October 2026

Table of Contents

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE DAY FOCUS

Special Focus: World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2026: Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change. World Health Organization (WHO). World Mental Health Day is an opportunity to meaningfully engage with people with lived experience (PWLE) of mental health conditions and to recognize their knowledge as a vital form of expertise. This year’s campaign calls for their voices to shape the policies, services and decisions that affect their lives. Too often, PWLE are asked to share their stories but excluded from decisions. Meaningful engagement extends beyond simply being heard. It means creating opportunities for people to influence decisions, co-design services, strengthen peer-led approaches, challenge stigma and strengthen accountability. When PWLE are meaningfully engaged, mental health systems are likely to become more person-centred, rights-based and responsive to people’s needs and concerns. One important priority for PWLE is the shift away from long-stay psychiatric institutions towards community-based, person-centered mental health care. Institutions tend to be isolating and are too often associated with poor-quality care, coercion and human rights abuses. Deinstitutionalization requires a carefully planned shift in funding, services and support so that people can live in their communities. Reflecting this priority, WHO will launch practical guidance on deinstitutionalization.

UN COMMEMORATIVE DAYS – October

• October 1 – International Day of Older Persons
• October 2 – International Day of Non-Violence
• October 5 – World Habitat Day
• October 10 –World Mental Health Day
• October 11 – International Day of the Girl Child
• October 15 – International Day of Rural Women
• October 17 – International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

International Day of Older Persons. United Nations, 1 October 2026. The International Day of Older Persons is observed annually on 1 October. The United Nations General Assembly designated the Day in 1990 to draw attention to issues affecting older persons and to recognize their contributions to society. Population ageing is occurring worldwide, underscoring the importance of protecting the rights, dignity, health, well-being, and participation of older persons. The 2026 United Nations commemoration, The Age of Longevity: Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives, will take place on 8 October 2026 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. 

International Day of Non-Violence. United Nations, 2 October 2026. The International Day of Non-Violence is observed annually on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and a pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, the Day is an occasion to disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness. The observance reaffirms the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence and the importance of fostering a culture of peace, tolerance and understanding. 

World Habitat Day. United Nations, 5 October 2026. World Habitat Day is observed annually on the first Monday of October to reflect on the state of towns and cities and on the basic right of all people to adequate shelter. First celebrated in 1986, the Day also draws attention to the shared responsibility for shaping the future of human settlements. The 2026 Global Observance of World Habitat Day, under the theme Adequate Housing for All, will take place on 5 October 2026 in Muscat, Oman. The observance will focus on the global housing crisis and on advancing access to adequate housing for all as a cornerstone of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. 

International Day of the Girl Child. United Nations, 11 October 2026. The International Day of the Girl Child is observed annually on 11 October to recognize girls’ rights and the challenges they face around the world. Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2011, the Day draws attention to the need to address those challenges, promote girls’ empowerment, and advance the fulfilment of their human rights. The 2026 theme, End child marriage and invest in girls’ rights!, calls for urgent action to end child marriage and strengthen investment in girls’ rights, education, health, protection, and opportunities. 

International Day of Rural Women. United Nations, 15 October 2026. The International Day of Rural Women recognizes the critical role and contributions of rural women, including Indigenous women, in agricultural and rural development, improving food security, and eradicating rural poverty. Rural women make significant contributions to agricultural production, food security and nutrition, natural-resource management, and climate resilience, while continuing to face disproportionate barriers to productive resources, public services, infrastructure, and participation in decision-making. The observance draws attention to these inequalities and to the importance of advancing rural women’s rights and empowerment.

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. United Nations, 17 October 2026. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is observed annually on 17 October. The observance traces its origins to 1987, when more than 100,000 people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris to honor victims of extreme poverty, violence, and hunger, and was formally recognized by the United Nations in 1992. The Day draws attention to poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon that extends beyond income and can deprive people of the basic capabilities needed to live in dignity and fully realize their human rights. It also calls for solidarity and renewed commitment to ending poverty in all its forms.

GNPHR NEWS AND EVENTS

GNPHR 6th Anniversary Celebration

In honor of 6 years of the GNPHR (Global Network of Psychologists for Human Rights) and to mark World Mental Health Day, we are celebrating GNPHR’s history and activities, and featuring a moderated discussion with the directors of Another Summer — a groundbreaking documentary where refugee students interview their peers across Europe to share powerful stories of healing and adaptation.

Join us for a lively meeting, discussion, and Q&A with directors David Edwards and Alzbeta Kovandova-Bartonickova. You will receive a link to view the documentary in your meeting registration confirmation!

•  Register for October 10 meeting – 1400 UTC (Americas/Europe)
•  Register for October 17 meeting: 700 UTC (Europe/Asia/ Oceania)

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-network-of-psychologists-for-human-rights/posts/

Ways to Participate in Global Network Activities

• • Contribute to the GNPHR Writing Project 
    The GNPHR invites short, idea-driven pieces that raise questions, encourage reflection, and explore the intersection of psychology and human rights. Contributions should focus on insights, arguments, or emerging issues rather than personal narrative. To participate, review the contributor guidelines, select a topic, and send your proposal or questions to writing@humanrightspsychology.org.
  • Share Your Experiences and Examples
    We welcome narrative accounts from your professional experience that illustrate how human rights arise in practice. You might describe a situation where you protected, failed to protect, or advocated for human rights in your work. Submissions (500–1000 words) can draw from clinical, research, academic, applied, or volunteer contexts. Please send your story to Marlena Plavšić (marlena_plavsic@hotmail.com) and indicate if you would like 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).
  • Want to stay connected with the GNPHR? Subscribe to the GNPHR Network.

Webinars 

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

GNPHR Steering Committee Members in Action

Awareness of Human Rights: A Psychological Perspective. Polli Hagenaars and Marlena Plavšić. In Consciousness: A Comprehensive Reference, 2nd ed., vol. 2, pp. 110–122. Elsevier, 2026. This chapter focuses on the awareness of dignity and human rights, which are the foundation of global freedom, justice, and peace. From a social-psychological and historical perspective, human rights awareness emerges from the complex interplay of individual and group processes. These include the development of moral consciousness and social responsibility, the dynamics of power, and the distinction of ingroup and outgroup, as they can lead to either respecting human rights or violating them. Education about, through, and for human rights is essential for raising awareness that empowers individuals to become more sensitive and active in promoting and protecting these rights.

Historical Foundations and Violations of Human Rights

In a letter dated 25 September 2026, 52 years after the Viva Frelimo rallies, Saths Cooper recalls their suppression under apartheid and the arrests, trial, and imprisonment that followed, including his own imprisonment on Robben Island.

Saths Cooper, Chair of the Board of the Robben Island Museum
25 September 2026

On this day 1974 (10th anniversary of Frelimo declaring the armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism) the Viva Frelimo Rallies – scheduled for the late afternoon in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and black university campuses – were banned, after it was announced the Sunday before.

Threats by commandos that they would stop the rallies if the apartheid regime did not were made.

This statement was released on Monday afternoon:
“We are not aware of any banning. Even if there were, we couldn’t care less. The will of the people shall not be suppressed by a foreign settler minority.”

The rally at the University of the North (now Limpopo) was disrupted by police, with various students arrested, including Cyril Ramaphosa. The military cordoned off Durban’s Curries Fountain Soccer Stadium. Police baton-charged and let dogs loose on the crowds that had gathered.

Nationwide arrests ensued, with scores of SASO & Black People’s Convention leaders held incommunicado in terms of the Terrorism Act, the majority held in solitary confinement in Pretoria.

That was the start of the SASO/BPC trial (The State vs S Cooper & Others) 31 January 1975 – 21 Dec 1976. Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, Nkwenkwe Nkomo, Kaborone Sedibe, Zithulele Cindi and the late Muntu Myeza, Mosioua Lekota, Aubrey Mokoape & Strini Moodley started our sentences in Robben Island, joining the UWC & Paarl students who were the 1st post-June 16, 1976 prisoners on the island.

