Table of Contents

SPECIAL SECTION

SPECIAL FOCUS : the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT).

The theme for the 2024 day is “No one left behind: equality, freedom and justice for all”, see https://ilga.org/news/idahobit-2024-theme-announced/

[from the web]: Decided during extensive consultations with LGBTIQ organisations from across the world, the theme will allow for advocacy and celebrations in many forms – be it from human rights defenders, LGBTIQ civil society groups, millions of people in our communities, and our allies.

The world has just celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — a document that is much more than a cornerstone of international law: it is a guide to navigate a deeply divided world, a set of values that everyone can live by, and ultimately a force for good. And yet, we know that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” represents a promise not yet fulfilled — for LGBTIQ people across the world, and for everyone experiencing the suffocating impact on their lives of diverse layers of inequalities. This year’s IDAHOBIT theme is a call for unity: only through solidarity for each other will we create a world without injustice, where no one is left behind.

1 Message from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

On this International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, I applaud the brave work of Gender non-conforming human rights defenders fighting to outlaw discrimination and secure equality before the law.

Yet there is a worrying surge in the opposite direction. New laws are codifying old bigotries, exploiting fears, and stoking hate.

The theme of this year’s Day – “No one left behind: equality, freedom and justice for all” – reminds us of our obligations to respect the human rights and dignity of every person. We need action around the world to make those rights a reality.

The criminalization of same-sex relationships must end, so must all violence, discrimination, and harmful practices against Gender non-conforming communities.

On this and every day, let’s commit to building a world of respect, dignity, and human rights for all around the world.

Goals we are supporting through this initiative: SDG 5 -Gender Equality-, SDG 10 -Reduced Inequalities-, and SDG 16 -Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

[from the web]: Decided during extensive consultations with LGBTIQ organisations from across the world, the theme will allow for advocacy and celebrations in many forms – be it from human rights defenders, LGBTIQ civil society groups, millions of people in our communities, and our allies.

The world has just celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — a document that is much more than a cornerstone of international law: it is a guide to navigate a deeply divided world, a set of values that everyone can live by, and ultimately a force for good. And yet, we know that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” represents a promise not yet fulfilled — for LGBTIQ people across the world, and for everyone experiencing the suffocating impact on their lives of diverse layers of inequalities. This year’s IDAHOBIT theme is a call for unity: only through solidarity for each other will we create a world without injustice, where no one is left behind.

GNPHR NEWS AND EVENTS

GNPHR Announces New Award

• Education in Human Rights & Psychology Recognition Award.
  This award acknowledges outstanding educational materials for human rights education for psychologists. See more and submit a nomination here: Education in Human Rights Award

You can view recordings of the GNPHR Human Rights and Psychology series

• Aligning Human Rights Psychology and the Ecological Crisis – with George Drazenovich
  

General

IASC Guidance Integrating MHPSS and Peacebuilding, a Mapping and Recommendations for PractitionersI
ter Agency Standing Committee, 15 January 2024.

This report guides humanitarian actors, peacebuilding and MHPSS practitioners, policymakers and donors on the bidirectional integration of MHPSS and peacebuilding. It builds upon a global mapping exercise of best practices, field experiences from 28 countries, the lessons learned from eleven program case studies and five country case studies, as well as on the insights from four global consultations with young people, country-based practitioners, and policy and thought leaders.

For ease of reference, the Policy Brief (appearing in Annex H of the report) is also available as a stand-alone document.

Policy brief
Guidance for Practitioners

Social Activism – New Challenges in a (Dis)connected World. Sandro Serpa, Diann Kelly, Intech Open, 20 December 2023 Open Access.

Social activism is a key component for strengthening democracies and having the voices of marginalized people heard. However, in many societies access to power is curtailed for many people. Their voices are suppressed and their livelihood is undervalued. In essence, they are disconnected. Social activism connects people to each other and promotes a dynamic to confront power and make the invisible visible. This book uses research and reflection on social activism to speak to the dynamics of a disconnected world. Using an international lens, the authors capture social activism in the context of LGBTQIA+ rights, war crimes, food insecurity, and more. Mobilizing the marginalized is critical to connecting our world and giving the oppressed access to power, which is their right.

Academic Freedom / Higher Education

Dismissal of Psychology Professor
Scholars at Risk Network (SAR): SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities.

