March 2026

Table of Contents

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DAY FOCUS

Special Focus: International Day for the Right to the Truth

 International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. March 24, 2026. The right to the truth is often invoked in the context of gross violations of human rights and grave breaches of humanitarian law. The relatives of victims of summary executions, enforced disappearance, missing persons, abducted children, torture, require to know what happened to them. The right to the truth implies knowing the full and complete truth as to the events that transpired, their specific circumstances, and who participated in them, including knowing the circumstances in which the violations took place, as well as the reasons for them.

Each year, on 24 March, the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims is observed. This annual observance pays tribute to the memory of Monsignor Óscar Arnulfo Romero, who was murdered on 24 March 1980. Monsignor Romero was actively engaged in denouncing violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable individuals in El Salvador. The Commission on the Truth for El Salvador was established in accordance with the Mexico Agreements of 27 April 1991 to investigate serious acts of violence that had occurred since 1980 and whose impact on society was deemed to require an urgent public knowledge of the truth.  In its report of 15 March 1993, the Commission documented the facts of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero by pro-government forces, the so-called “death squads”.  He was shot dead by an assassin as he celebrated mass on 24 March 1980.

The purpose of the Day is to: Honour the memory of victims of gross and systematic human rights violations and promote the importance of the right to truth and justice; Pay tribute to those who have devoted their lives to, and lost their lives in, the struggle to promote and protect human rights for all; Recognize, in particular, the important work and values of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, of El Salvador, who was assassinated on 24 March 1980, after denouncing violations of the human rights of the most vulnerable populations and defending the principles of protecting lives, promoting human dignity and opposition to all forms of violence.

UN COMMEMORATIVE DAYS – March

• March 8  –  International Women’s Day
• March 21  – International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• March 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

GNPHR NEWS AND EVENTS

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

Webinars 

• Coming Webinar: 

Webinar Library Human Rights Education: https://humanrightspsychology.org/webinars/

General

Human Rights Dissertation Award 2025 The Psychological Society of Ireland, 2025. The Special Interest Group in Human Rights & Psychology presented two dissertation awards to celebrate psychology and law students’ research on the topic of human rights and psychology. The awards mark a moment of recognition for emerging scholarship aligned with new rights-based mental health legislation in the Republic of Ireland. They aim to promote visibility for psychology and legal professionals pursuing career pathways related to mental health, with winning dissertations selected for their potential impact and contribution to rights-based discourse.

Children/Youth

Child and caregiver mental health in conflict affected settings. E. Nakimuli-Mpungu, F. Agumya, P. K. Maulik, & A. Adewuya, BMJ, 392, 2026. One in five children worldwide live in settings affected by conflict or violence, a twofold increase compared with the mid-1990s. Conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, together with protracted crises elsewhere, are exposing around half a billion children globally to armed violence and related harms. Children in these settings experience raised rates of mental health problems, driven not only by direct exposure to violence but also by disruption of daily life, including poverty, hunger, displacement, and breakdown of essential services. To reach more children, mental health support must move beyond small, short term projects and become part of regular health, school, and social services, alongside sustained commitment from governments and global actors.

Crimes against humanity

“Empathy is Political”: A Conversation with Samah Karaki. Diana Abbani, Untold Mag, February 2025. On empathy in times of genocide, the role of media in reinforcing dehumanization, and “emotional tourism” as a tool for reproducing patterns of domination. Samah Karaki is a Lebanese-French neuroscientist and writer. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience, along with master’s degrees in Neurobiology and Biodiversity & Ecology. Her work bridges biological and social sciences, and she has authored several books, including Analyse interdisciplinaire de la disparition du jeu libre de l’enfant, Le talent est une fiction, and L’empathie est politique.

UN votes to recognise slavery as ‘gravest crime against humanity’. Wedaeli Chibelushi, BBC, 25 March 2026. Around 12-15 million Africans were captured during the slave trade. The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognise the slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, a move advocates hope will pave the way for healing and justice. The resolution – proposed by Ghana – called for this designation, while also urging UN member states to consider apologising for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund. It does not mention a specific amount of money. The proposal was adopted with 123 votes in favour and three against – the United States, Israel and Argentina. Fifty-two countries abstained, including the United Kingdom and European Union member states. Countries like the UK have long rejected paying reparations, saying today’s institutions cannot be held responsible for past wrongs. Before the vote, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s foreign minister, told the BBC’s Newsday programme: “We are demanding compensation – and let us be clear, African leaders are not asking for money for themselves. “We want justice for the victims and causes to be supported, educational and endowment funds, skills training funds.”

