity and human rights of all. 

UN COMMEMORATIVE DAYS – January

• January 24    – International Day of Education 
• January 26   – International Day of Clean Energy 
• January 27    – International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust    

SPECIAL CALL FOR SUPPORT

Special Call from the Mental Health Human Rights Institute:
Call for support for Iranians in exile, January 2026

Appeal for urgent psychological support for Iranians in exile in a critical time. The situation in Iran is now horrific. The Iranian dictatorship has ordered the military and militia-groups to suppress peaceful demonstrations with brutal force.

Dear friends and colleagues,

Since Thursday last week (January 8), the authorities have shut down the internet, phone lines, and SMS. All communication in and out of the country has been cut off. The regime has declared that any demonstrator will be treated as a terrorist, and the death penalty is being used as a weapon. Read and see links to resources for how to assist Iranians outside of Iran: https://www.hhri.org/news/appeal-for-urgent-psychological-support-for-iranians/ .

GNPHR NEWS AND EVENTS

Hello Global Network of Psychologists for Human Rights

See the GNPHR greeting video for Human Rights Day and the International Council of Psychologists’ ICP Day

Webinar Library Human Rights Education

 BLOGS: Opinion pieces by GNPHR Contributors

General

New archbishop urged to scrap £100m fund over slavery links
Fiona Nimoni, BBC, January 6.
The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury has been urged to scrap plans to spend £100m over the Church of England’s historical links to slavery. In a letter seen by the Sunday Times, a group of Conservative MPs and peers has urged Dame Sarah Mullally to stop the Church from spending the money. They claim the funds can only legally be spent on churches and the payment of clergy wages. In a statement, the Church Commissioners said that arrangements for the fund were being “developed transparently – in line with charity law”.

Human Rights as a Lay Category of Thought: Content and Structure in the United States
Katherine Jensen, Monika Krause and Benjamin Witkovsky, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 11, 2025.
What are human rights? Although legal scholars point to a growing list of international entitlements, social scientists have highlighted underlying ideological assumptions and the selective interpretation of human rights in practice. Lay conceptualizations of human rights, however, merit further examination. This study brings together human rights research and cognitive sociology, deploying a novel, online task-based study to explore the content and structure of human rights as a lay category of thought. To do so, the authors examine rights exemplars, perceived violations, goodness of fit, and response times in a sample of adults in the United States. Given that political culture shapes what human rights groups value (Stellmacher et al. 2005), researchers could compare how the social mindscape of human rights varies in other countries or world regions. Existing scholarship and United Nations treaty ratifications suggest that the United States emphasizes civil and political rights, while second-generation rights are more prominent elsewhere (e.g., Blau 2016; Donnelly 2013). Although this study’s findings empirically deepen and nuance our understandings of human rights at the level of personal culture in the United States, it remains uncertain how this compares with other political cultural environs.

Human rights are under pressure, but they are not in retreat
Thomas Tijang,  FAU Magazine, 18. December 2025.
A conversation with Harvard Professor Dr. Kathryn Sikkink. The pioneer of human rights research and honorary doctorate recipient of FAU discusses the Cluster of Excellence “Transforming Human Rights” and the challenges facing human rights research.
How great is the danger currently facing human rights research?
It is under pressure, yes. Above all, in places where authoritarian regimes deliberately take action against critical scholarship. But even in democracies, researchers are increasingly coming under attack. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful. Human rights research today is more extensive, more interconnected, and often more resilient than in the past.
Are there examples that give you hope?
There have been many advances that long seemed unlikely – such as the strengthening of women’s rights or the LGBTQ+ community. What gives me hope today, above all, are young people. Students, activists, and scholars all over the world who are deeply committed to human rights, often under difficult circumstances. The willingness of many universities to preserve or create new spaces for human rights research as here in Erlangen and Nuremberg is also a positive sign.