Date of Incident: January 30, 2024, Attack Types: Loss of Position, Institution(s):Catholic University of America, United States of America
On January 30, 2024, the Catholic University of America dismissed professor of psychology Melissa Goldberg in retaliation after a doula she had invited to class as a guest speaker spoke about providing abortion and care to transgender patients.
On January 23, Goldberg invited Rachel Carbonneau, the founder and CEO of the doula company Family Ways, to speak during her class on Lifespan Development. During the guest lecture, Carbonneau addressed a variety of different topics related to perinatal health, including the social determinants of health, opioid epidemic, and racial inequalities in healthcare. Towards the end of the lecture, a student asked Carbonneau about abortion. According to a 10-minute recording made by a student in the class Carbonneau described having “the honor and the privilege of working with families that have had to make the hardest decision of their entire lives,” by providing abortion care. The recording also captures Carbonneau explaining that she also works with transgender clients, including some men who have given birth.
Following the class, a second-year nursing student shared the recordings with conservative and Catholic media outlets. He later explained that he was hoping to prompt the university to take action against Goldberg by leaking the recordings.
On January 30, 2023, Catholic University president Peter Kilpatrick wrote in an email that the university had terminated Goldberg’s contract because of “clear evidence that the content of the class did not align with our mission and identity.” Goldberg’s faculty profile page was also removed from Catholic University’s website that day.

Citizenship privilege harms science. Mayank Chugh & Tiffany Joseph, Nature, vol. 628(8008), pages 499-501, 15 April 2024.

Researchers from the global south face often-distressing immigration bureaucracy that most from the global north do not. Six steps can begin to counteract this inequity.
Researchers travelling to countries in the global north can still be denied entry at border control even if they have all the relevant paperwork. Imagine you want to attend a research conference in the United States this autumn. If you are from most nations in the global north, there’s probably still plenty of time to make arrangements. But, according to our analysis, citizens from 132 of the 134 countries in the global south need a visa to visit the United States, whereas this is true for people from only 20 of the 61 countries in the global north. (See Supplementary information for how we designated global south countries.) And obtaining those visas is not straightforward: as of 4 April, the next available appointment at the US consulate in New Delhi, India, is not until October. It’s February 2025 at the consulate in Cotonou, Benin, and March 2026 in Bogotá, Colombia.

German university rescinds Jewish American’s job offer over pro-Palestinian letter
Kate Connolly in Berlin, The Guardian, 10 Apr 2024.
Nancy Fraser, professor of philosophy at the New School, condemned killings in Gaza carried out by the Israeli military.
A leading Jewish American philosopher has been disinvited from taking up a prestigious professorship at the University of Cologne after signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the killings in Gaza carried out by Israeli forces.

Award ceremony suspended after writer compares Gaza to Nazi-era Jewish ghettos. In an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau, Fraser called herself a victim of “philosemitic McCarthyism” alongside a number of other academics such as Masha Gessen who have been cancelled in Germany over their views regarding the Middle East conflict amid growing criticism that a dominating pro-Israel political consensus has shut down any proper debate.

Advocacy / Activism

Advocacy vs. Activism: Differences, Similarities, and Nuances
Aristotle, January 25, 2024  In the realm of social change, the terms “advocacy” and “activism” are often used interchangeably, but in actuality, they represent distinct approaches to achieving societal goals. With that said, we’ll unpack the differences, similarities, and nuances between advocacy and activism.

The lived experience of a psychologist activist.
Dean E. Hammer, Antioch University New England, US, Psychotherapy and Politics Int. 2020;18:e1536.
This essay reflects upon the role of activism for psychologists in these times and future decades. The author’s lived experience as a transgenerational Holocaust survivor, prisoner of conscience, and clinical psychologist serve as the springboard to explore how psychologists can help to address the current threats to human survival.
The article highlights the interface between the healing of individual and collective trauma. The transparency demonstrated in the exploration of the author’s lived experience aims to encourage a parallel openness and vulnerability in attending to the collective trauma sustained in the twentieth century, the age of genocide.
The article concludes with a proposal for a conspiracy of hope, in which psychologists can play a unique role as advocates for human survival.