Ghana is pushing for UN to declare slave trade a crime against humanity for the first time ever. C. S. Kwame, Pulse Ghana, March 19, 2026. Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that President John Dramani Mahama will present a landmark resolution at the United Nations General Assembly seeking to officially recognise the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution is scheduled to be tabled on March 25, 2026, in observance of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. According to the Ministry, Ghana is spearheading the initiative in its capacity as the African Union’s champion on reparations, working in close partnership with the Caribbean Community and other international stakeholders. The proposed resolution aims to formally acknowledge the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans as one of the most significant atrocities in human history, highlighting its scale, brutality, and far-reaching global consequences.

Medical care in the crosshairs: The attack on humanity. Médecins Sans Frontières, 2025. The Kunduz Trauma Centre in Afghanistan, regarded by medical and humanitarian workers as a safe place, was attacked on 3 October 2015 when a US AC-130 gunship fired on the hospital despite repeated calls to halt the strike. As MSF’s International President stated, “I truly believed that the hospital was a safe place. I cannot say that any more about any medical facilities on the frontlines today.” Ten years on, the report finds that attacks on medical and humanitarian care in armed conflict have increased, with serious consequences for access to care and the protection of civilians.

Missed chance to unite against slavery. Veerman, P. The Times of Israel. 1 April, 2026. At the Passover-Seder Jews eat maror (bitter herbs) which reminds us of the bitterness of Jews being slaves in Egypt. A few days ago (on March 25) the Israeli Ambassador at the UN voted against the resolution calling slavery a crime against humanity.

Data Rights

Human-centered artificial intelligence: integrating human cognition, psychological assessment and responsible digital behavior for real world well-being. R. A. Pashtun & N. Nadarajah, Social Science Chronicle, 6(1), 2026, pp. 01–12. This article enunciates a construct-centered synthesis of artificial intelligence as a psycho-technical infrastructure that increasingly mediates cognition, affect, motivation, identity, and social coordination across clinical, educational, organizational, and civic ecologies. It argues that psychologically consequential AI must be governed first as a construct validity problem and only second as a predictive optimization problem, because statistically impressive models can remain ontologically mis-specified when they operationalize socially contingent proxies, ignore contextual meaning, or induce feedback-driven performativity.

The competence paradox: when psychologists overestimate their understanding of Artificial Intelligence. L. E. Van Zyl, AI & Society, 2026. Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming psychological practice. Psychologists now use AI to transcribe sessions, analyse client data, and generate treatment plans, yet few fully understand how these systems work. This commentary argues that the greatest risk AI poses to psychology is not its technical superiority to human capability, but a competence paradox: the tendency of psychologists to mistake the effective use of AI tools for a genuine understanding of how it works. This illusion of competence distorts judgment, weakens accountability, and undermines the foundations of professional expertise. We discuss how this gap forms, why it matters for both clients and clinicians, and what psychologists must know to engage with AI responsibly. Drawing on recent work in adjacent fields, we show how cognitive bias, identity protection, and anthropomorphism create a false sense of mastery. We then trace consequences across five domains. Cognitive and diagnostic skills decline through automation bias, cognitive offloading, and reduced reflective reasoning. Professional identity is strained as roles shift from clinician to editor of machine output. Ethical accountability blurs through hidden AI use, weak informed consent, and diffused liability. Collegial consultation diminishes as practitioners consult tools rather than peers, and wellbeing suffers through technostress, rising demands, financial strain, and growing reliance on AI. Finally, we argue that limited explainability within AI systems creates an explanatory dependence that constrains transparent justification of clinical decisions, shifts the burden of reasoning from clinician to tool, and makes embedded value choices harder to detect. We conclude with a call to action and a research agenda.