As Authoritarianism Grows, Psychologists Must Not Be Silent
Roy Eidelson, Ana Figueiredo, CounterPunch,  December 12, 2025.
Note: The authors and contributors to this statement had initially envisioned that it would be published as an official statement from the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence — Division 48 of the American Psychological Association (APA). However, APA’s policies and concerns over IRS regulations prohibited its publication in that form, and it does not represent the official positions or policies of Division 48 or the APA. We thank CounterPunch for providing us with the opportunity to share our analysis and call to action here.

Guided by our ethical and scientific commitments and by our duty to oppose forces that dehumanize, divide, and destroy, we believe that we must not be silent at this time. Authoritarianism thrives on fear, disinformation, and the suppression of truth. Peace psychology compels us to name these threats and to work toward systems grounded in justice, empathy, and democratic participation.
What follows is an overview of what we know about authoritarianism, its psychological underpinnings, its current manifestations, and the urgent need to confront the harm that has already been done and to curtail the suffering that still lies ahead.[3] We are not claiming that the psychological phenomena we describe are unique to authoritarianism, nor are we suggesting that authoritarianism is distinguished only by its psychology. We are well aware that a full understanding of authoritarianism requires contributions from many disciplines, including political science, sociology, economics, and history, among others.
We believe there is a range of psychological phenomena that become a source of significantly greater concern when authoritarian conditions prevail — as they increasingly do today. Here, we briefly describe six of them, along with a partial list of current distressing examples. It is our hope that readers will appreciate the insights gained from psychological research and will take meaningful action to prevent and mitigate the risks that authoritarianism poses to us all.
Propaganda _  Conformity and Obedience _  Moral Disengagement _ Dehumanization _ Systemic Racism _ Perceived helplessness
Meeting the Current Moment: Our Call to Action
In this statement, we have drawn upon decades of research by psychologists to demonstrate the role that psychological phenomena are playing in the distressing shift toward authoritarianism in the United States today. We not only consider it our responsibility to illuminate these patterns of thought and behavior — and their dire consequences — for our colleagues and the general public. We are also convinced that our professional knowledge and moral outrage must be directed into concrete efforts aimed at preventing and resisting authoritarianism’s destructive repercussions. Toward this end, below we describe a range of strategies and actions that we believe can generate and sustain positive social change.
We are convinced that, together, we must meet this moment. Through the power of collective action, radical hope, and ethics of care, we can resist the Trump administration’s authoritarian agenda and forestall its harmful and dangerous consequences. There is no time to delay.

Children/Youth

Displaced, Dissolved, not Disappeared
Projects awarded Children’s Rights Research funding. November 2025.
There is no difference in the dignity or blood of a child in a recognized or unrecognized state, as so poignantly put by a sixteen year old who was one of the 100,000 ethnically Armenian people displaced from Artsakh over two years ago.
In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a rapid military offensive in the Republic of Artsakh, also known as the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. It was a de facto state between Armenia and Azerbaijan, claiming independence after the fall of the Soviet Union and a disputed territory even before then. The events of September 2023 resulted in the surrender of the territory and a mass exodus of the population into Armenia. The offensive took place after 8 months of blockade restricting humanitarian access and ended with the government of Artsakh being taken to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. As of January 2024, the declared state was ‘officially’ dissolved.
As the youngest generation of Artsakhians navigates a displaced life they tackle uncertainty and difficult questions that don’t have good answers. In our conversations they displayed a deep sense of injustice about the attack and displacement, resilience in the face of their current reality and a clear understanding that while they have been displaced they have not disappeared.

Climate Justice

Climate change, migration, displacement, and health: past, present, and future
Anand Bhopal, Shilpa Rao, Rosemary Jouhad, Baltica Cabieses, Kolitha Wickramage, Ietza Bojorquez, et al. The Lancet, Vol. 407, Issue 10524, p. 114-115, January 10, 2026.
The history of human health and migration, the human story, is deeply intertwined with the natural environment. As described by Anthony McMichael, pioneering scholar of health and environmental change, the climate is not merely a backdrop to human life, it is embedded in who we are and how we live. Modern human civilisation has been facilitated by the remarkably stable climatic conditions of the Holocene: the past 11 000 years during which century-to-century global average temperatures varied by no more than 1°C. Nowadays, most human settlements are concentrated in a relatively narrow band of climatic conditions ideally suited to human physiology and food production, described as the “human climate niche”.² This stable period has ended abruptly, as we enter a new epoch defined by human intervention on earth systems: the Anthropocene. Global temperatures are already 1·3°C above pre-industrial measures and are projected to rise by 2·7°C or more by 2100. Consequently, billions of people are being exposed to temperatures far outside the historic human climate niche, with cascading negative effects on health, migration, and displacement.