Climate Justice

Climate Inaction is More Expensive Than Climate Action: WMO Report
27 March 2024
The ‘State of the Global Climate 2023’ report confirms that 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global average near-surface temperature at 1.45°C above pre-industrial levels.
The State of the Global Climate report was released on 19 March 2024, ahead of World Meteorological Day on 23 March. It sets the scene for a new climate action campaign by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and WMO that launched on 21 March. It also informed deliberations at a climate ministerial meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 21-22 March, where leaders discussed enhancing countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) ahead of the February 2025 deadline. [Publication: State of the Global Climate 2023]

Is action on climate change a human right? A European court will rule for the first time. Molly Quell, AP News, April 9, 2024.
The European Court of Human Rights will hand down decisions in a trio of cases brought by a French mayor, six Portuguese youngsters and more than 2,000 members of Senior Women for Climate Protection, who say their governments are not doing enough to combat climate change.
Lawyers for all three are hoping the Strasbourg court will find that national governments have a legal duty to make sure global warming is held to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
Although activists have had successes with lawsuits in domestic proceedings, this will be the first time an international court has ruled on climate change.
The decisions have “the potential to be a watershed moment in the global fight for a livable future. A victory for any of the three cases would be one of the most significant developments on climate change since the signing of the Paris Agreement” said Gerry Liston, a lawyer with the Global Legal Action Network, which is supporting the Portuguese students.

GI-ESCR  and  Partners  host  panel  at  the  CSW68  on  gender  and  care  responsive  climate policies. 12 March 2024
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, together with the governments of Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia and Finland, the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) hosted a side event at the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The event, ‘A Care-led transition towards a sustainable future: pathways to address poverty and the climate crisis with a gender lens’, brought together experts from governments, intergovernmental organisations and civil society to share experiences and good practices.
With the organisation of this event, GI-ESCR aimed to raise awareness about the impact of climate change on the care economy. Furthermore, GI-ESCR seeks to continue to mobilise and engage partners in advocating for a care-centred transition that can lead to transformative solutions to recognise, revalue and equitably redistribute care, thus, advancing gender equality and women’s rights.
For a deeper understanding and additional perspectives on these matters, we invite you to explore our briefing paper, ‘A Care-led Transition Towards a Sustainable Future’. Click here. to access the document.

Crimes against humanity

A historic revolt, a forgotten hero, an empty plinth: is there a right way to remember slavery?
In the mid-18th century, Jamaica was Great Britain’s most profitable colony in the Americas. Not coincidentally, it was also the colony that exploited enslaved labour most aggressively. About 90% of the population, around 150,000 people, lived in bondage, and their work made their enslavers stupendously rich. The island society was tumultuous, with frequent uprisings of varying scale and intensity, some of which threatened the very foundations of imperial power. Tacky’s revolt, as it has come to be known, began in the parish of St Mary in early April 1760, when enslaved Africans hailing from the region that is now Ghana attacked and overwhelmed Fort Haldane, the British garrison overlooking Port Maria harbour. From there the rebels made their way through the agricultural heart of the 235 sq mile (600 sq km) district, liberating people and setting sugar plantations on fire as they went. Their numbers swelled into the hundreds as they fought off planter militias and British army regulars.
Vincent Brown is a historian, film-maker and co-founder of Timestamp Media. He is the Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard, and is the author of Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War

Displaced/Migrants/Refugees/Stateless

Newsletter No. 1. Challenges Faced by Elderly Displaced People. HHRI, 28 February 2024.
Challenges Faced by Elderly Displaced People.

Migrants and Refugees. IOM, 26 March 2024.
One in three migrant deaths happens while people flee conflict, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Tuesday. More than two in three migrants whose deaths have been documented remain unidentified. Last year was the deadliest on record, with 8,541 migrant victims. Nearly 60 per cent of deaths were linked to drowning. So far in 2024, the trends are just as alarming. Along the Mediterranean sea route alone – while arrivals this year are significantly lower (16,818) compared to the same period in 2023 (26,984) – the number of deaths is nearly as high as before, with 956 registered since 1 January.
Unidentified, under-reported
IOM noted that that the number of unidentified deaths remains high – more than two in three migrants – leaving families and communities to grapple with the lack of clarity about what happened to a friend or relative. To date, the UN agency’s Missing Migrant Project data shows that the remains of 26,666 people who died while migrating have not been recovered.

Human Rights Education

HREA, Search by Human Rights theme.
https://hrea.org/resources/

Inclusion, Exclusion, Racism

UN Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. 2024 Remembrance Programme. “Creating Global Freedom: Countering Racism with Justice in Societies and Among Nations”.
The transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans represents one of the most horrific and traumatizing eras in human history. This racialized system of enslavement abducted, trafficked, and brutally dehumanized Africans and their descendants over centuries, leaving a pernicious legacy of racism grounded in the false narrative of white supremacy. A critical way to counter racism with justice is to acknowledge the fundamental dignity, equality, and rights of people of African descent within communities, institutions, policies, laws and governing bodies. Recognizing the egregious history and legacies of enslavement, the United Nations will step up efforts to address racism, intolerance, bigotry and hatred, to advance the cause of global freedom.