In January 1977 the walls separating each section of the prison began to be erected, as Mncedisi Siswana, Saki Macozoma et al. constituted the initial inmates of “Die Swartmag Seksie” (current E Section) belittled as “klip gooiers”.

General

Translating 25 years of lessons into global impact. Scholars at Risk, 10 September 2026. This anniversary year, Scholars at Risk (SAR) reflects on how lessons from the past 25 years have expanded its ability to ensure threatened academics find safety, rebuild, and thrive. During 2025–2026, SAR leveraged new and existing partnerships to develop new placement opportunities, create pathways for greater engagement with academic associations, facilitate conference access, and provide digital safety resources. SAR also partnered with member institutions to pilot academic training programs and foster increased opportunities for scholar-to-scholar and mentor connections. These services supported 475 scholars and practitioners, included 128 placements at higher education institutions in 13 countries, and provided over 2,800 services related to scholars’ career and professional development across diverse fields.

Academic Freedom / Freedom of Expression

Free to Think 2026: Report of the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project. Scholars at Risk, September 2026. This annual report documents 382 attacks on scholars, students, and higher education institutions in 59 countries and territories from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. It records direct repression and overt violence, including attacks, disappearances, wrongful imprisonment, and police or military force against student protests. It also describes external interference that undermined university autonomy and institutions’ control over curricula, administrative functions, and physical campuses

Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Data Rights

Human Rights and the Regulation of AI. Joint Committee on Human Rights, UK Parliament, 14 September 2026. This report examines how artificial intelligence systems used by businesses, individuals, and public authorities affect human rights in the United Kingdom. While recognising the potential benefits of AI, the Committee identifies serious risks arising from opaque decision-making, limited awareness of when AI is being used, and the speed and scale at which harms may occur. These risks are particularly acute for groups that are already minoritised. The report focuses on equality and non-discrimination, privacy and data protection, and the right to an effective remedy. Examples include sexualised deepfake images of women and girls, discriminatory prisoner profiling, unjustified workplace disciplinary flags, and facial recognition used in public spaces without consent. The Committee describes the legal and regulatory framework as fragmented and calls for a dedicated AI Bill, a new AI regulator, a ban on the most dangerous uses, risk-based regulation, and strong sanctions for organisations that damage human rights through AI systems.

National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare: Recommendations for a future regulatory framework. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, 10 September 2026. This report presents recommendations for the future regulation and assurance of artificial intelligence across the United Kingdom’s healthcare system. AI is used in administrative tools, clinical decision support, medical devices, and direct-to-consumer products. Depending on their purpose and use, these technologies may be governed through medical-device regulations, data-protection law, professional standards, organisational governance, or consumer-protection law. The Commission identifies questions concerning the classification of AI-enabled medical devices, visibility of their use, accountability, post-market monitoring, and the regulation of technologies that may change after deployment. It recommends proportionate regulation across the product lifecycle, continuous monitoring using real-world evidence, clearer responsibilities for manufacturers and healthcare organisations, stronger governance, and workforce AI literacy. The proposed framework also addresses health equity, patient safety, transparency, public involvement, and inclusive access to safe and effective AI-enabled healthcare technologies.

Interaction with AI companions and psychological well-being. Yutong Zhang, Dora Zhao, Jeffrey T. Hancock, Robert Kraut, and Diyi Yang, Nature Human Behaviour, 4 August 2026.As large-language-model-enhanced chatbots become increasingly expressive and socially responsive, many users begin forming companionship-like bonds with them. This study investigates how using AI companions relates to psychological well-being. We collected self-reported data from 1,131 US adults who use Character.AI, including survey responses and 4,664 chat sessions (464,687 messages) from 237 participants. By triangulating self-reported usage, relationship descriptions and real chat histories, we identify patterns of engagement and associated outcomes. Smaller social networks were associated with reporting companionship as the primary chatbot use (β = −0.03; 95% confidence interval (CI), (−0.05, −0.01)), which in turn was associated with lower well-being (β = −0.48; 95% CI, (−0.70, −0.25)). For self-reported companionship usage, this association was stronger when interactions were intensive (β = −0.31; 95% CI, (−0.56, −0.06)) and highly disclosive (β = −0.38; 95% CI, (−0.63, −0.14)). These results suggest that the association between AI companionship and well-being is not uniform and depends on users’ offline social environments and how chatbots are used. 

Children, Youth, Families

“I Thought I’d Never See My Mom Again”: Recruitment and Use of Children by Colombian Armed Groups. Human Rights Watch, 24 August 2026. Human Rights Watch examines the recruitment and use of children by armed groups in Colombia, including the factors that place children at risk, the methods used to recruit them, the roles children are assigned after recruitment, and the government’s response. The report describes how poverty, social exclusion, limited access to education, and recruitment through social media can increase children’s vulnerability. Children may be taken away from their communities and used for intelligence gathering, operating drones, and combat, while girls face particular risks of sexual violence. The report also identifies gaps in prevention, protection, recovery and reintegration, and accountability for child recruitment.

Hope in sight … Organisational challenges and mental health opportunities for refugee children in school contexts after arriving in an initial reception centre. Patrick Meurs et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 19 August 2026. The article describes how school education for refugee children is often interrupted for long periods due to threats and insecurity prior to fleeing, discontinuity and dangers during the exile journey, and the inability to immediately realize the universal right to school education upon arrival. The authors provide an overview of policy-oriented literature on the organization of school education for refugee children and present qualitative research based on interviews and drawing techniques with refugee children, parents, and teachers. They note that refugee children may face language differences, stalled learning processes, psychological trauma, vulnerability, repeated school changes, discrimination, and racism. The qualitative findings describe how school education during the initial arrival period can restore a sense of normality and provide hope for the future. Refugee parents, children, and carers link school attendance with hope and agency, as well as with developing a future perspective and revivifying resilience

Global funding crisis deepens as 7 in 10 PMNCH partners report program cuts, suspensions or closures. Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), 6 September 2026. A new PMNCH survey of partner organizations in 67 countries found that nearly 80% are facing reduced or uncertain funding, while 77% reported that global disruptions are having a moderate, significant or severe impact on their ability to advance women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and rights. Sixty-nine percent reported having already downsized, temporarily suspended or permanently closed programs. Sexual and reproductive health and rights programs were the most frequently cited areas affected by funding constraints, followed by adolescent-specific programming, maternal and newborn health, and nutrition. Partners also reported reductions in interventions addressing girls’ education, child marriage, gender-based violence, child protection and women’s leadership, while disability-inclusive programming for women, children and adolescents has also been affected.

Supporting Children and Families During the 2026 Conflict in Iran. Mehdi Sayyari, UNICEF Iran, 4 August 2026. The 2026 conflict in Iran has placed children and families at heightened risk, disrupting access to health care, safe water, sanitation, protection and psychosocial support. UNICEF reports that its assistance in affected provinces includes essential health services for more than 2.1 million people, safe water, sanitation and hygiene support reaching more than one million children and parents, and protection and mental health services for 12,467 children. UNICEF is also supporting the expansion of child protection, mental health and psychosocial services for children and caregivers affected by the conflict, including group counselling, stress-management guidance, community-based support and crisis-preparedness information. The response also provides learning and well-being support and basic assistance for children without effective caregivers. UNICEF continues to call for the protection of every child and for sustained, safe and uninterrupted access to essential services.

UN Report on Palestinian Children’s Rights: ‘We Shall Call Out These Crimes for What They Are’. Sanne de Boer, Leiden University, 28 August 2026. A recent UN report exposes the extreme violations of Palestinian children’s rights by the Israeli government since October 2023. Academics and professionals gathered at Leiden University to reflect on the report’s implications for children’s well-being, freedom, and future prospects. The report, “The Essence of Childhood Has Been Destroyed”: Israel’s Deliberate Targeting of Palestinian Children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Since 7 October 2023, was released in June 2026. On 28 August, the Department of Child Law and Health Law, together with Save the Children, hosted an event dedicated to legal and academic reflection on the report.