Crimes against humanity

ECPA Position Statement Against Ongoing Genocides and Mass Atrocities
December 2025.
The European Community Psychology Association (ECPA) unequivocally condemns all forms of genocide, mass violence, and systematic oppression currently unfolding across the world, including in Afghanistan, China, Darfur and Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Palestine, Syria, and Ukraine (Genocide Watch, 2024). We affirm the inherent dignity and equal worth of all people and assert the fundamental right of every individual and community to live freely, safely, and in peace. Freedom for all people to live in peace is not an abstract aspiration but an essential and non-negotiable condition for human wellbeing, collective survival, and social justice.
The European Community Psychology Association reaffirms its commitment to working alongside communities, scholars, practitioners, and activists worldwide to resist oppression, support collective healing, and contribute to a future where all people can live freely and peacefully. Our ethical responsibility is clear: to stand for life, dignity, and peace—without conditions, without hierarchies, and without compromise.

Decolonization / Indigenization

Three Maori MPs suspended over ‘intimidating’ haka
Kelly Ng, BBC News, 5 June 2025
New Zealand’s parliament has voted to suspend three Māori MPs for their protest haka during a sitting last year. Opposition MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who started the traditional dance, was suspended for seven days, while her party’s co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were banned for 21 days.
The MPs did the haka when asked if their Te Pāti Māori or Māori Party, supported a bill that sought to redefine the country’s founding treaty with Māori people.
The Treaty Principles Bill has since been voted down but it drew nationwide outrage – and more than 40,000 people protested outside parliament during the bill’s first reading in November last year.  

Democracy and Human Rights

Enemy Aliens and (Freudian) Displacement
Timothy Snyder, Substack, December 2025
One way to think about billionaires and borders.
How should we interpret the utterances of tech billionaires (and their allies and clients) regarding the threat of migrants to Western civilization? What they say is often wrong, and what they say always matters. Where does it come from? Why might Elon Musk think that the false things that he says are true? Consider this: there are in fact alien entities that threaten the essence of our civilization. They are undermining education. They do consume our time. They do ruin our relationships. They do separate wives from husbands, children from parents. They polarize our politics. They enter into our very minds, reformatting them, cutting us off from what we once believed, what we once might have remembered. They prepare us for a generic life that is hardly life, separated from the history of what made each culture special and each individual different. They are truly inhuman! Those entities, of course, are the algorithms of social media. They are the aliens who are penetrating us and changing us. And Musk has done as much (via his ownership and transformation of Twitter) as anyone to ensure that social media enters our lives in the worst possible form. It is he, as much as anyone, who has torn down the walls, opened the borders, and allowed the aliens in. We all do this sort of thing. But it is more consequential when the centibillionaires do it. Their giant self-deceptions affect not just the people around them, but the whole world.

Displaced/Migrants/Refugees/Stateless

MHPSS needs among refugees in Somali region of Ethiopia
UNHCR Assessment Report, 2025, Executive summary.
The Somali Region of Ethiopia currently hosts over 350,000 refugees, primarily from Somalia. Forced to flee their homes, many have faced severe and interconnected challenges, including prolonged exposure to conflict and violence, the loss of livelihoods and community networks, and limited access to essential services. These factors contribute to elevated levels of psychological distress and increase vulnerability to mental disorders. In the absence of targeted mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), affected individuals may experience severe and prolonged distress, develop chronic mental health conditions, and have a reduced capacity to rebuild their lives, engage within their communities, and contribute productively to society.
This comprehensive assessment aims to deepen the understanding of the mental health and psychosocial support needs and resources of refugee communities in the Somali Region. The findings are intended to inform the development and delivery of responsive, inclusive, and culturally relevant MHPSS services that foster resilience, promote social inclusion, and strengthen local support systems in the Somali Region.
Following guidance by the Multi-sectoral Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Assessment Toolkit (IASC MHPSS Reference Group, 2024), a systematic needs assessment was conducted from October to December 2024 across nine refugee camps in the Somali Region. The mixed-methods assessment involved 1,289 respondents in a household survey and 770 participants in 72 focus group discussions.