Decolonization / Indigenization

Who is Walter Mignolo? A prominent architect of decolonial theory, his diagnosis of European colonial ills is both penetrating and flawed. Federico Perelmuter, editor Sam Haselby, Aeon, 2 March 2026. Around the mid-1970s in Latin America raged what the Uruguayan literary critic Ángel Rama once called the ‘catastrophic era’. Rama described the takeover, in quick succession, of Latin America’s states by brutal Right-wing military dictatorships, many backed by the United States. Amid widespread criminal state violence against peasants, Indigenous people, writers, trade unionists, students and artists, many intellectuals fled. In Argentina, a 1966 military coup had led to heavy intervention in the country’s flourishing universities. Walter Mignolo, originally from a small town in the province of Córdoba, was a literature student at the National University of Córdoba. After graduating, Mignolo left for Paris in 1969, where he received his PhD under the French critic Roland Barthes before going on to teach at the universities of Toulouse, Indiana and Michigan. His landmark book The Darker Side of the Renaissance (1995) was published when debates prompted by the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival to the New World absorbed the Hispanophone intellectual world. Mignolo asked how to remember, how to historicise, the conquest and the genocide that followed? What was the role of history and writing, and thought itself, in the genocide?

Democracy and Human Rights

Everyone Agrees That Freedom is Kind of Swell. Maximilian Steinbeis, Verfassungsblog, 13 March 2026. The Right seeks to preserve, the Left to change power relations, and liberal democracy keeps this conflict productive and permanent. Both sides – those who hold power and those subject to it – bind themselves to rights and invoke them. Property rights and freedom of contract on one side; on the other, minority rights, rights of participation and human rights. Anyone who disregards the other side’s rights while demanding respect for their own ends up in self-contradiction and is thus, in the end, weakening their own position. That makes behaviour predictable and enables trust, thereby stabilising liberal democracy and keeping it in motion. People keep talking and negotiating, the Right becomes less right-wing and the Left less left-wing, political conflict is dissolved in legally ordered procedures, and ultimately nearly everyone is, in one way or another, liberal. Now, this liberal mainstream certainly has always been far more exclusionary, privileging and privileged than it usually likes to admit. Liberal as opposed to what? The liberal mainstream becomes oppressive when there is virtually no room left not to belong to it. I fully agree with Philip Manow and other apologists for populism who are making that point. (I don’t, however, when it comes to the conclusion that the strategy to exploit this situation to build an authoritarian regime is nothing but a self-serving liberal fantasy.

Disability Rights

Ensuring inclusive mental health care for deaf patients. J. Blott, The Lancet Psychiatry, 13(4), 2026, p. 275. On New Year’s Day, 2023, 25-year-old Imogen Nunn died by suicide. Nunn candidly shared her experiences of deafness and mental health problems. An inquest revealed that long-standing issues in providing accessible mental health care, compounded by a national shortage of British Sign Language interpreters, contributed to Nunn’s death. Her case is a reminder of an overlooked crisis in mental health services: the poor provision of care built on accessible communication needs. Deaf people experience depression and anxiety more frequently than their hearing peers. The early-life stress of the inability to communicate with caregivers contributes to earlier manifestations of mental health problems. Discrimination, internalised oppression, and social exclusion introduce unique challenges and place deaf people at an enormous disadvantage in terms of access to mental health care. Yet, health-care systems are woefully unprepared.

Education

Evolution of UN Policies for Peace Education with a Focus on Human Rights. F. Tibbitts, Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review, 2025.Education is central for promoting the UN values of peace and human rights. Focusing on the work of UNESCO, this article begins by overviewing the links between peace education and human rights education in terms of aims, thematic content and pedagogical approaches. It then compares UNESCO’s updated treatment of peace education and human rights in its 2023 Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights, and Sustainable Development, a revision of the 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace. The article concludes with reflections on the implications for peace education and human rights education moving forward, drawing on UNESCO’s expanded definition of peace education and the presence of these themes within national curricula.