Gaps in National Responses to Childhood Sexual Violence. Udani Samarasekera. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2026. As governments prepare for the Second Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in Manila, the Philippines (Nov 18–19, 2026), a new index casts a sharp light on their gaps in tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). The Out of the Shadows Index (OOSI) 2026, developed by Economist Impact with advocacy led by Together for Girls, shows that most countries are failing to protect children and adolescents from childhood sexual violence. The Index, launched on May 18, 2026, ranks 60 countries across six regions, home to 83% of the world’s children, on their CSEA laws, policies, plans, and services across four pillars: governance and accountability (coordinated national action); prevention (child protection); healing (high-quality care); and justice (strong legal systems). The global average score is 53 out of 100, with Australia leading the Index at 83 out of 100. On average, countries scored worst on governance and accountability (42 out of 100) and prevention (43 out of 100). Seán Coughlan, Director of To Zero, a global initiative working to end childhood sexual violence, says OOSI 2026 is “an important contribution to the fight against sexual violence. By measuring and tracking countries’ responses to the issue, we’re now getting really detailed and accurate insights into the current state of play, and where country-level improvements in progress can be made.”

Climate Justice

They are all inter-related, like a cycle: an exploratory qualitative study of climate change, chronic stressors and mental health among displaced populations on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Gracia Fellmeth et al., Frontiers in Public Health, 3 September 2026. This exploratory qualitative study examined perceptions of climate change and its impacts on mental health among migrant communities on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Fifty-eight participants took part across eight focus group discussions, including pregnant women, adolescents, agricultural workers and healthcare workers living in Tak Province, Thailand. Participants’ narratives centered around stressors related to precarious legal status, financial insecurity and conflict-related trauma. Climate change was rarely raised spontaneously, but following direct prompts, participants described increasing exposure to extreme heat, flooding and environmental degradation that disrupted livelihoods and exacerbated existing hardship. Climate change may act as an indirect stressor through its impacts on livelihoods and the exacerbation of structural precarity. Addressing the inter-related challenges of climate change, displacement, poverty and mental health requires integrative, climate-sensitive and migrant-inclusive health policies and care.

Mapping the global research landscape on climate change and children’s mental health: trends, themes, and inequalities. Mudassar Aziz, Gulnaz Anjum, and Abdul Rehman Nawaz, Frontiers in Climate, 21 August 2026. This study provides a bibliometric analysis of research on climate change and children’s psychological wellbeing published between 2001 and 2025 through a climate justice lens. The authors analyzed 1,217 documents from Web of Science and Scopus. The field grew by 22.52% annually, but the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia dominated research production, while Small Island Developing States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and climate-vulnerable regions remained severely underrepresented. Eco-anxiety, climate education, and pro-environmental behavior dominated the literature, while structural themes addressing colonialism, displacement, and systemic violence remained underdeveloped. Collaboration networks showed limited Global South engagement. The authors describe this concentration as epistemic injustice and call for redirecting funding to Global South institutions, diversifying editorial boards, valuing diverse epistemologies, establishing equitable partnerships, and decolonizing theoretical frameworks.

Our Lands, Our Minds: Research and Action Agenda on Indigenous Mental Health in a Changing Climate. Kyle Xavier Hill et al. Frontiers in Climate, 31 August 2026. Climate change presents a growing threat to global mental health, disproportionately affecting Indigenous Peoples. Globally, Indigenous communities face unique and compounded climate change-related burdens, intensified by histories of colonization and structural oppression. The Wellcome-funded Connecting Climate Minds (CCM) initiative was established to cultivate a collaborative, transdisciplinary field and research and action agenda dedicated to addressing the complex interplay between climate change and mental health, and included a dedicated focus on Indigenous communities.

In Nepal’s flood zone, the second disaster is psychological. Aarya Chand. Kathmandu Post, 1 September 2026. For four days, a couple in Nuwakot each believed that the other had been swept away by the flood. They were on opposite sides of the water, cut off, with no way to confirm the other was alive. A psychosocial team from the Centre for Mental Health and Counseling Nepal finally reached both of them by phone and put them in touch. The moment they heard each other’s voices, they refused to wait any longer, not for the road to clear or for the river to calm. They wanted to be reunited immediately, and were flown across by helicopter, according to Gopal Bohara, the psychologist who helped make the call. When they reached a holding centre set up to house flood survivors, their children ran to them, crying.

The flood is over, the fear remains. Arati Paudel. Kathmandu Post, 6 September 2026. Children who survived the 26 August floods in Nepal, witnessed destruction, or lost relatives are experiencing sleeplessness, panic, withdrawal, and recurring memories. UNICEF estimates that 17,000 children were affected. Mental health specialists report that such symptoms can form part of an acute stress reaction and, if they continue for several weeks, may develop into anxiety or depressive disorders. In some cases, prolonged trauma can develop into post-traumatic stress disorder. Government agencies and aid organizations have begun providing psychological and psychosocial support. Child-protection officials warn that children separated from their families may be vulnerable to trafficking, child labour, violence, and abuse. They have also urged the public and media not to publish identifying images or personal information that could violate children’s privacy and dignity and harm their mental health. Psychiatrist Amit Jha recommends psychological first aid focused on safety, reassurance, listening when children are ready to speak, and helping them return to familiar routines and school.

Perceptions and underpinnings of climate justice demands: investigating the public’s conception of international and individual-level duties. Kirsti M. Jylhä, Göran Duus-Otterström, Krister Bykvist. Frontiers in Psychology, 8 September 2026. Issues of climate justice are extensively debated among scholars and politicians, yet research into public perceptions is scarce. In a Swedish study (N = 680), we examined public perceptions, intercorrelations, and correlates of various debated climate justice issues, here referred to as “climate justice demands.” Our main analyses focused on two indexes: (1) international-level demands: on behalf of poor countries, based on different climate justice principles (polluter pays, ability to pay, right to development), and; (2) individual-level demands: individual duties to act, including views on private/generalized morality, and interpersonal fairness. We found widespread support for demands for rich and high-emitting countries to provide climate aid to poor countries, and for individual climate action. In regression analyses, after controlling for all covariates, both our indexes correlated negatively with climate change denial, and positively with climate worry on behalf of more distant others (future generations, people living in poorer countries, and animals/nature), personal climate action, and political trust. Moreover, international-level demands correlated positively with age, and negatively with personal climate worry and social dominance orientation, while individual-level demands correlated negatively with (male) gender. The results of our study could be considered in climate change communication. It seems possible that at least some opposition to climate policies could be reduced by explicitly connecting them to justice principles. Considering the persistent gridlock in international and domestic climate politics, we call for more research to examine climate justice perceptions across societal groups and cultural contexts. Our interdisciplinary analyses, combining psychology, political science, and philosophy, could guide such inquiries.

The 2025 Small Island Developing States Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Building Resilience in the Face of Rising Heat. Georgiana M. Gordon-Strachan et al. The Lancet Global Health, 2026. Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and people living in SIDS continue to bear the brunt of its manifestations, including sea-level rise, droughts, floods, and extreme weather events. Collectively, SIDS produce less than 1% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, yet climate change presents an existential threat to them. In this report, we shed light on the disproportionate impact of climate change on SIDS and progress towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement by presenting the findings of specific indicators at the climate change–health nexus in SIDS. In this second iteration of the SIDS report, we present the findings of 28 indicators from five thematic areas: health hazards, exposures, and impacts; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement in health and climate change.