Mental Health and Human Rights

No health without peace
The Lancet Editorial Volume 407, Issue 10523 p1, January 03, 2026
What will be the most pressing health challenge of 2026? Climate change? Artificial intelligence? Pandemics? Non-communicable diseases? These issues will continue to shape health and medicine. Yet across much of the world, conflict is a fundamental determinant of people’s health and of the functioning of health systems. The burden of armed conflict and violence worldwide is unusually high, and its effects extend far beyond battlefields, with harm in war zones and in civilian settings increasingly normalised. Conflict is too often treated as an externality of health; in reality, it cuts across every major health agenda, shaping risks, responses, and the feasibility of progress. In 2024, according to the most recent data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, there were 61 state-based conflicts. Many continued throughout 2025 and will continue into 2026.
The right to health was laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reaffirmed in the Alma Ata declaration, and remains embedded in contemporary WHO priorities. There is no credible path to achieving it that can run through perpetual conflict. Responding to the health consequences of war is necessary, but it cannot substitute for the conditions required to build, protect, and sustain health systems. Ambitions for equity, resilience, preparedness, and universal access cannot be realised amid chronic insecurity. Peace is not adjacent to health—it is foundational.

Beyond UNGA 80: Reflecting on 2025’s global mental health and well-being advocacy
Gita Jaffe, December 22, 2025.
2025 has been an historic year for mental health advocacy, culminating this fall. In a year, uniquely impacted by global tensions, conflict and uncertainties, mental health was affirmed as a key issue facing the world’s population today and into the future. In September, global leaders met in New York for the 80th session of the UN’s Global Assembly, high level meetings and side events. There were many notable moments, though for the Global Alliance, the most important was about advocating for mental health awareness, and the ensuing momentum and commitments toward the promotion and implementation of mental health and well-being, within decision making, strategies and policies. These opportunities to collaborate and foster relationships with colleagues and like-minded organizations from around the globe, are critical for future collective action.
As we look ahead to 2026, the Global Alliance remains steadfast in our commitment to centering mental health and well-being within and across all systems and settings. From a global perspective, the emerging advancements toward multisectoral approaches in policy and practice and a focus on children and youth are promising. As an organization, we will continue our advocacy alongside other stakeholders, with particular focus on prevention and promotion of mental health and well-being for all.

Interconnected Challenges: Examining the Impact of Poverty, Disability, and Mental Health on Refugees and Host Communities in Northern Mozambique
Theresa Beltramo, Florence Nimoh, Sandra Sequeira and Peter Ventevogel, Healthcare, MDPI, December 2025.
Poverty, disability, and mental health may reinforce one another. Forced displacement can compound these challenges, yet comparable data on displaced and non-displaced groups in the same setting are scarce. This study examines associations among mental health, disability, pessimism, loneliness, self-esteem, and financial security for refugees and nearby host communities in Mozambique. Conclusions: We document strong associations between poverty, disability, and mental health. These patterns underscore the importance of strengthening mental and public health services for both refugees and hosts, with particular attention to women and disabled individuals.