White by Another Name? Can Anti-Christian Bias Claims Serve as a Racial Dog Whistle?
Al-Kire RL, Miller CA , Pasek MH , Perry SL , Wilkins CL, APS, 20 Mar 2024, 35(4):415-434.
Four preregistered experiments (N = 4,307) explored whether anti-Christian bias claims can discreetly signal White allyship among Christian American adults. In Experiments 1 and 2, reading about anti-Christian bias led White, but not Black, Christians to perceive more anti-White bias. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrate the connection between Christian and White can be leveraged by politicians in the form of a racial dog whistle. In Experiment 3, White Christians perceived a politician concerned about anti-Christian bias as caring more about anti-White bias and more willing to fight for White people (relative to a control). This politician was also perceived as less offensive than a politician concerned about anti-White bias. In Experiment 4, Black Christians perceived a politician concerned about anti-Christian bias as less offensive than one concerned about anti-White bias yet still unlikely to fight for Black people. Results suggest “anti-Christian bias” can provide a relatively palatable way to signal allegiance to White people.

Mental Health and Human Rights

WHO calls for action to uphold right to health amidst inaction, injustice and crises
On the anniversary of its founding, the Organization urges countries to invest, tackle discrimination and intolerance, and expand equitable access to quality health services
5 April 2024, WHO
To mark World Health Day (7 April), the World Health Organization (WHO) is running the “My health, my right” campaign to champion the right to health of everyone, everywhere.
The campaign advocates for ensuring universal access to quality health services, education, and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination.
All around the world, the core challenges consistently compromising the right to health are political inaction coupled with a lack of accountability and funding, compounded by intolerance, discrimination and stigma. Populations facing marginalization or vulnerability suffer the most, such as people who live in poverty, are displaced, are older or live with disabilities.

Mental health after the COVID-19 pandemic among Finnish youth: a repeated, cross-sectional, population-based study. Olli Kiviruusu, et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 11, 6, P451-460, June 2024.
High levels of mental health problems among young people were reported during the COVID-19 pandemic, but studies of the post-pandemic period are scarce. We assessed mental health problems among Finnish youth before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic using nationwide population-based samples. Our aim was to examine in which direction the heightened levels of adolescent mental health problems have developed after the pandemic.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health could be long lasting. In this study, the substantial change for the better among transgender youth was a positive exception. Providing adequate support and treatment for young people with poor mental health is essential, but solutions to the mental health crisis need to address a wider societal perspective and should be developed in partnership with young people.

Peace / Violence and War 

URBI ET ORBI message of his Holiness Pope Francis.
Easter 2024. Central loggia of the Vatican Basilica, Sunday, 31 March 2024
My thoughts go especially to the victims of the many conflicts worldwide, beginning with those in Israel and Palestine, and in Ukraine. May the risen Christ open a path of peace for the war-torn peoples of those regions.  In calling for respect for the principles of international law, I express my hope for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine: all for the sake of all!
I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza, and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on 7 October last and for an immediate cease-fire in the Strip. Let us not allow the current hostilities to continue to have grave repercussions on the civil population, by now at the limit of its endurance, and above all on the children. How much suffering we see in the eyes of the children: the children in those lands at war have forgotten how to smile! With those eyes, they ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction?  War is always an absurdity, war is always a defeat! Let us not allow the strengthening winds of war to blow on Europe and the Mediterranean. Let us not yield to the logic of weapons and rearming. Peace is never made with arms, but with outstretched hands and open hearts.
Brothers and sisters, let us not forget Syria, which for thirteen years has suffered from the effects of a long and devastating war. So many deaths and disappearances, so much poverty and destruction, call for a response on the part of everyone, and of the international community.
My thoughts turn today in a special way to Lebanon, which has for some time experienced institutional impasse and a deepening economic and social crisis, now aggravated by the hostilities on its border with Israel. May the Risen Lord console the beloved Lebanese people and sustain the entire country in its vocation to be a land of encounter, coexistence and pluralism.
I also think in particular of the region of the Western Balkans, where significant steps are being taken towards integration in the European project. May ethnic, cultural and confessional differences not be a cause of division, but rather a source of enrichment for all of Europe and for the world as a whole.
I likewise encourage the discussions taking place between Armenia and Azerbaijan, so that, with the support of the international community, they can pursue dialogue, assist the displaced, respect the places of worship of the various religious confessions, and arrive as soon as possible at a definitive peace agreement.