Inclusion, Exclusion, Racism

 Antisemitism and  Human Rights, APA Council, February 21, 2026. APA President Dr. Wendi Williams: “This weekend, the APA Council of Representatives took actions to address antisemitism directly, while safeguarding academic freedom across our discipline. These actions are part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that the field of psychology is inclusive and welcoming to all. Our membership is diverse and we are stronger as an association because of it. We pledge to continue listening and learning about the experiences of our Jewish members and their allies, and we will not desist from pursuing inclusion of all voices. To be clear, APA has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate against individuals or groups in any form, and we stand resolute in our commitment to preserving a psychology and an environment that upholds the inherent dignity of all people. As a field, as a community, and as individuals committed to the work, we will always stand for the right of all people to live free of being targeted for who they are.” APA updated its 2017 Resolution on Antisemitism with the 2026 Resolution on Antisemitism. 

Mental Health and Human Rights

Former Syrian refugee brings healing and recovery to trauma survivors. B. K. S. I. Şanlıurfa, UNHCR, December 10, 2025. Social entrepreneur Jin Davod developed an innovative online platform that has provided thousands of refugees in Türkiye and elsewhere with access to free mental health services. The platform connects refugees and Turkish citizens with mental health services in multiple languages and offers online therapy sessions through a network of psychologists. Following the 2023 earthquake, the initiative received hundreds of requests within hours and several thousand within days from people seeking support after the disaster.

Psychology at the Interface with the Justice System: An Analysis of Publications by the Federal Council of Psychology and the Defense of Rights in Brazil. C. V. I. De Melo, L. M. Mennocchi, T. F. De Carvalho, M. C. F. Ribeiro, L. A. De Oliveira, & J. S. Rocha, Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 2026. This article analyzes the body of publications issued by the Federal Council of Psychology and the Regional Council of Psychology of São Paulo concerning professional practice within the justice system, with the aim of assessing whether and how these publications guide psychologists in defending the rights of individuals involved in judicial proceedings. Through an interpretative examination of resolutions, technical notes, and guiding documents, the study identifies the ethical, technical, and political principles that underpin the professional practice of psychologists in responding to the various demands of the justice system. The findings suggest that these documents not only guide and regulate psychological practice, but also reinforce a commitment to human rights and to the construction of a justice system that is socially engaged, calling upon the profession to resist the naturalization of institutional violence and the instrumentalization of psychological knowledge for exclusionary and punitive purposes. It is concluded that qualified – both technically and ethically – psychological practice in the field of justice requires ongoing training, critical supervision, engagement with social movements, and intersectoral dialogue, grounded in a form of listening that is sensitive to social contradictions and in an ethical commitment to justice, equity, and care.

How is watching the war in the Middle East impacting our mental health? C. Stirrat, SBS News, March 15, 2026. The news cycle continues to rapidly evolve amid a wider escalation in the Middle East, following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Iran’s retaliatory strikes on several Gulf nations, including major travel hubs like Dubai. But how are audiences responding to the influx of imagery and stories of conflict and atrocity, and what are the impacts on people’s mental health? The 2025 Reuters Digital Report found news avoidance was on the rise globally, particularly among younger people and those without a university degree. The research has been tracking a group of 17 countries since 2015, including Australia, and found the most prominent reason for news avoidance was the negative effect of news on an individual’s mood, as well as too much coverage of conflict and war.

Dignity, families, and family therapy. Todd M. Edwards, Jo Ellen Patterson, James L. Griffith, Academia Mental Health and Well-Being, Volume 2; Issue 2. Special Issue. Dignity has been described as an individual and social construct. Dignity is the enactment of identity in the social space of a community, where what matters is how the person perceives the community to be responding to this expression of identity. It is how individuals perceive their worth and belonging within their community. The loss of dignity can lead to feelings of shame and isolation, while its restoration brings pride and honor. Families play a key role in preserving dignity to reinforce care and mutual respect. In this paper, we link dignity to concepts in systemic family therapy and describe family interventions to preserve and restore dignity.