The Gaza Effect: From De-colonial Struggle to Global Liberation
Society for Community Research and Action, 16 Jan 2026.
The Gaza Effect: From De-colonial Struggle to Global Liberation In this virtual dialogue hosted by the SCRA International Committee and the Sumud Network for Mental Health, Dr. Sabrina Russo and Dr. Samah Jabr explore the Gaza Effect as a transnational psychological and political phenomenon. The dialogue portrayed the Gaza Effect as a transnational phenomenon through which the resistance, steadfastness (sumud), and spiritual resilience of Gaza’s people have catalyzed a global awakening of conscience, solidarity, and agency. The Gaza Effect was explored by Dr. Sabrina Russo as a psychological and sociopolitical response to the failures of global neoliberal and capitalist systems to sustain moral, communal, and existential well-being. Gaza’s struggle transcends its geographical borders, inspiring a collective reawakening of global consciousness and a redefinition of liberation psychology as a praxis of solidarity and moral renewal. The Gaza effect was explored by Dr. Samah Jabr as a transnational phenomenon that transcends individual trauma, emphasizing the interplay of historical oppression, collective resilience, and moral consciousness. Drawing on decades of clinical experience with survivors of torture, political violence, and systemic oppression in Palestine, Dr. Jabr presented a framework for understanding historical colonial trauma that integrates Sumud—a dynamic, collective and culturally grounded form of steadfastness—as both a psychological resource and a mode of social resistance.

CCHR: Harvard Journal Finds Psychiatry’s Model Undermines Human Rights
Citizens Commission on Human Rights, Daily Independent, January 6, 2026.
A landmark Harvard-affiliated review finds that profit-driven biomedical psychiatry has obstructed human rights-based mental health care, fueling coercion, unsafe drug use, and systemic abuses worldwide. The mental health industry watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) welcomed a major review that Harvard University’s Health and Human Rights journal published, which reviewed four decades of global mental health policy, concluding that the psychiatric-pharmaceutical industry’s dominance of biomedical approaches has obstructed human rights progress. Learn more

Older Persons

Ensuring dignity in an ageing world: improving care through a human rights approach
Sorinmade, Oluwatoyin, et al., Academia Mental Health and Well-Being, Vol. 2, No. 4, Academia.edu Journals, 2025.
The unprecedented global increase in life expectancy is driving rapid population ageing, with individuals aged 60 and over projected to reach 1.4 billion by 2030. This fundamental demographic shift poses profound challenges to global resource allocation and the capacity of healthcare and social systems to ensure quality of life, not just longevity. Evidence consistently indicates that the current societal structures are inadequately prepared for this demographic transition. Older adults frequently face significant marginalisation in accessing fundamental human rights, including dignity and the highest attainable standard of health. This marginalisation stems from pervasive systemic barriers such as ageism, ableism, and mentalism, compounded by a paucity of older-adult-friendly facilities. This communication identifies and examines these systemic barriers, proposing targeted strategies for a fundamental rethinking of care (e.g., policy reforms that support integrated health and social services, intersectoral collaboration, and truly person-centred care models that prioritise dignity and autonomy), crucial for fostering inclusive environments that enable older populations to fully enjoy their human rights and thrive in an ageing world.
Global population ageing must be reconceptualised, moving beyond the perception of a looming financial problem to a valuable ethical imperative, a significant strategic opportunity for society, and fundamentally, a matter of human rights.

Peace / Violence and War 

The Peace Psychology Digest, Issue 1, January 13, 2026.

Join the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence on Tuesday (APA Division 48), January 27th, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM EST for our first Zoom webinar of the new year. Professor Germán Cadenas from Rutgers University will discuss “Upholding a Sanctuary Mindset: The Role of Psychologists and the Public in Supporting the Wellbeing of Immigrants and Refugees. Register here:

DR-Congo

Peace and Conflict Resolution
The people in Eastern D.R. Congo have experienced a lot of chaos in the past, caused by the wars in the region. PCR stands for Peace and Conflict Resolution. The PCR Foundation is a local non-governmental, non-political and non-profit organization that helps local people live better lives by providing specific free programs.
The PCR foundation’s members work with good willed determination to reconcile people, and build peaceful communities throughout the country, to bring people together with non-violence. We at PCR act as Change Agents promoting peace, providing aid to those affected by war.