Middle East

Statement of the Members of the Israeli Psychoanalytic Societies and Institutes
On Saturday morning, October 7, 2023, like a violent eruption of a volcano, the earth unleashed the most absolute explosion of evil. Hamas terrorists raided calm civilian communities on Israeli territory, murdered, raped, abused bodies and babies, burned homes, and kidnapped babies, children, elderly, women and men.
Over 1,400 people were murdered, 4000 injured, hundreds are absent and 239 are held hostage in the hands of a terror organization, their fate unknown. Moreover, Israel is under a constant rocket attack from south to north targeting the entire Israeli population, with over 130000 civilians already evacuated from their homes, living as refugees in their own country. For this reason, as any other country, Israel has the right and the obligation to protects its citizens. These acts targeted Jews and Israelis, however they did not discriminate, as Arabs and people of many other nationalities were murdered. There is no justification for this horrific brutality, this outbreak of sheer evil and inhumanity. This presents a real threat and is entirely a war against all humanity.
The refusal to recognize the human catastrophe of the events that occurred in Israel, the turning a blind eye to expression of cruelty and an additional blind eye to the suffering of the victims, flattens the human soul and dehumanizes Israelis whose losses do not count. These types of attitudes disregard the human price paid by thousands of victims. We are calling for all people concerned with human rights to openly oppose all statements and actions that ignore the plight of those affected by the Hamas attack and neglect to condemn the violence that Hamas has perpetrated on innocent civilians. Praying and hoping for better days, …

Statement of the Israeli child psychoanalysts and psychoanalysts in general,
We, Israeli child psychoanalysts and psychoanalysts in general, like the rest of the Israeli citizens, are under an ongoing traumatic onslaught following the heinous acts of Palestinian Hamas terrorists, which took place on Saturday, October 7th in the southern Kibbutz, villages and towns of Israel. In the past days we are exposed to horrifying evidence about the massacre of civilians: children, women and elderly people in their homes and the abduction of citizens to Gaza with abuse and humiliation that is beyond description in words. The sadistic cruelty towards infants, children and young adolescents, many of them mutilated, raped and tortured after having been forced to witness the murder of their parents and of entire families, is unthinkable. This is not just a crime born out of hatred of Jews (which the Hamas openly propagates in all its official channels) or territorial or religious conflict, but a crime against humanity. The target is humanity, not just Israel.

Palestinian athletes will ‘represent a country, a history, a cause’ at the Paris Olympics. Romain HOUEIX, Benjamin DODMAN, , France24, 04/04/2024.
Nearly six months into a deadly war that has ravaged Gaza, the Palestine Olympic Committee is battling against formidable odds to ensure its athletes take part in the Paris Games this summer. Its technical director Nader Jayousi tells FRANCE 24 his country’s delegation will bring a “message of peace” to the world and inspire Palestinian children “whose dreams have been shattered by bombs”.
Palestinian athletes have taken part in every Summer Olympics since they were first admitted to the Atlanta Games in 1996. Each participation has carried a special significance for residents of the Palestinian Territories and the Palestinian diaspora, giving the stateless people a venue in which to compete with the rest of the world.
Taking part in Paris will be all the more significant in the context of the war that has devastated most of the Gaza Strip and killed at least 33,000 people, according to health officials in the Hamas-held enclave, including some of the athletes who had set their sights on the Olympic Games this summer.

Six months after October 7: UN’s Guterres says ‘Nothing can justify horror unleashed by Hamas.
JERUSALEM POST STAFF, April 7, 2024.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that “the 7th of October is a day of pain for Israel and the world” in a post on X marking the six-month anniversary of the October 7th massacre on Sunday morning. “The United Nations and I personally mourn with Israelis for the 1,200 people, including many women and children, who were killed in cold blood,” said Guterres. “Nothing can justify the horror unleashed by Hamas on October 7th.”
The UN secretary general added that he condemns “the use of sexual violence, torture, injuring, and kidnapping of civilians, the firing of rockets towards civilian targets, and the use of human shields” and called for the “unconditional release of all the hostages.”
Guterres has come under fire repeatedly throughout the war for his focus on condemning Israel and for comments concerning the October 7 massacre, including remarks made just two weeks after the massacre in which he stressed that the attack “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Israel has yet to provide evidence of UNRWA staff terrorist links, Colonna report says. Julian Borger, The Guardian, 22 April 2024.
Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of the UN relief agency UNRWA are members of terrorist organisations, an independent review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said. The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN in the wake of Israeli allegations, found that UNRWA had regularly supplied Israel with lists of its employees for vetting, and that “the Israeli government has not informed UNRWA of any concerns relating to any UNRWA staff based on these staff lists since 2011”. Allegations of the involvement of UNRWA staff in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency, the main channel of humanitarian support not only to Palestinians in Gaza but to Palestinian refugee communities across the region.