Toward dignity-centred ethics in the treatment of longstanding and severe eating disorders: a lived experience-led narrative review. James Down, Marissa Adams, Academia Mental Health and Well-Being, Volume 2; Issue 4, December 2025. Longstanding and severe eating disorders (LSEDs) are frequently marked by medical risk, therapeutic impasse, and exclusion from standard care pathways. Yet insufficient attention has been paid to the ethical dimensions of treatment for those with complex and longstanding illness trajectories, in particular from the perspective of those with lived experience. This paper aims to address this gap as a lived-experience-authored narrative review focused on the concept of dignity as a guiding value of ethical care in LSEDs. Informed by critical interpretive synthesis, narrative ethics, and reflective practice methods, the authors integrate multiple sources of evidence. They adopt a lens of epistemic injustice, situating subjective knowledge alongside empirical research findings and the wider conceptual and ethical considerations of treatment provision. The findings identify recurring patterns of undignified care in the treatment of LSEDs, including the normalisation of neglect, coercive practices, and exclusionary models of treatment. Principles and practical steps are outlined to inform dignity-affirming care, which include prioritising relational safety, co-produced decision-making, and re-medicalisation of LSEDs in ways that do not sacrifice autonomy. Ultimately, the authors determine that a dignity-centred approach to LSEDs requires a fundamental shift in how we understand risk, chronicity, and the place of lived experience in clinical ethics. This paper offers a conceptual and methodological framework to support that shift, calling for collective responsibility and structurally embedded forms of care that respect the knowledge, rights, and needs of those most affected by LSEDs.

Mental health needs and personality disorders in humanitarian settings. P. Ventevogel, R. Sleit, E. Haile, S. Harrison, Z. Hijazi, P. N. Koyiet, C. M. Whitney, & F. Hanna, The Lancet Psychiatry, 13(4), 2026, pp. 287–288. Humanitarian mental health and psychosocial support aims to reduce distress and psychological suffering through restoring safety, functioning, dignity, and coping across populations in crisis. Anwar and Talha suggest that humanitarian mental health and psychosocial support programmes must better identify and manage people with personality disorders. The authors agree that people with personality disorders experience substantial distress during emergencies and deserve optimal care, and propose alternative approaches to address the needs of people with complex mental health conditions, including personality disturbances, in humanitarian contexts.

Peace / Violence and War 

Iran

Iranians trapped between two fires. Samrad Ghane, Clinical Psychologist & Psychotherapist, LinkedIn, March 14, 2026. Like many other Iranians, I feel deeply tormented by the recent developments in my country. And although I’ve been avoiding this platform for months, I feel an urge to speak out on the current situation. Today, ordinary Iranians inside the country are being crushed by two evil forces, with each claiming to protect Iranians against the other: the Iranian regime’s barbarism and the US-Israeli hyper-imperialism. This (geo-) political landscape has proven confusing and difficult to navigate for many well-intentioned observers. Some friends and commentators have stumbled badly, unable to arrive at a stance that fully honours the rights and dignity of Iranians inside the country.

Thinking Live on Iran with Janice Stein. Timothy Snyder and Janice Stein. March 7, 2026. How we got here, and where we might be going. Professor Janice Stein is a leading authority on negotiation and war as well as a regional specialist on the Middle East. Our conversation covers the origins of the Iran war, its meaning for the region and the world, and its possible trajectories. Throughout Professor Stein offers her characteristic wit and sharpness. 

PHR demands protection for medical workers and facilities amid Middle East escalation. D. Lerner, Physicians for Human Rights, March 10, 2026. As the military conflict between Iran, Israel, and the United States escalates and spreads across the Middle East, Physicians for Human Rights calls on all parties to comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, including by protecting medical personnel and health facilities from attack and ensuring health care can function unimpeded. “We are hearing alarming reports of health care workers and facilities harmed amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Hospitals, medical staff, and the wounded must be protected as guaranteed by international humanitarian law. This is not a gray area: all states involved in this conflict have accepted the Geneva Conventions, which require protection for health care workers and facilities in times of war,” said Sam Zarifi, JD, LLM, PHR executive director. 

Joint Position Statement of PSYSSA and PAPU: Psychology’s Response: Wars on Civilians. PSYSSA & PAPU, March 2026. The Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), together with the Pan-African Psychology Union (PAPU), has released a joint statement titled “Psychology’s Response: Wars on Civilians.” The statement raises urgent concern about the escalating violence, displacement, and destruction affecting civilian populations across the world, highlighting the profound and lasting psychological consequences of war on individuals, families, and communities. It calls on psychological associations and professional bodies globally to speak out against violence directed at civilians and to advocate for the protection of human dignity, life, and the conditions necessary for peace.