From Most Vulnerable to Most Valuable: Elevating Children in the Climate and Health Agenda. Ashima Gulati et al. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2026. The priority themes for this year’s climate Conference of Parties (COP) have been announced. There is much to laud in Türkiye’s approach as new COP president, particularly the insistence on implementation and their request for feedback. However, Türkiye’s agenda does not yet progress commitments made under Brazil’s previous presidency in one vital regard: an explicit focus on child and adolescent health in the context of health systems. The Belém Health Action Plan for the adaptation of the health sector to climate change, developed at COP30 in 2025, highlights the specific health needs of children and adolescents in response to climate change. We urge the Türkiye presidency to build on these efforts, bringing its welcome focus on delivery to ensure that mitigation, child-focused adaptation efforts, and children’s voices are truly included in their agenda.

Crimes Against Humanity

Annihilated Families and the Politics of Mass Graves: Testimonies of Gazan Women After the Loss of Entire Kin Networks. Guido Veronese, Bilal Hamamra, Fayez Mahamid. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2026. This study examines how extreme violence in Gaza is experienced and interpreted by women who survived the destruction of entire kin networks. Grounded in postcolonial and decolonial psychology, the research investigates how exterminatory violence, domicide, and spatiocide shape trauma beyond individual clinical frameworks. The study addresses the following questions: how do Gazan women narrate the psychological consequences of losing entire families, and how does the destruction of homes, space, and burial practices shape experiences of trauma and mourning?

How Slavery Reparations Could Help Make Yearning to Return to Africa a Reality. Natricia Duncan. The Guardian, 18 August 2026. Supporting the right of people of African descent to return to the continent has become a key part of the global push for reparatory justice from Britain and other colonisers. Ghana’s Right of Abode Act allows eligible people of African descent to apply to live and work in the country without a visa, and Ghana is considering a homeland return bill that would establish residence and citizenship pathways. Repatriation and resettlement is one of ten points in the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission’s vision for reparatory justice. Rastafarian and Caribbean reparations advocates describe repatriation as physical return, recognition of citizenship, reconnection with African history and culture, and the rebuilding of economic, cultural, and psychological ties severed by slavery and colonialism. At the time of publication, Jamaican officials were preparing to petition King Charles for legal guidance on their slavery reparations claim from Britain.

Jamaica Hails King’s Decision to Refer Slavery Reparations Petition to Privy Council as ‘Really Big Deal’. Natricia Duncan. The Guardian, 23 September 2026. King Charles has referred Jamaica’s slavery reparations petition to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for legal advice. The petition raises three questions concerning the legality of the forced transportation of Africans to Jamaica, its recognition as a crime against humanity, and Britain’s obligation to provide restitution for slavery and its continuing consequences. A Privy Council opinion would not require the UK government to pay reparations, but Jamaican officials believe it could influence negotiations, future legal options, and similar claims from other Commonwealth countries. Earlier coverage: Jamaican Delegation to Travel to UK to Lodge Formal Slavery Reparations Petition With King Charles. Natricia Duncan. The Guardian, 30 June 2026.

The Elimination Project: Israel’s Systematic Dismantling of Palestinian Collective Life in the West Bank. B’Tselem, 14 September 2026. Since the current Israeli government took office at the end of 2022, and particularly since October 2023, B’Tselem reports that Israel has intensified its actions against Palestinian life in the West Bank. Based on more than 2,000 testimonies collected from Palestinians since October 2023 and more than three decades of documentation, the report examines five interconnected domains: violence and intimidation, movement restrictions, economic strangulation, social and political destruction, and ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover. According to B’Tselem, these practices operate together to dismantle the conditions for continued Palestinian existence in the West Bank while deepening Jewish control and supremacy. The report also describes increasing cooperation between official state authorities and settler militias operating with state backing and support.

Displaced/ Migrants/ Refugees/ Stateless

Barriers and bridges: How Afghan refugee youth navigate informational websites about psychological services in Belgium. Lily Notebaert and Lies Sercu, PEC Global, 2026. This qualitative study examines how Afghan unaccompanied refugee minors in Flanders engage with psychologists’ websites, drawing on think-aloud observations and semi-structured interviews with fifteen youths aged 15–23. Thematic analysis revealed recurring challenges including limited mental-health literacy, difficulty navigating site structure, complex or abstract language, culturally incongruent explanations of care, concerns about privacy and confidentiality, and strong emotional reactions to unclear or dense content. Participants often relied on scanning, guesswork, or machine translation to interpret information. In contrast, plain language, concrete descriptions of services, visual supports, and culturally sensitive framing improved comprehension and trust. The findings show that informational websites may inadvertently reproduce offline inequities when not designed with refugee users in mind.

Namibia: Drought-displaced Angolans face human rights abuses. Amnesty International, 2 September 2026. Angolan women and children displaced by drought into Namibia face serious human rights abuses arising from a lack of safe and legal migration pathways for people forced across borders by natural disasters. Amnesty International’s report documents the human rights impacts experienced by those displaced into Namibia, including persistent fear of arrest, detention and deportation, which influences decisions about whether to seek healthcare and other services. Angolans displaced by drought have limited ways to regularize their stay in Namibia, and many people without regular status have few accessible options to do so. Amnesty International also found that housing, water and sanitation conditions for those already living in northern Namibia fell far short of international law and standards.

APA Resolution on the Psychological and Developmental Impacts of Immigration-Related Enforcement, Detention, and Forced Deportation. American Psychological Association, approved by APA Council of Representatives, August 2026. This resolution applies established psychological science to contemporary immigration contexts and reaffirms APA’s commitment to evidence-based, developmentally informed, and ethically grounded approaches that promote human well-being and reduce preventable psychological harm. Read the full resolution here.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support and the Route-Based Approach. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 7 September 2026. Mixed and onward movements expose refugees and asylum-seekers to uncertainty, family separation, violence, exploitation and repeated displacement, affecting psychological and social well-being and informed decision-making. The brief integrates mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) into UNHCR’s route-based approach, introduced in its 2024 explainer, across the objectives of reducing harm and loss of life, developing viable alternatives to dangerous journeys and strengthening State responses. Stress may accumulate along routes or arise suddenly after violence, torture or exploitation. Distress is presented as a common response to adversity, and most people do not require specialized mental health treatment. Measures include identifying distress through existing screening, registration and monitoring; building frontline staff awareness of psychological first aid and psychosocial helping skills; applying safe-disclosure, informed-consent and confidentiality principles; supporting culturally grounded, community-led activities; providing brief interventions through trained and supervised non-specialists; and maintaining accessible referral pathways to specialized MHPSS services.

Education

The mobile library bringing books to rural Syria. Sonia al-Ali. Positive News, 2026. The Mobile Cultural Bus, launched by Syria’s Ministry of Culture with support from volunteers, brings books, storytelling, art workshops, puppet shows, and educational activities to children in rural communities and displacement camps with little or no access to libraries, community centres, or safe creative spaces. Volunteers describe the activities as offering attention, routine, and a brief return to childhood for children who have spent years living with tension and fear. The project has visited dozens of communities and reached thousands of children.

New images for new students: A qualitative longitudinal analysis of colonial images in Italian history textbooks from 1950 to present. Alessia Mastropietro et al., Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, advance online publication, 2026. School teaching plays a crucial role in educating young generations about their national past, especially when the in-group historical information is silenced in societal discourse. In Italy, the national colonial past is still shrouded in a persistent social amnesia. In such a context, our study aims to observe changes in the images inserted in 21 Italian history textbooks, used from 1950 to the present day, to accompany narratives of Fascist colonial episodes. The results of this qualitative longitudinal analysis of images spanning 8 decades reveal a gradual increase in their quantity and typology. Three major periods can be identified: a period marked by the transition from the absence of images to the first appearance of geo-historical maps, from 1950 to the end of the 1980s; a second period from the 1990s onward, when documentary photographs—including shocking snapshots depicting the colonial violence committed by the Italian Army—as well as magazine covers and newspaper front pages were introduced; and a third one, from the 2000s onward, in which explicit Fascist propaganda images appeared. Interpreted through the theoretical framework on reconciliation processes, these results show how changes over time in terms of the type of images used in history textbooks can provide insightful suggestions for the still ongoing societal elaboration of Italian colonial history. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)

Inclusion, Exclusion, Racism

Preventing racial bias for equal access to health care. Dana Abdelfattah & Ulrike Kluge. Policy Insights 6 | 2026, Einstein Center Population Diversity. Survey research identifies strategic interventions to reduce racial discrimination in emergency care. Equal access to health care requires combating racial bias. A large-scale survey of emergency care physicians in Germany identifies main challenges in this endeavour. While doctors show high awareness of structural discrimination, the study reveals persisting contributing factors to racially biased thinking: stress due to cost-cutting, culturally coded prejudice, and a legal and bureaucratic environment that impedes providing needed care. Policy responses include raising awareness of racist knowledge structures, removing legal barriers to health care, improving working conditions, and investing in health care resources. Download the report in German.