An Israeli Newspaper Presents Truths Readers May Prefer to Avoid. David Remnick, the New Yorker, May 12, 2024. Haaretz consistently attempts to wrestle with the realities of what is going on in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.
Seven months after October 7th, it is still October 8th, the day after, in the State of Israel. The country remains in mourning, a depressed state of being that alternates among rage at Israel’s enemies; rage at its leaders; anxiety about the hostages in Gaza; excruciating doubt about the future of the country; and bewilderment that so much of the world has turned its attention to the horrific, ever-growing number of dead and wounded Palestinians. Insofar as Israeli television covers Gaza at all, it is usually through the lens of military strategy, the loss of Israeli soldiers, and the fate of the hostages.
Israeli public opinion is hardly a monolith. There are frequent demonstrations against the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The press can also prove diverse and aggressive. On the investigative TV news program “Uvda,” on Channel 12, the host, Ilana Dayan, interviewed a former chief of the Shin Bet intelligence agency, Nadav Argaman, who flatly accused Netanyahu’s government of “deliberately destroying Israeli society in order to remain in power.” Such material would not likely be permitted in an authoritarian regime, and yet Netanyahu’s Cabinet, which certainly includes authoritarians, recently voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel, branding the network’s coverage a threat to national security.
Amid all the fury and death and distrust, what is needed are leaders, thinkers, and institutions of vision and integrity to build what has always been imperative: a set of political arrangements that refuse to accept the cruelly stubborn “facts on the ground” of occupation, and a concerted movement toward a humane and workable settlement that provides the Israelis with the security that they naturally require and the Palestinians with the dignity and the independence that they rightly demand.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Psychology of Trauma

How Insights From Therapeutic Practice Can Help Build Peace. Jessica Stern, Research Professor at Boston University and a Senior Fellow in the Community Safety Lab at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health,and Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatric researcher and the author of The Body Keeps the Score.
Foreign Affairs, December 7, 2023
Every perpetrator of terrorism sees himself as a victim. Such is the case not only with individual terrorists, who often compete with their enemies over who is more victimized, but also with terrorist groups and nation states. Terrorism is psychological warfare, and so it requires a psychologically informed response. Those who study trauma know that “hurt people hurt people,” and the adage holds true for terrorists. People who live in a state of existential anxiety are prone to dehumanizing others. Hamas, for instance, calls Israelis “infidels,” while the Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has referred to members of Hamas as “human animals” and both sides called each other “Nazis”. With such speech, it is easier to overcome resistance to crimes.
Whatever comes next, it’s important to remember that for those who have been hurt, hatred can be an extremely powerful motivator, while grieving, sharing, and reconciliation are deeply complex and demanding processes. However, they are the only hope to stop the transmission of violence from generation to generation.

Reflections on the German state’s silencing of the Berlin Palestine Congress. Hebh Jamal, Mondoweiss, 4 May 2024.
The German state’s repression of the Palestine Congress in Berlin and its persecution of Palestine solidarity activists is a sign of the creeping resurgence of fascism in Germany.
I was inside the Palestine Congress in Berlin two weeks ago, and what took place can only be described as a travesty of justice and an example of the creeping resurgence of fascism in the German state.
On Friday, April 12, I woke up nervous. For weeks, the German media had written about the Congress, or what they described as a gathering where “antisemites plan hate summit.” Weeks leading up to the Congress, Berlin politicians have said they will do everything in their power to stop the gathering from taking place. Senator for the Interior, Iris Spranger, stated that the authorities were monitoring the Palestine Congress, while the CDU faction leader Dirk Stettner demanded that everything must be done to prevent the “antisemitic event.”

