Meeting September 1st, 2022
Network of Human rights and psychology groups
Present:
Debora Di Scala and colleague Lea Jabbarian representing the Netherlands (NIP)
Elaine Rogers, Limerick, Ireland, clinical psych, disability rights, Psychology Society of Ireland Human Rights section
Marlena Plavšić representing the Croatian Psychological Association for Iva Žegura
Derek Indoe, BPS, clinical & forensic psych, Immediate past chair of the BPS Steering Group on Human Rights
Tony Wainwright, for the GN Steering Group
Polli Hagenaars, for the GN steering group
Gabe Twose, APA, international affairs, social psychologist, Human Rights Task Force,
Apologies:
Richard Plenty (Global Psychology Alliance)
Iva Žegura (Croatia)
Following introductions, we reviewed the previous minutes notes and agreed them.
1. Matters arising:
a. Tony (following Derek Indoe’s having to leave the meeting early, reported that the British Psychological Society has established a Human Rights and Psychology Advisory group and the details of the Chair’s role are here
b. Tony updated the group on the survey of human rights activities that psychology associations that has now been translated into Spanish so that it is more widely available. We still need more associations to respond to this so if anyone has contacts can they encourage this please.
c. Tony asked that if colleagues could send material that could be added to the GN website page about their associations work in HR it could be posted there and provide publicity for it.
Reports from Associations:
2. The APA Gabriel Twose)
a. has reacted on the Draft Guidance Mental health and Human Rights of the OHCHR,
b. Felisa Tibbitts will give an online HR workshop for APA employees
c. APA wants to have representatives in Geneva at the UN institutes, to compare with existing mental health legislation
3. Derek Indoe (BPS) told the group about a special Issue on Human Rights & Psychology, to be published in the International Journal of Psychology, (IUPsyS ) based on research; There are 14 submissions and currently reviewing in progress.
4. Elaine Rogers for the Psychological Society of Ireland reported Ireland: as a group we are commenting on housing, we will contribute to the mental health act review. We are also organising an education event with a human rights barrister. Individual group members are involved in various projects: supporting refugees, Travelling Community (Roma), parents with disabilities.
Some discussion followed and Tony mentioned a film on the experience of Hungarian Roma people that had some psychology involvement from Professor John Oates – details here.
Elaine also mentioned some events that may be of interest. IASSIDD 2022 conference on supported decision making.
Also a new podcast re parents/parenting with disabilities also available here: This is relevant to human rights work as parents with cognitive impairment are far more likely to lose custody of their children, even in the absence of parenting supports or supports to navigate the family court. The Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare and the Parents and Parenting SIRG from IASSIDD: Parenting done differently podcast
Also posted here
An upcoming event on the Irish Travellers and the state.
5. Khalid Zuma from Zanzibar mentioned a conference that will be held on November 5th, details to follow.
6. Marlena reported for Croatia, that they are collecting key papers to create a resource and that they plan to have a human rights and psychology symposium at every annual Croatian Psychological Association conference. For example, a symposium is planned for the next conference will take place in November 2022.
7. Debora Di Scala from the Netherlands (NIP) sent the LinkedIn connection for the HR&Psychology group in NIP. Also attending from the Netherlands was Lea Jabbarian who also sent her Linked in connection
· Debora described a LinkedIn group where they publish possible webinars, GNPHR bulletin monthly and important news related to HR and psychology.
· Recently, they have been working on changing the Code of Ethics in the NL, that was not changed since 2015, and most of it was without mentioning human rights. They are making sure it will include them in the articles as well.
· They are working on preparing the commemoration of the abolition of slavery in the NL, 150 years ago, for the next year, 2023. With workshops and arts of different cultures.
· They are working on how to help asylum seekers in the NL since lately, the places hosting them are having many problems with being crowded and allowing people to sleep outside for not having enough space.
8. The group discussed and reflected on the similarities across work topics and challenges:
o Topics like refugees, housing, mental health, disability were across many groups
o Challenges like staffing/resources were present for smaller organisations eg Croatia and Ireland
· The group agreed to each write a half page on their activities – this would then go on the GNPHR website.
· It might be an idea to do something like ‘reflections on setting up HR and psychology groups/ activities – and submit to popular mainstream conferences/letter to editor of general journal – just in terms of raising awareness, attracting interest
· The issue of language was raised – and indeed the need to be mindful of language became apparent – in the discussion on the Irish Travellers/ Roma. Google translate is a resource. Survey in Spanish to encourage South American respondents.
· The group were invited and encouraged to share events, materials for the GNPHR website. The website was demonstrated in the meeting.
· We discussed collaborative projects. We had a conversation about activism and advocacy – that we might write a ‘kind’ piece similar in tone to the blog on refugees and racism. We spoke about human rights issues at home and internationally – we all have human rights issues at home. And about including or combining ethics and human rights
9. Next steps for the group
a. We discussed the various ways the HR sits within psychology organisations: as special interest groups/ sections/ or as overarching committees. Tony and Elaine will work on a template for framework for setting up a group
A draft will be circulated before the next meeting where it can be finalised.
b. Group members to share workplans and or terms of reference of their groups
c. Dates of upcoming meetings shown below. Preregistration on Zoom required via email that will be sent prior to the meeting. This will give access to the zoom link for the meeting.
Next meetings:
Thursday 3rd November 2022 8.00 pm (CET)
Thursday 5th January 2023 1.00 pm (CET)
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