IUPsyS Statement on War and Responsibilities of Psychological Science. K. Swain, International Union of Psychological Science, 21 March 2026. The International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) shares the global community’s deep concern about the devastating human consequences of war. Referencing the 1945 Psychologists’ Manifesto, the statement affirms psychology’s responsibility to apply scientific knowledge of human behaviour, cooperation, and conflict to prevent future wars and advance human welfare. It highlights the ongoing urgency of this responsibility in the context of current global conflicts and their widespread human impact.

Women

Cultural relativism and human rights in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes: A love story. M. I. I. Ismail, BRAC University Journal, 11(01), 2026. Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes documents the changing situations of contemporary women in Accra, Ghana. The novel deals with an idea of the Western-styled universalist language of women’s rights, a concept that constructs certain understandings of women’s rights as applicable to all women. The protagonist Esi’s preference for polygamy as a potentially liberating system for a professional woman appears to challenge a universal thought of what women rights should be, especially with the understanding that polygamy is patriarchal. However, Esi’s preference brings up the notion of cultural relativism and challenges the universal claims of human rights. Cultural realities – developed over ages in different societies – complicate any universal vision of human rights. Considering the conflicts between universalism and cultural relativism, this paper investigates how Aidoo uses Esi (after her choice of polygamy over monogamy) to confirm the fact that cultural realities relative to a Ghanaian society complicate any universalist approach to the rights of a woman. Hence, the novel can be interpreted as an effort to question the totalizing claims of women’s rights that are based on Western notions of what women’s and human rights should be.

Gendered survival under genocidal violence: A decolonial feminist narrative study of women and displaced families in Gaza. Guido Veronese, Bilal Hamamra, Fayez Mahamid, Federica Cavazzoni, Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 116, May–June 2026. Drawing on qualitative narrative testimonies from 35 displaced Palestinian refugee women collected during the 2024–2025 assault, the study illuminates the relational, embodied, and ethical labour through which life is sustained under siege. Using a decolonial feminist psychological framework, the study integrates structural analysis, narrative interpretation, and thematic mapping across six experiential domains: rupture of home, cyclical displacement, embodied precarity, silenced endurance, maternal survival work, and testimony as presence. The analysis challenges dominant trauma paradigms by situating emotional and bodily experiences within ongoing colonial violence, enclosure, and infrastructural collapse. Findings demonstrate how care, vigilance, moral restraint, and relational commitments form a coherent survival praxis. The study contributes to transnational feminist scholarship by foregrounding locally grounded knowledge production and offering an alternative understanding of psychological life that resists depoliticization and pathologization.

Interview with Domenica Ghidei Biidu. Systemic Justice, March 10, 2026. “I believe there is an innate sense of justice within each of us.” Domenica Ghidei Biidu on law, justice, and lived experience”.On 10 March, the International Day of Women Judges, we celebrate the women shaping justice systems around the world. One of them is Domenica Ghidei Biidu – a long-time deputy judge in the Netherlands, former Human Rights Commissioner at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, Vice Chair of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, and a member of the Systemic Justice’s Supervisory Board. Her journey into the law began long before these roles, shaping her understanding of justice not only by legal theory but by lived experience. In this conversation with Systemic Justice, she reflects on the philosophical roots of justice, the realities of working within legal institutions, the power of community-driven strategic litigation, and why hope remains a conscious and necessary choice in the struggle for a more just world. 

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

The Sage Handbook of Psychological Perspectives on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Edited by: Victoria M. Esses, John F. Dovidio, Jolanda Jetten, Denise Sekaquaptewa, Keon West, Sage Publications, February 2026. At a time when DEI efforts are increasingly under political and cultural scrutiny, this handbook offers a timely, evidence-based, and interdisciplinary resource for understanding and advancing equity and inclusion across societies. Spanning 46 chapters and contributions from authors in 16 countries, the handbook explores the psychological dimensions of DEI while drawing on insights from sociology, political science, and related fields. It critically reviews the state of the literature, identifies promising directions for future research, and offers practical guidance for policy and practice. The volume is structured into seven thematic sections, covering foundational theories, dynamic processes, strategies for change, group-specific experiences, sectoral applications, and future directions.