‘It’s not human’: What a French doctor saw in Gaza as Israel invaded Rafah.  Urooba Jamal, Aljazeera, 9 May 20249 May 2024.
Dr Zouhair Lahna has worked in conflict zones across the globe – Syria, Libya, Yemen, Uganda and Ethiopia – but he has never seen anything like the Israeli war on Gaza.
In those life-threatening situations, the Moroccan French pelvic surgeon and obstetrician said, there was a route to safety for civilians. But on Tuesday, Israeli forces seized and closed Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt – the only escape for Palestinians from the war and the most important entry point for humanitarian aid.  “This is another injustice. … It’s not human,” Lahna said, shaking his head as he spoke to Al Jazeera from Cairo, Egypt, where he has been evacuated from the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis.

Ukraine

UN reports on Ukraine:

• ‘Alarming lack of compliance’ with international law ramps up danger for civilians
• Ukraine: humanitarian, health needs soar as Kharkiv hostilities intensify
• Security Council hears of relentless attacks against civilians and infrastructure in Ukraine
• Nearly 2,000 children killed in Ukraine war: UNICEF
• Ukraine: Civilians killed and injured as attacks on power and rail systems intensify
• Ukraine war: UNICEF highlights 40 per cent rise in children killed this year
• Attacks on Ukrainian nuclear facilities ‘must cease immediately’: UN atomic watchdog
• UN report: Credible allegations Ukrainian POWs have been tortured by Russian forces
• UN report details ‘climate of fear’ in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine

Poverty

American Psychological Association (APA) and EFPA 2024 United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) joint statement
May 12, 2024.
Poverty eradication requires prevention
Psychology is the science of the mind and behaviour, helping to understand and guide thinking, feeling, and action; and offering scientifically founded means to evaluate and improve health and wellbeing. Psychology addresses the root causes of the many challenges of the global agenda, including health, climate change, inequality, poverty, and security. We encompass nearly half a million psychologists globally. Our work is built on the ethical foundation of human rights and the importance of promoting conditions for healthy and sustainable development.
Exposure to poverty is detrimental to mental and physical health (e.g., U.S. National Academies, 2019). Globally, poverty compounds systemic inequities. A child might live over 80 years if born in one country, but fewer than 45 years if born in another. Within countries, dramatic differences in outcomes are linked to degrees of social disadvantage (World Health Organization, 2008). But inequity is not inevitable; effective responses to risk factors of deficient safety, housing, education, economic stability, food security, or social connectedness broaden inclusion and reduce societal inequality (APA, 2021; Thurston, et al., 2023).
We urge ECOSOC to promote upstream, preventative, health-promoting approaches to eradicating poverty.

Women

Silence the guns, amplify women’s voices for peace to end rape in wartime.
UN, 23 April 2024.
Pramila Patten, Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, briefs the Security Council meeting on women and peace and security. The UN verified 3,688 cases of rape and other sexual violence committed in war in 2023, a “dramatic increase” of 50 per cent over the previous year, the Security Council heard on Tuesday.
Presenting her annual report, Pramila Patten, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, noted that weapons continue to flow into the hands of perpetrators while most victims remain emptyhanded when it comes to reparations and redress.
“The essential, existential task we face is to silence the guns and amplify the voices of women as a critical constituency for peace,” she said.

REGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS

Wave of increased food insecurity hits West and Central Africa. Humanitarian Aid, 12 April 2024.
Almost 55 million people are facing further food and nutrition insecurity in West and Central Africa during the region’s three-month lean season from June through August, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday. This is a four million increase in the number of people currently dealing with food insecurity in that region. Mali is facing the worst situation – around 2,600 people there are presumed to be experiencing catastrophic hunger – IPC food classification index phase 5. “The time to act is now. We need all partners to step up, engage, adopt and implement innovative programs to prevent the situation from getting out of control while ensuring no one is left behind,” said Margot Vandervelden, WFP’s Acting Regional Director for Western Africa.

Sudan: One Year of Atrocities Requires New Global Approach. Human Rights Watch, April 12, 2024. Investigations into Deliberate Aid Obstruction, Possible War Crimes Needed
(Nairobi) – As global and regional leaders meet in Paris to spotlight Sudan and mark the one-year anniversary of the country’s brutal conflict between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), they should make clear that those responsible for ongoing atrocities and other violations of international humanitarian law will be held to account, Human Rights Watch said today. This includes widespread intentional killings of civilians, unlawful attacks on civilian infrastructure, as well as the deliberate looting of aid, which constitute war crimes.