Sudan

Sudan: 1000 days of war deepen the world’s worst health and humanitarian crisis
9 January 2026, WHO, Geneva, Cairo, Port Sudan.
“One thousand days of conflict in Sudan have driven the health system to the brink of collapse. Under the strain of disease, hunger and a lack of access to basic services, people face a devastating situation,” said WHO Representative in Sudan, Dr Shible Sahbani. “WHO is doing what we can, where we can, and we know we are saving lives and rebuilding the health system. Despite the challenges, we are also working on recovery of the health system.”
The level of displacement is unprecedented. An estimated 13.6 million people are currently displaced, making Sudan the largest displacement crisis in the world. Fueled by poor living conditions, overcrowding in displacement sites, disrupted health and water, sanitation and hygiene services, and a breakdown of routine immunization, disease outbreaks are spreading, compounding the crisis. WHO is currently supporting the response to outbreaks of cholera, dengue, malaria, and measles, with cholera being reported from all 18 states, dengue from 14 states, and malaria from 16 states. Access to preventive and curative care, including for the management of chronic conditions and severe malnutrition, remains limited. Ultimately, WHO calls parties to the conflict to urgently work towards a ceasefire and peace for the people of Sudan.

Gaza

Health-care professions’ silent complicity in Palestine’s health crisis
Kavita Algu, The Lancet, Vol. 407, Issue 10525, p. 224-225, January 17, 2026.
The Lancet‘s Oct 4, 2025, cover cites a Correspondence on Gaza by Alessandro Vitale and colleagues, which states “Staying silent while pretending to be neutral is in effect, a form of complicity”. Institutions have not simply remained silent—many actively silence those who speak, while maintaining investments and partnerships that materially sustain the destruction of health in Palestine. During last year’s wave of Palestine solidarity encampments, most medical faculties did not support students calling for disclosure and divestment—demands rooted in protecting Palestinian life, health, and land. As Gaza transformed to rubble, my school, the University of Toronto (Toronto, ON, Canada), took the students to court—a pattern repeated at campuses worldwide. The then Dean of Medicine authored an affidavit that the university submitted to support its case. The university claimed, in part, that the encampment was violent and associated with antisemitism—allegations the court deemed unfounded. Rather than supporting vulnerable students urgently protesting genocide, institutions frequently choose repression.
In 2023, children held a press conference outside Al-Shifa Hospital (Gaza City, Palestine) pleading: “we want medicine, food and education, and want to live as the other children live”. Since the announcement of a ceasefire agreement, as of Oct 10, 2025, the Israeli military has killed 399 Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and continues to hold at least 95 health-care workers hostage. More than 16 500 Palestinians, including 4000 children, are in critical condition awaiting medical evacuation,⁸ which is still being blocked by the Israeli Government. It is imperative that medical institutions move beyond breaking their silence; they must stop enabling the crimes committed against the people of Palestine.

Ukraine

2025 Deadliest Year for Civilians in Ukraine Since 2022, UN Human Rights Monitors Find
Posted on 12 January 2026
Kyiv, 12 January 2025  –  The year 2025 was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said today in its monthly update on civilian harm.

Women

Egypt, from debt to prison: Women in financial difficulty face double penalty
Mathilde Delvigne, France24.
Egypt is one of the last countries in the world to impose prison sentences for debt. The main victims are “Gharimat”: women in financial difficulty who have been forced into debt. Faced with the exploitation of these women – who are often widowed or single mothers – by unscrupulous creditors, associations are trying to help them achieve financial independence.
Debtors’ prison, a punishment abolished in most countries in the 19th century, still exists in Egypt. According to the latest state census from 2021, Egyptian prisons were holding nearly 30,000 “Gharimat”, women jailed for debt. NGOs say the real number is far higher.
Most “Gharimat” share the same profile. Widowed or divorced, they are solely responsible for their households, a situation faced by nearly a quarter of mothers in Egypt.
To marry off their daughters or pay for medical or school fees, many have no choice but to borrow money. Lenders then exploit their vulnerability, forcing them to sign blank cheques and threatening them with prison if they cannot repay, sometimes for debts as small as €50.