LGBTQI+, Gender Rights

Trans Psychology Amid Anti-Trans Legislation in the United States. Ryan E. Flinn, Roberto L. Abreu, Kim Skerven, and Michèle M. Schlehofer, American Psychologist, 2026.  This special issue highlights cutting-edge applications of psychological theory and science to the well-being and health of transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse (trans) people in the United States in the context of sweeping state and federal-level anti-trans legislation and executive actions. The 16 articles in this special issue demonstrate rigorous, creative, intersectional, and equity-focused approaches across multiple subdisciplines by psychologists working in numerous sectors and settings (e.g., higher education, health care, government) to promote the health and civil rights of trans people. In this introduction, we contextualize these new findings with historical and contemporary considerations impacting the trans community and psychologists’ ethical responsibilities to respond to the structural, institutional, interpersonal, and intrapsychic impacts of anti-trans prejudice, discrimination, and oppression when engaging professionally with gender diverse people, their families, and other professionals and organizations that serve them. We close by highlighting actions that all psychologists can take to support trans people during this period of heightened sociopolitical stress. As state and federal governing bodies continue to advance harmful policies, these developments will likely have profound and long-lasting implications for the health, well-being, and freedoms of trans people, as well as for the education, training, and practice of psychologists. We therefore call on psychologists to actively advocate alongside trans communities, provide meaningful support, and expand access to affirming resources within this increasingly oppressive sociopolitical climate.

Attacks on LGBTQ+ Health Are a Threat to All. The Lancet. The Lancet, 2026. The health of LGBTQ+ people has long been an indicator of wider advances in human rights and health equity. Consensual, private, same-sex sexual activity is criminalised in 65 UN member states—a number that has risen since 2025 for the first time in a decade—and is punishable by death in seven. In the USA, the dismantling of transgender health care has been a primary focus of the second Trump administration, with the recent announcement of an end to federal funding for youth gender-affirming care. A 2024 UNAIDS report indicates that although new HIV infections among adults are declining globally, they are rising in gay men and transgender people. Population-level evidence shows that LGBTQ+ people are at increased risk of poor mental health, substance misuse, violence, poverty, cardiometabolic disease, eating disorders, and sexually transmitted infections. The evidence also shows that there are psychosocial benefits of more permissive legislation, such as equal marriage rights and inclusive school policies. Health equity for LGBTQ+ people is not a utopian vision, but it is only achievable when LGBTQ+ people are able to access services when they need them, free from discrimination, and realise their full potential towards health, happiness, and self-expression. The rollback of LGBTQ+ rights is a warning: movements that seek to undermine LGBTQ+ people are those that seek to control all of us—our freedom of expression, our personal medical decisions, and our privacy.

Mental Health and Human Rights

To the Few Psychiatrists Who Still Believe in ECT: See You in Court. John Read, Mad in America, 26 August 2026. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains controversial (Funk et al., 2025; Read et al., 2019a). One meta-analysis reported views from ‘probably ineffective but certainly causes brain damage… through to those who think it is the most effective treatment in psychiatry and completely safe’ (UK ECT Review Group, 2003, p. 799). Unsurprisingly, therefore, rates of use vary widely from country to country (Braithwaite et al., 2026; Leiknes et al., 2012). A recent review of European usage found, for instance that people in Sweden and Denmark are 11 times more likely than people in the UK, and 143 times more likely than people in Italy, to be given ECT. Our own two audits of usage in England found 12-fold (Read et al., 2018) and 47-fold differences (Read et al., 2021) between the highest and lowest using regions. The European review (Braithwaite et al., 2026) was authored by 20 ECT champions, including first author Dr Richard Braithwaite, Chair of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Committee on ECT. They collectively bemoaned the relatively low usage in English speaking countries, blaming a ‘campaign to discredit ECT’ and identifying, as the only examples of the campaign, our two reviews of the literature showing minimal evidence of efficacy and significant evidence of persistent adverse effects such as memory loss (Read & Bentall, 2010; Read et al., 2019b). But I am not convinced that our research, or indeed any research demonstrating ECT’s inadequate efficacy and extensive risks, is actually what is going to reduce its use. The European reviewers were a perfect example of how ECT researchers respond to the large, and growing, body of research that does not conform with their personal opinions. They ignored most of it and denigrated the rest as a negative ‘campaign’. Other tactics used to dismiss the evidence is to label it ‘stigmatising’ or ‘antipsychiatry’, or to blame patients’ well-founded fears about ECT on a 50-year-old Jack Nicholson film. So, I suggest that rather than continue to wait for the 4% of psychiatrists (mostly male) (Luccarelli et al., 2025; Morrison et al., 2026) who still think electricity is the answer to human distress, to abandon their extreme cognitive dissonance about research they don’t like, we should turn our attention to the legal system.

Risk and Protective Factors for Psychotherapists in Regions of Crisis: What Do Psychotherapists Need to Face the Danger of Secondary Traumatization in Kurdish Iraq? Gabriel Kornwachs, Martin Hautzinger, and Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, Frontiers in Public Health, 2026. Transgenerational and secondary traumatization are key aspects to be addressed when aiming for sustainable psychosocial support in post-war regions. Within this context, the primary goal of the Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychotraumatology (IPP) is to establish sustainable structures for psychotherapy, acknowledging that psychological distress does not simply vanish with the end of a war. Rather, it only becomes fully visible when considering not only the consequences for beneficiaries but also for helpers and subsequent generations. Because mental health workers themselves face a high risk of suffering from secondary traumatization, deliberate measures must be implemented to ensure that helpers do not become secondarily traumatized during and/or after their service. Using the IPP as a community case study, this article analyzes both general and context-specific risk factors for its students and local staff. Furthermore, it identifies universal protective factors that mitigate these risks and outlines culturally specific protective factors against secondary trauma. It also presents critical reflections on how a far-sighted and realistic understanding of cultural dynamics can contribute to the systemic protection of aid workers. Ultimately, the article suggests that providing helpers with comprehensive psychosocial support, physical and operational safety, structured peer support, transparent financial frameworks, clear future career prospects, and institutional recognition of their work are of paramount importance in sustaining long-term psychological well-being for psychotherapists.

Older Persons

Barriers to Reporting Elder Abuse Among Persons with Disabilities: Implications for Social Work Practice. Lancelot Chiwanza Nyamaka, Blessed Mandaza, Taruvinga Muzingili, and James Dominic Shalom Sithole, Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, September 2026. Elder abuse among older adults with disabilities is a critically underreported issue, particularly in low-resource settings like Zimbabwe. This qualitative study explores the barriers to reporting abuse among elderly persons with disabilities in Harare District and examines implications for social work practice. While global literature addresses prevalence and risk factors, few studies explore how abuse is experienced and interpreted by older adults with disabilities. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), we conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 participants (aged 62–87), identified through a local rights-based organization.

Peace, Violence and War 

Mental health under occupation: A phenomenological study of Palestinian lived experiences. Sabrina Russo et al.,. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 24 August 2026. Research in the fields of liberation psychology, decolonial psychology, and community psychology challenges the dominant Western model of psychology, particularly when applied to contexts of systemic oppression, such as Palestine. This study employs a qualitative, descriptive phenomenological design to explore the psychological impacts of Israeli occupation on Palestinians while identifying culturally based strengths and contextually based detriments to mental health.