She was kidnapped a decade ago with 275 girls. Finally, she escaped. Ismail Alfa and Ruth Maclean, NY Times, April 14, 2024, NY Times.
Kidnapped from their dormitory exactly 10 years ago, the 276 captives known as the Chibok Girls were catapulted to fame by Michelle Obama, by churches that took up the mostly Christian students’ cause and by campaigners using the slogan “Bring Back Our Girls.”
“The only crime of these girls was to go to school,” said Allen Manasseh, a youth leader from Chibok who has spent years pushing for their release.

PUBLICATIONS

Documentary ‘Pathways for Peace’ in which Wilson Lopez Lopez (GNPHR Steering Committee Member) participated, breaking barriers and captivating hearts. The documentary is from the Colombian film production company PirataFilms, directed by JuanMa Casas and produced by Martin Waehlisch and Adriana Lalinde, under the scientific guidance of Andrés Casas. This documentary won the Best Documentary Short Film Award. at the Prisma Independent Film Festival Rome 2024. Pathways for Peace, vimeo.com.

OPPORTUNITIES

UPCOMING EVENTS

The International Council of Psychologists 82nd Annual Conference
Dates: July 19, 20, 2024        

A vibrant 2-day conference that will celebrate ICP’s mission to support Human rights, Dignity, and Justice: Empowerment for All.

Conference Themes:
Climate Change and Climate Justice – Culture and Acculturation – Decolonization and Indigenization – Gender-Based Violence – Refugees and Migrants – Global Health

Location: Prague University of Economics and Business, Prague, Czechia

Come join the International Council of Psychologists for 1,5 days of talks, discussion, and networking. The International Council of Psychologists is a small (250 members) global organization, whose mission is to advance psychology, promote dignity, justice, and human rights and work for world peace through global exchange and collaboration among its members. ICP’s conference will immediately precede the International Congress of Psychology, also to be held in Prague.
Register: https://www.conftool.org/icp2024/index.php?page=login

40th Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies. ‘Global Vulnerabilities – From Humiliation to Dignity and Solidarity’. Madrid, Spain, 17th – 20th September 2024
Please visit this webpage regularly for the latest information, as plans for this conference unfold.
If you wish to participate, please register here! Please know that you are invited to spend the entire conference with us, so that true dignity-family-building can emerge! All our events are part of an ongoing effort to nurture a global dignity community.
There is no registration fee, we share minimal cost according to ability at the end.

EXPLORE THE RICH TAPESTRY OF CONFERENCES IN SOUTH AFRICA

From psychology to commerce, and from social issues to academic research, the conference landscape in South Africa is as diverse as it is dynamic. Here are four noteworthy conferences that are set to captivate attendees with their innovative themes, thought-provoking discussions, and networking opportunities.

PAPU Conference: Uniting Africa
8 -11 October 2024 – Johannesburg, South Africa
The Pan-African Psychology Union (PAPU) Congress stands as a beacon of unity and collaboration, bringing together psychologists, researchers, and scholars from across Africa and beyond. This conference serves as a platform for discussing pressing issues facing the continent, exploring cultural nuances in psychology, and fostering interdisciplinary connections. This year is the 10^th anniversary of the Pan-African Psychology Congress.

PSYSSA Congress: Advancing Psychological Science in South Africa
8 – 11 October, 2024 – Johannesburg, South Africa
In 2024, South Africa will celebrate the 30th anniversary of democracy and the end of Apartheid. South Africa’s national psychology body is celebrating its 30th anniversary, having been established three months before the country’s liberation. Over the past 30 years of democracy, the country has faced issues that require continued engagement and fight. However, psychology has advanced significantly during this time and has grown stronger since the democratic age. PsySSA was founded on democratic principles and aims to serve all psychology professionals, in contrast to previous associations.

INHS Biennial Conference: Exploring the Dynamics of Hate
25 – 27 November 2024- Cape Town, South Africa
The International Network for Hate Studies (INHS) is pleased to issue a call for papers for the fifth conference, “Dynamics of Hate: Examining Interdisciplinary Perspectives”. The University of South Africa (Unisa) and the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) will co-host the first INHS conference in the Southern Hemisphere. From hate speech to hate crimes, this conference delves into interdisciplinary perspectives to understand and combat hatred in all its forms.

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
• Consider contributing a Blog/Commentary
• News and Bulletins from the GNPHR – Subscribe to GNPHR
• Email addresses:
  • blogeditor@humanrightspsychology.org
  • info@humanrightspsychology.org
  • globalnetworkgnphr@gmail.com

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 hunman rights event, please send for publication in the Bulletin. Send to the Bulletin editor Polli Hagenaars (polli.hagenaars@gmail.com).