Global burden of disease from intimate partner violence against women and sexual violence against children: a call to action
The Lancet, Rachel Jewkes, Naeemah Abrahams, Volume 407, Issue 10523 p2-3, January 03, 2026.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence against children (SVAC) are known to be causally associated with a range of health problems, but data limitations have hampered previous efforts to quantify the related global burden of disease.^1,2 In The Lancet, as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD), the GBD 2023 Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence against Children Collaborators³ present a considerably extended picture of the health burden of IPV and SVAC by applying substantially advanced GBD methodologies to greatly improved prevalence estimates. The collaborators drew on prevalence data from 204 countries and territories for IPV and SVAC from 1990 to 2023, and conducted a systematic review of associated health outcomes. They found evidence for eight health outcomes linked to IPV, namely HIV/AIDS, major depressive disorder, interpersonal violence injuries and homicide, self-harm, maternal abortion and miscarriage, maternal haemorrhage, anxiety disorders, and drug use disorders

OPPORTUNITIES
Resources/Publications/Events

Resources

Health and Human Rights
Mission Statement: Health and Human Rights provides an inclusive forum for action-oriented dialogue among human rights practitioners and scholars. The journal endeavors to increase access to human rights knowledge in the health field by linking an expanded community of readers and contributors. Following the lead of a growing number of open access publications, the full text of Health and Human Rights is freely available to anyone with internet access.
Health and Human Rights is an international journal dedicated to scholarship and praxis that advance health as an issue of fundamental human rights and social justice. It seeks to provide a forum for academics, practitioners and activists from public health, human rights and related fields to explore how rights-based approaches to health can be implemented in practice. In so doing, it contributes to fostering a global movement for health and human rights.

Mental Health and Human Rights Resources

Publications

Captive Gods, Religion and the Rise of Social Science. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Yale University Press, October 2025.
(interview in The Chronicle)
Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah explores how early social scientists developed our modern understandings of society through their theories of religion.
The foundations of modern social science were built on the study of religion, the acclaimed thinker Kwame Anthony Appiah argues. Delving into the intellectual currents of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he investigates how formative thinkers—notably Edward Burnett Tylor, Émile Durkheim, Georg Simmel, and Max Weber—grappled with the concepts of society and religion as interdependent categories. Appiah shows how their efforts to define religion, or evade the task, mark the power and limitations of social thought in ways that persist among theorists today. Religion was not merely an object of study but a framework through which early social scientists established sociology as a discipline.
Appiah also examines more recent work in both interpretive sociology and evolutionary and cognitive psychology about the mechanisms through which communities form beliefs and values—while underscoring the enduring significance of these earlier debates for contemporary social thought. Throughout, he intertwines storytelling, historical analysis, and philosophical reflection to show how our ideas about society and culture have been, and continue to be, forged in dialogue with religious questions.

Learning As Development
Daniel A. Wagner, Professor and UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy, Special Advisor to the Director-General UNESCO, Routledge, November 2025.
Learning consists of a wide-ranging set of practices that vary across the life-span and different cultures. Using the lens of learning, we can advance the scope of international development theory, policy and practice. This book opens up new thinking about development for policymakers, applied researchers, communities and students that seek to improve the lives of those living in poor disadvantaged contexts around the world. Learning that matters – that is tailored to people’s needs and the contexts where they grow over time, and that can be understood by stakeholders at the local level – is the learning that needs renewed attention. Driven by climate change, human migrations, enhanced technologies and the need for environmental sustainability, the broad imperative to improve learning for children, youth, and adults is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.

Intervention
December 2025 – Volume 23 – Issue 1, Wolters Kluwer.