College students’ self-censorship and psychological distress during Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza: A mixed methods investigation. Richard Chang, et al., Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 24 August 2026. Extant research has shown that students may self-censor or refrain from sharing their political views when they perceive themselves as a minority (i.e., holding views different from the majority). However, little is known about students’ experiences with self-censorship during crises and genocide, which may be linked to their well-being. We draw on social identity theory and the social justice education literature to examine students’ experiences of self-censorship in higher education during the start of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Specifically, we identify factors that support and hinder open discussion of the ongoing genocide.

Psychological impact of armed conflict and forced displacement on children and adolescents. Maryam Masoomi et al., Frontiers in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2 September 2026. Armed conflict and forced displacement disrupt the safety, caregiving, education, and healthcare essential for healthy child development, placing children and adolescents at increased risk for adverse mental health outcomes. This narrative review summarizes the psychological consequences of war and displacement and highlights trauma-informed interventions across different stages of recovery.

Persons with Disabilities

A Levinasian Analysis of Disability Service Providers’ Work Witnessing Documented Institutional Abuse. Jen Rinaldi et al. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, published online 20 August 2026. This project was conducted in partnership with an Ontario-based community living agency to study labour undertaken by disability support workers to read the institutional records of clients with intellectual disabilities and submit class action settlement claims for financial compensation. We drew on Levinasian theory to analyse reflections of disability support workers who witnessed violent institutional histories found in survivors? records. We conducted focus groups with disability support workers and their supervisors. We took an interpretive phenomenological approach to analysing data. Our interpretation suggests at least three results: (1) Witnessing was collaborative work that strengthened service relationships; (2) Witnessing was recognition work that cultivated understanding of survivor histories and behaviours; (3) Witnessing was investigatory work that rewrote historical record. These findings are significant for a disability service sector that replaced large-scale institutional facilities but still risks producing conditions of institutionalisation.

Women

‘I refused this marriage’: Meet West African women who fought for their right to education. Amnesty International, 7 September 2026. Amnesty International shares the experiences of women in Côte d’Ivoire, Benin and Burkina Faso who faced pressure to marry and barriers to continuing their education. The article describes experiences including early and forced marriage, violence, interrupted schooling and economic hardship, as well as efforts to remain in or return to education. It also notes that West and Central Africa has the highest prevalence of child marriage in the world and highlights the importance of protecting girls’ rights to education and freedom from early and forced marriage.

Strengthening Rights-Based Responses to Intimate Partner Violence: A Scoping Review Protocol Focused on Mental Health and Substance Use. Tara Lundy and Kimberley T. Jackson, Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, 3 September 2026. Intimate partner violence frequently intersects with mental health and substance use, shaping the support needs of survivors and the practices of direct service workers, including social workers who constitute a core and consistently represented professional group. These intersecting survivor needs are shaped by trauma, stigma, and structural inequities, demonstrating the importance of responses grounded in human rights and trauma- and violence-informed practice. Despite social workers’ central involvement, knowledge about how direct service workers experience and respond to survivors’ intersecting needs remains conceptually dispersed and limited. This article outlines a structured protocol for a forthcoming scoping review, guided by human rights and trauma- and violence-informed approaches, to examine research on direct service workers’ experiences, including social workers, support survivors navigating intimate partner violence, mental health needs, and substance use. The protocol will map available evidence and identify conceptual and practical gaps related to intimate partner violence direct service workers’ experiences. By situating this work within human rights and trauma- and violence-informed framing, the article highlights the need for integrated and equity-oriented responses across social work and community service sectors. Insights from the planned review may inform social work practice development, strengthen organizational and policy supports for direct service workers, and guide educational efforts that prepare social workers for the complexities of intersecting intimate partner violence, mental health, and substance use. This protocol contributes emerging knowledge by articulating the rationale, conceptual foundations, and methodological approach for examining direct service workers’ experiences. The planned review will support the development of social work practice, policy, and education aimed at improving survivor-centered and equitable service responses.

Beyond Silence and Toward Rights: Coping Strategies of Muslim Women Facing Economic and Emotional Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Hanieh Jaliliyan and Anahita Khodabakhshi-Koolaee, Journal of Human Rights and Social Work, 5 September 2026. Domestic violence is a widespread human rights concern with substantial physical, psychological, and social consequences for women worldwide, including in Iran. Understanding how survivors experience and cope with domestic violence is essential for developing culturally appropriate support interventions. This qualitative study employed a descriptive phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences and coping strategies of women who had experienced domestic violence. Participants were selected through purposive sampling from women with a history of domestic violence who had sought assistance from family courts and counseling centers in Tehran in 2023. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi’s seven-step method. The analysis revealed three main themes: living with constant fear, threat, and helplessness; living with persistent financial hardship; and gaining independence as a pathway toward coping with domestic violence. The findings indicated that psychological counseling, reducing economic dependence, participation in empowerment programs, pursuing employment, accessing forensic and legal services, and seeking legal support were important strategies that helped women regain a sense of autonomy and manage the challenges associated with domestic violence. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening psychological, economic, and legal support systems to enhance safety, empowerment, and well-being among women experiencing domestic violence.

The Impact of the Women’s Medical Education Ban in Afghanistan on Service Coverage and Maternal and Neonatal Mortality: A Modelling Study. Shatha Elnakib et al. The Lancet Global Health, 18 August 2026, Article 103973. Afghanistan made progress in addressing maternal and neonatal mortality between 2001 and 2021, but restrictions on women’s midwifery and nursing education risk reversing these gains. Using baseline data from the 2023 Human Resources for Health Situational Assessment, researchers modelled four scenarios through 2035 across six services accessed by women and children, based on different rates of attrition among women nurses and midwives and the possible substitution of male providers. Women’s care seeking for maternal and reproductive health was projected to fall to 50–55% of current levels under the best-case scenarios and 33–35% under the worst-case scenarios, with projected increases in the maternal mortality ratio of 29–41%. Care seeking for child health services was projected to decline to 76–80% under the best-case scenarios and 56–59% under the worst-case scenarios, with child mortality increasing by 10–16% and neonatal mortality by 12–17%. These results are scenario-based projections rather than forecasts and depend on assumptions about workforce attrition and substitution. The study projects that the education ban would restrict women’s ability to provide and access health care and threaten earlier gains in maternal and child survival.

‘Truly historic’: Morocco’s king appoints first woman prime minister. Al Jazeera Staff and AFP. Al Jazeera, 29 September 2026. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as prime minister, making her the first woman to hold the position in Morocco and the third woman to serve as prime minister in the Arab world. Her Authenticity and Modernity Party won 97 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives but did not secure an outright majority. El Mansouri’s first task will be to form a governing coalition. She previously served as urban planning minister and became the first woman elected mayor of Marrakesh in 2009.

OPPORTUNITIES
Webinars/Resources/Publications/Podcasts/Events

Upcoming Webinars

World Mental Health Day Webinar. World Health Organization, World Federation for Mental Health, United for Global Mental Health, and Global Mental Health Action Network, 9 October 2026, 12:00–13:15 UTC (14:00–15:15 CEST; 17:30–18:45 IST). Under the theme “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change,” the webinar will discuss how people with lived experience can be meaningfully engaged in shaping mental health policy, services, and practice. The webinar will also mark the launch of the World Health Organization’s guide, Supporting the transition to community-based mental health and social care: practical guide to the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric hospitals, and consider deinstitutionalisation, rights, dignity, and community-based mental health and social care. Register here.