Originary Violations. Discursive Constructions of Caribbean Motherhood and Motherlands. Paula Morgan and Hannah Regis, The University of the West Indies Press, 2026-02-24. Caribbean motherhood reflects a complex interplay of ancestry and diaspora shaped by both violence and resilience. Originary Violations investigates how female embodiment, sexuality and maternal power were defined by the histories of slavery and colonialism as well as by social hierarchies built on race, class, gender and nationality. It considers the ways legacies of trauma and dispossession continue to shape family life, patterns of migration, cultural expression and the Caribbean landscape itself. The volume brings together the voices of Caribbean writers and artists such as Erna Brodber, Olive Senior, Dionne Brand, Kei Miller, Marlon James and Derek Walcott. Through their fiction, poetry and art, they reveal how violence, loss and cultural struggles continue to leave marks on Caribbean people and landscapes. At the same time, their work also opens space for healing and new beginnings. By moving beyond only women’s voices, this book adds men’s perspectives as well, offering a richer understanding of motherhood and identity in the Caribbean.

Towards a World Order of Dignity: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence as a Lens on Humiliation, Evelin Lindner, World Dignity University Press, 2026. Sexual violence against women is a hideous crime. When these violations are committed, systematically and intentionally, as part of armed conflict, as weapon of war, aiming at destroying the minds and bodies of women, as well as the social fabric of the community, we are talking about crimes against humanity, war crimes and even acts of ethnic cleansing. The need for strong international commitment to fight these crimes, prohibit them and prevent them and ensure justice and rehabilitation for the victims, is urgent. Thus, the importance of the role and mandate of The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC) cannot be overestimated. In this book, Evelin Lindner explores conflict-related sexual violence against women in the context of humiliation, and there seems no better way to explain and understand these crimes, than as brutal acts of systematic humiliation, with serious repercussions on an individual and on a social level, both immediately and in the long – and very long – run. In the book, “Towards a World Order of Dignity: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence as a Lens on Humiliation” the painful history of conflict-related sexual violence is presented. How this violence is intertwined with humiliation is outlined and discussed,  and the meaning on humiliation, in the lives of people, and the consequences this has, both on individuals and on societies, is strongly argued and with a range of valuable examples. This creates a whole picture, encouraging the reader to act, to protest and make it known, the destructive impact of these forms of power-abuse. Today, human rights are under severe stress, human rights violations are performed with impunity and humiliation is the language of oppression. This book was initiated by Pramila Patten, the present representative against these crimes, and the book is more relevant and gives more necessary knowledge and understanding on present critical attacks on the international world order, than I am able to say in few words.

Psychology in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (Book of Abstracts). I. Žegura, M. Plavšić, B. Kalebić Maglica, & J. Lopižić (Eds.), 2026. Message from the Editors.Dear colleagues, in 2025 we published the book Psihologija u promociji i zaštiti ljudskih prava [Psychology in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights]. It is the first collection tackling human rights topics in Croatian psychology. It was a brilliant chance for us to discover our colleagues’ work and show that we really do have examples of psychological practice framed by human rights perspectives. Because the book was written in Croatian (an example of how promoting local languages has many advantages) we decided to publish Psychology in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights –  Book of Abstracts in English to help more people access the content.  We also see it as inspiration and encourage you to team up with psychologists in your own countries to write about their  human-rights-focused work. This dual publication – book in the authors’ own languages and abstracts in English is a model of how we can have both nuanced content and broad access. Not everyone dives into international books in languages other than their own. Even fewer people write in languages other their own.

Podcasts

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

UPCOMING EVENTS

SIM 45th Anniversary Conference and Peter Baehr Lecture. Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Autumn 2026 (details forthcoming). In 2026, SIM marks 45 years of work in human rights research and practice. The institute will host an anniversary conference in Autumn, including the annual Peter Baehr lecture, bringing together scholars and practitioners across international networks. The announcement also notes a forthcoming leadership transition at SIM, with Director Antoine Buyse reflecting on the role of collaboration across networks such as the NNHRR, AHRI, and the Global Campus.