• Toczyski, Piotr. Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Ukrainian Refugees in Poland: Implementation and Outcomes of the MHPSS Course for MHPSS Practitioners by IOM and APS
• Dar, Danishwar Rasool; Lakshmana, G. Psychological Casualties of Kashmir Conflict: Behavioural and Emotional Problems Among Adolescents with Urgent Need for Psychosocial Interventions
• Gebus, Steffi; Schultz, Jon-Håkon; Forsberg, T. June. Psychosocial Support for Refugee Children in a Multi-Layered Crisis: A Mixed-Methods Case Study in Lebanon
• Chaar, Sandy; Ali, Rayane; Brown, Felicity; More.Establishment of a Mental Health Service User Association in Lebanon: Experiences, Challenges and Lessons for Future Engagement
• Song, Suzan; Sevenants, Koen; Palmer, Lucy; More. Specialised Mental Health Care for Children in Humanitarian Settings: Integrating Local and Community-Owned Approaches
• Nikolaou, Kalia; Lordos, Alexandros; Rutembesa, Eugene; More. Multifamily Healing Spaces: Development of a Family-Based Intervention for Recovery and Resilience in Rwanda
• Potocky, Miriam; Boisvert, Jodie; Bostrom, Allison. Mental Health Screening Instruments for Adult Refugees in Resettlement: A Systematic Review of Psychometric Properties
• Alsahou, Mohammad, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Services between Theory and Reality: Happiness as a Long-Term Objective

Emma Bellamy, Podcasts presenting stories of Australia-based immigrants and refugees, along with insights from migration experts and professionals.

UPCOMING EVENTS

International Network for Peace Psychology (INPP) Conference, March 23 to 27, 2026 (Manila, Philippines)

Pacifism and Non-Violence Workshop, April 2026, Loughborough University (online event)

Sixteenth International Sakharov Conference. Authoritarianism on the Rise: Fifty years after the founding of the Helsinki Movement. https://fgip-global.org/sixteenth-international-sakharov-conference-authoritarianism-on-the-rise-fifty-years-after-the-founding-of-the-helsinki-movement/

Frontiers of Children’s Rights Summer School
The 12th edition of the Frontiers of Children’s Rights Summer School will take place from 29 June to 3 July 2026, in Leiden, Netherlands.
Course information – The Frontiers of Children’s Rights Summer School will take a close look at contemporary children’s rights issues from a legal perspective, accompanied by reflections from other academic disciplines, legal systems, local perceptions and realities.
Programme – The programme is being developed by Prof. Ton Liefaard, Head of the Department of Child Law, Leiden Law School (Leiden University) and UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights and Prof. Ann Skelton, Programme Director of the  Master of Laws Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights (Leiden University), and the former Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. This year’s theme is “Advancing Children’s Rights Globally: Accountability and Access to Justice.”
Registration is now open. To begin the registration process, please email your CV and cover letter to Ms Rehana Dole (n.r.s.dole@law.leidenuniv.nl). Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Target audience, This summer school is aimed at professionals, academics and law students (who have completed at least three years of their degree) with a background in law. Applicants with a background in other relevant disciplines that are relevant to the theme of the summer school will be considered as well.

ENDNOTES

CONTACTS: Published by the Global Network of Psychologists for Human Rights – www.humanrightspsychology.org

Disclaimer: The website of the Global Network of Psychologists for Human Rights (GNPHR) contains articles, events and news about the domain where psychology and human rights intersect. The information presented in this Bulletin, does not imply that the GNPHR shares the views and beliefs in the articles.

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Ways to Participate in Global Network Activities

• Share Your Experiences and Examples
  One of the best ways to illustrate the intersection of psychology and human rights is through example. We are looking for examples of your encounters with human rights issues in your professional life. You might describe a time when you protected (or failed to protect) human rights, or advocated for what you saw as a human rights issue. The events might be in your clinical, research, academic, applied, or volunteer work. Please send your narrative / story (500-1000 words) to Marlena Plavšić (marlena_plavsic@hotmail.com). We will compile these for publication in the GNPHR Bulletin and on the website. Please also indicate if you would like your stories to remain anonymous.
• Share your Expertise and Opinions
  We invite you to contribute a blog or opinion piece on general human rights issues; human rights education or strategies for raising the profile of human rights within psychology or your professional life. Students are welcome to contribute, including on student needs for learning about and addressing human rights. Please contact the GNPHR Blog editor (blogeditor@humanrightspsychology.org) with ideas for the article you would like to write!
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