Resources

Global Alliance for Human Rights. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 2026. Convened by OHCHR, the Global Alliance for Human Rights is a multi-stakeholder, cross-regional mobilization that connects people across sectors and generations. Its purpose is to mobilize leadership, align resources, and rebuild trust in human rights as a practical force that improves lives, sustains peace, and drives sustainable development. The Alliance will invite pledges and generate catalytic and collaborative initiatives under four strategic pathways for change: Human Rights at Home, Human Rights in Mind, Human Rights for the Future, and Human Rights in Action. Individuals and organizations can register their interest through the Alliance’s website.

Global Human Rights Repository: A central hub for human rights data. HURIDOCS, 2 February 2026. HURIDOCS is working in partnership with the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice to build the Global Human Rights Repository (GHRR), an open, public database that centralises and links human rights documents from international, regional, and national bodies.  The GHRR will aim to address the fragmentation of human rights information, which is often scattered across many sites, hard to search, and locked in inaccessible formats like PDFs. By using machine learning and graph data models, the repository will make it far easier for researchers, advocates, lawyers, and defenders to find, compare, and analyse large volumes of human rights material. This will support more effective advocacy, legal action, and accountability. The Global Human Rights Repository has been in development for some time and is realised through funding support by Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and machine learning development support by Google.org.

Global Index on Responsible AI.  Global Center on AI Governance. The Global Index on Responsible AI provides evidence on how countries govern and use artificial intelligence. Grounded in a human-rights-based approach, it assesses 135 countries and jurisdictions across five dimensions: Inclusion and Diversity, Ethics and Sustainability, Labour and Skills, Trust and Safety, and AI Use in Public Service. The website includes country and regional comparisons, indicator-level results, an evidence explorer, and access to the 2026 report.

WHO QualityRights e-training on mental health. World Health Organization. This free online course covers taking care of one’s own mental health, supporting friends, family, and colleagues, and addressing stigma, discrimination, abuse, and coercion in mental health services. It also covers taking action to support the transformation of mental health services toward a person-centred, rights-based recovery approach. The e-training is available in several languages through the WHO QualityRights page. Begin the English-language course.

Women, Peace and Security Conflict Tracker: September Updates. Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, 16 September 2026. The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Conflict Tracker combines real-time data points and original analysis to offer gender-sensitive insight into conflict dynamics across 27 countries. The September update spotlights Palestinian women in Gaza and the West Bank and identifies risks and opportunities for women in 11 other conflict-affected settings. Complete country analyses are available through the WPS Conflict Tracker.

Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs (IIHA). Fordham University. Established in 2001, the IIHA bridges academic study and the practical work of humanitarian assistance. Its multidisciplinary programmes include undergraduate and graduate degrees, the International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance, humanitarian training courses, and humanitarian preparedness training. Courses use lectures, case studies, seminars, practical exercises, and simulations. Grounded in social justice and humanitarian ethics, the Institute works toward humanitarian responses that are dignified, effective, and sustainable.

Publications

Disciplinary Frontiers of Human Rights in Higher Education. Cher Weixia Chen, Felisa Tibbitts, and Jonathan Liljeblad (Eds.). Cambridge University Press, 2026. This groundbreaking book explores the expanding and impactful relationship between human rights and academia, illustrating historical and emerging practices for integrating human rights within scholarship and teaching in a range of disciplines and professional studies. By providing examples of meaningful applications across thirteen academic fields, chapters examine the varied ways that higher education engages with human rights ontologically, theoretically, conceptually, and in practice. Collectively, it also demonstrates that human rights remain essential for addressing twenty-first-century challenges, emphasizing the role of faculty and students in advancing this work. Offering a framework for designing and studying the infusion of human rights within and across disciplines, this work includes a broad range of discussion questions to enrich learner engagement, critical thinking, and practical application. It is a vital resource for instructors, departments, and multidisciplinary centers, as well as anyone engaged in human rights, social justice, peace, and global citizenship education.

Online book launch: Disciplinary frontiers of human rights in higher education. Online, 9 October 2026, 9:00 EDT/15:00 CET. Cher Weixia Chen, Felisa Tibbitts, and Jonathan Liljeblad will present their new, edited book, which explores human rights teaching and research across 13 disciplines and professional studies areas. One chapter focuses on psychology and was written by Nora Sveaass. Moderated by Jon Verriet of the Netherlands UNESCO Commission, the event will involve brief presentations by the editors and five authors. There will be an opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas about multi-disciplinary human rights teaching and research. Register here.

Our Minds Were Always Free: A History of How Black Brilliance Was Exploited—and the Fight to Retake Control. Lisa E. Davis, Simon & Schuster, 19 May 2026.  Lisa E. Davis traces the history of Black American artists and innovators from the eighteenth-century drafting of the Constitution through the twenty-first century. Beginning with enslavement, when Black people were claimed as property but could not profit from what they created, the book examines the struggle to gain ownership, credit, and financial benefit from Black creative work. Through music, film, television, and other creative industries, it documents the exploitation of Black creativity and the efforts of artists and innovators to gain control over their intellectual property..

Torture and the Recognition of Psychological Suffering in International Law. Ergün Cakal. Oxford University Press, 20 August 2026. How ECtHR/IACtHR/UN Committee Against Torture under-recognize psychological suffering as torture. Torture and the Recognition of Psychological Suffering in International Law finds that psychological suffering has posed difficulties for international human rights advocates and adjudicators working on the prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. A systematic survey of the relevant international case law, the book presents, reveals a vast variation in how psychological suffering is found to violate the prohibition (or not). When singled out in cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), psychological suffering has never been specifically categorized as torture. What is more, psychological suffering has often been excluded altogether from the purview of the prohibition, categorized instead as ‘lawful sanctions’ or as falling below the ‘minimum level of severity’ threshold, and therefore not found to be a violation. Coupling caselaw analysis and interviews, this book provides numerous inter-related reasons: that socio-political standards recognizing the significance of psychological suffering are selectively applied or altogether overlooked; that categorization is subject to caution and conservatism; that scientific expertise documenting health impacts has not compelled adjudicators in all cases; and that interpretation still depends on sense-centric reasoning (intuition–emotion–presumption), potentially undercutting scientific expertise and perpetuating preconceptions associating severe suffering with the physical.

End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World. Naomi Klein  & Astra Taylor  (2026). Allen Lane. The far right is on the march again – but this time it’s different from anything we’ve seen before. A new, apocalyptic alliance of religious fundamentalists, billionaire Silicon Valley tech kings and ethno-nationalists is on the move. They’re united in their belief that some kind of cleansing cataclysm is coming, and they welcome a future of shocks, scarcity and collapse, convinced they’ll be among the saved on the other side. This is the world of End Times Fascism. In this blistering reckoning with our age, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor take us deep into this man-made Armageddon complex – and show us how to resist it. Around the globe, they investigate how those who are making our world unliveable through climate chaos and job-consuming AI are preparing to protect themselves from the fallout, whether it’s by repairing to luxurious private islands for the super-rich, rocketing off to Mars or bunkering nations against a dehumanized ‘other’. But, Klein and Taylor reveal, the new supremacist survivalists are far from impregnable. They have no vision of a shared future. All they offer are remixes of a bygone past: the nihilistic, sadistic pleasures of domination. If we’re to meet this critical moment and defend what’s left of democracy before it’s smashed up beyond repair, we must break the doom loop, and find a new way of living together, rooted in our existence on this earth, in the here and now. A story not of end times – but of better times. This book shows us how.

Chain of Ideas by Ibram X Kendi Review: Anatomy of a Conspiracy Theory. Arwa Mahdawi. The Guardian, 20 March 2026. Book reviewed: Chain of Ideas by Ibram X Kendi. Arwa Mahdawi reviews Ibram X Kendi’s Chain of Ideas, which traces the ideological origins of contemporary authoritarianism to great replacement theory. Kendi presents the theory as a chain of interconnected claims about race, immigration, political power and threats to democracy, arguing that their combined emotional force has supported the growth of transnational far-right networks. The book examines how right-wing parties use leaders from marginalized groups to counter accusations of racism, sexism and homophobia, and how historical records are revised to portray far-right movements as victims and antiracist efforts as oppressive. Its geographical scope extends from Renaud Camus’s formulation of the “Great Replacement” in France in 2011 to Donald Trump’s discussion of a possible third presidential term in 2025. Mahdawi finds some discussions of Brexit and Nigel Farage overly simplified and suggests that the role of technology needed greater examination, while describing the book as an accessible framework for interpreting current politics.