Black History Tour at the United Nations. To mark Black History Month, United Nations Visitors Services New York invites you to take a special Black History Tour, starting on Martin Luther King Jr Day, 18 January. Offered in an online format this year, the Black history-themed tour of the United Nations will provide you a unique look at how the lives of people of African descent have intertwined with the mission of the United Nations in fields such as peace and security and human rights, with a special emphasis on decolonization. You will learn about the Transatlantic Slave Trade (1500-1900), the victory over apartheid, and about the Ark of Return, a permanent memorial in honour of the victims of slavery, located on the United Nations Visitors Plaza.  Through the lens of the United Nations and its work, the tour is a source of inspiration for the fight against all forms of prejudice, racial discrimination and social injustice.

BOOK THE VIRTUAL BLACK HISTORY TOUR 

Evelin Lindner 384.2: The Courage to Protect and Nurture Dignity in Times of Humiliation. March 11, 2026. Evelin Lindner’s annual open lecture at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo (UiO) in Norway. In this lecture, Dr. Lindner draws on insights from several fields, among them psychology, political science, sociology, and anthropology, sharing insights from five decades of research and experience on all continents. In times of polycrisis, many people lose hope. This lecture begins with a provocative proposition: the co-creation of global peace with dignity has never been more attainable than it is today, when viewed through the lens of human history.

International Network for Peace Psychology (INPP) Conference, March 23 to 27, 2026 (Manila, Philippines). ​Every two years, the International Network for Peace Psychology (INPP) coordinates International Symposia on the Contributions of Psychology to Peace. The Symposia take place all around the world, and aim to foster a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive global community of scholars and practitioners working for peace, social justice, and sustainability using a rich mix of research and practice. Symposia provide an intimate and engaged platform for presenting and discussing current scholarship in peace psychology and for engaging in intercultural exchange of ideas and experiences.

MHPSS Academy x UNHCR Webinar: MHPSS for All – Scaling Access Through Capacity-Strengthening. MHPSS Academy & UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency, April 1, 2026, 5:00–6:00 AM (online). 

During this webinar, we will:

• Introduce the MHPSS Academy and its activities
• Present two case studies on capacity strengthening in MHPSS from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Rohingya Response
• Reflect on capacity strengthening in practice and allow time for questions and discussion
• Share useful resources, including upcoming trainings and the BRIDGE network

Pacifism and Nonviolence Workshop, The workshop will be held on up to three days between 13 April and 1 May 2026 (precise dates to be confirmed). It will be entirely online (using Zoom), hosted by Loughborough University’s Institute of Advanced Studies

Annual Psychology Day at the United Nations

Psychological Contributions to Fostering Collective Action in Uncertain Times: Advancing Human Rights in a World in Conflict. Co-Chairs, Harleen Kaur, Ph.D. (O.P. Jindal Global University, India) and Gurusewak S. Khalsa, Ph.D. (The American University, Cairo). 19th Annual Psychology Day at the UN April 23, 2026.

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.

Global Mental Health and Human Rights: Confronting 21st-Century Authoritarianism and Racial Supremacy, July 6-10, 2026, Venice. Call for applications: – March 10, 2026.
Course information, This summer school examines the intersections of global mental health, human rights, warfare, political violence, displacement, and structural inequalities. It introduces approaches including Liberation Psychology, critical global mental health, and intersectional feminist and postcolonial perspectives, with an emphasis on participatory tools for work in conflict-affected and politically turbulent settings. The programme will be led by faculty including Guido Veronese (University of Milano-Bicocca), Alex L. Pieterse (Boston College), and Ashraf Kagee (Stellenbosch University), with guest speaker Urmitapa Dutta (University of Massachusetts Lowell). Target audience, Applications are welcome from PhD students, young researchers, and practitioners working in mental health, international relations, law, gender and race studies, social work, education, psychology, psychiatry, public health, and related fields. The school is also open to activists, NGOs, and policy stakeholders.
Registration is now open. Applicants must submit an application form, letter of motivation, CV, and photo. For further information, please contact: summerschools@univiu.org

You can follow the meetings of the Human Rights Council by the United Nations Web TV: https://webtv.un.org/en/search/categories/meetings-events/human-rights-council

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.

• @GNPHR1
• How to get involved – read how you can contribute to the global network
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• Email addresses:
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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!
• Send articles/news/events
  If you come across a human rights article or news, or know of an upcoming human rights event, please send for publication in the Bulletin. Send to the Bulletin editor Polli Hagenaars (polli.hagenaars@gmail.com).