A Radical Model of Radicalization: Unraveling the Complexity of Radicalization Through Agent-Based Modeling. Mijke van den Hurk. Doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University, 29 June 2026. The dissertation examines how agent-based modeling (ABM) can contribute to understanding radicalization as a complex and dynamic process with multiple pathways and outcomes. In response to gaps in integrated process models and methods for developing and validating them, it introduces design principles and a qualitative validation method for explanatory agent-based models. The Individual, Group, Ideology (IGI) model focuses on interactions among individual, social and ideological mechanisms that can give rise to identity fusion, justification of extreme behavior and ingroup superiority. Each process can constrain perceived behavioral options, but none necessarily produces radicalization independently. Simulations show how radicalization may emerge when these processes occur simultaneously and reinforce one another, gradually reducing alternative courses of action. The findings present radicalization as a dynamic and relational process that depends on specific conditions and the sequence in which mechanisms become dominant. The model connects explanatory theories with empirical observations by showing how interacting mechanisms can produce radicalization. Experts from the Dutch Police identified benefits for knowledge integration, analysis from multiple perspectives and interpretation of movements and groups through their dominant underlying mechanisms.

The International Journal of Children’s Rights. Volume 34, Issue 1, May 2026. Brill | Nijhoff. Editors-in-Chief: Ton Liefaard and Jonathan Todres. Focusing both on critical leadership and practical policy development, the articles in the preeminent International Journal of Children’s Rights reflect the perspectives of a broad range of disciplines and contribute to a greater understanding of children’s rights and their impact on the concept and development of childhood. The journal deploys the insights and methodologies of all relevant disciplines, including law, legal and political theory, psychology, psychiatry, educational theory, sociology, social administration and social work, health, social anthropology, economics, theology, and history to further children’s rights in all parts of the world.

Colonialisms and Queer Politics: Sexualities, Genders, and Unsettling Colonialities. Sonia Corrêa, Gustavo Gomes da Costa, & Matthew Waites (2026). Oxford University Press. Colonialisms and Queer Politics: Sexualities, Genders, and Unsettling Colonialities provides a ground-breaking comparative analysis of empires and colonialities in gender and sexuality studies. As dynamic decolonizing research generates new insights, this volume provides a systematic comparative analysis of eleven empires and colonialities with respect to sexualities and genders beyond heterosexuality and the gender binary. The book’s chapters focus on specific empires, varying in association with Eurocentrism: Portuguese, Spanish, British, French, Dutch, Ottoman, Russian, Belgian, German, Italian, and United States empires. Distinctively, chapters also investigate continuing colonialities, particularly effects shaping contemporary governmental regulation and LGBTIQ+ activisms. Hence, the book contributes to global historical sociology and history, international political sociology, international relations, and world politics scholarship. The volume argues that long histories of European empires since the fifteenth century reveal changing and extremely diverse forms of sexuality and gender regulation. Changing discourses and practices of racialization are critical, as shown in the difference between early Portuguese interracial sexual mixing and late nineteenth-century British empire discourses, proscribing “miscegenation” and criminalizing sexual activity between men. In the twentieth century, some European states were preoccupied by homosexuality, yet others such as Belgium did not regulate “same-sex” sexual acts in colonies. The book’s comparative analysis argues that religious differences between Protestants and Catholics had important effects, including through schooling practices, influencing later receptiveness to transnational evangelism. Limits of Eurocentric epistemologies are shown by marginal cases including Russian and Ottoman empires. This book distinctively argues that comparative understanding of colonialisms is crucial for rethinking and advancing global queer politics today.

85 Seconds to Midnight: A Physicist’s Argument Against Rearmament. Carlo Rovelli (2026). Penguin. The world is re-arming and embroiled in endless conflict. The Doomsday Clock has now been set to 85 seconds to midnight, with the risk of nuclear war the highest it has ever been. Rovelli reframes the history of nuclear weapons: from how the atomic bomb was born to why Germany didn’t build it and why the US used it, to the narrowly averted disasters of the Cold War and the political brinkmanship careering out of control today.

Podcasts

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

Call for Papers

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Calls for Papers. American Psychological Association (APA), 2026. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology invites manuscript submissions addressing topics within peace psychology. International in scope, the journal welcomes contributions from psychologists and scholars in related disciplines whose work engages with the peace psychology literature.

Conflict, Inequality and Social Transformation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Crisis, Governance and Repair. International Social Science Journal and Conflict Resolution Quarterly. Submission deadline: 30 January 2027. This joint special issue invites interdisciplinary contributions on the relationship between conflict, inequality, and social transformation. Topics include political violence, migration, displacement, peacebuilding, collective trauma, transitional justice, historical injustice, reparations, environmental injustice, and digital conflict. Psychological dimensions of conflict may include identity threat, prejudice, stereotypes, individual and intergroup biases, fear, grievance, dehumanisation, trust, trauma, and PTSD. Quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, comparative, historical, practice-oriented, theoretical, and conceptual contributions are welcome.

Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing of Practitioners in Training. MultiPsych. Submission deadline: 31 January 2027. This special issue examines the mental health and wellbeing of practitioners in training across psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, neuroscience, and related disciplines. The call addresses systemic inequities, racial injury, discrimination, social injustice, institutional exclusion, and financial precarity within training environments. It also invites submissions on supervision and power imbalances, suicide and self-harm risk prevention, anxiety, depression, mental health support, and lived experiences. Qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, theoretical, reflective, and practice-based submissions are welcome.

Events

Human Rights in Mental Health and Disability Services in Ireland. 6 October 2026, 13:30–16:00, Trinity College Dublin. The seminar will address human rights in mental health and disability services in Ireland, including progress and challenges in advancing human rights, workforce optimisation, and good human rights practice in mental health and disability services. The event will also include the launch of Human Rights & Wrongs in Psychology & Psychiatry, edited by Brendan Kelly, Ikenna Ebuenyi, and Mac MacLachlan.

Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), 5–15 October 2026, Warsaw, Poland. The conference is organized by the 2026 OSCE Swiss Chairpersonship with support from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Participants from across the 57 OSCE participating States will review the implementation of OSCE human dimension commitments, exchange perspectives, share good practices, and highlight issues requiring international attention. Plenary sessions and side events will address democratic institutions, the rule of law, tolerance and non-discrimination, fundamental freedoms, humanitarian issues, and gender equality. In-person registration has closed, but the opening, ten plenary sessions, and closing will be livestreamed on the conference webpage.

Second Annual Virtual Conference: Trauma Capacity Building, Peace and Reconciliation with EMDR. Trauma Aid International. 31 October 2026, online, 09:00 to 17:00. The programme includes task shifting in trauma capacity building, trauma and resilience among refugee victims of torture, children in Ukraine, nature-based EMDR, trauma care for Indigenous Brazilians, work with formerly radicalized people, access to low-intensity EMDR, and psychological trauma programmes developed through work in Northern Ireland. Six continuing professional development (CPD) hours will be awarded by the EMDR All Ireland Association. Registration costs €90. Register here.

12th ISHHR International Conference: The Role of Ceremony and Culture in Healing. International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR). 4–7 May 2027, Montréal, Canada. The 12th ISHHR International Conference for Health and Human Rights will explore the role of ceremony and culture in healing and bring together people working with individuals and communities affected by traumatic events and human rights abuses. Participants will include Indigenous leaders and community members, health and social welfare professionals, service providers, educators, researchers, students, civil society organizations, and others working in health and human rights. Pre-conference workshops will be held at McGill University on 4 May, followed by the main conference from 5–7 May 2027. 

ENDNOTES

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

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