Since the introduction of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), there have been calls to develop standards for evaluating compliance and implementation. Human rights 'indicators' are a recognized, if somewhat contested, way to measure states' compliance with human rights treaties. The additional CRPD requirement for active involvement of people with disabilities in monitoring and implementation has sparked efforts towards participatory design of such tools. We present a rationale for the development of a CRPD indicator in the mental health context. We adopted a combined doctrinal analysis and scoping review approach to examining literature on human rights indicators. Unsurprisingly, a much wider literature exists on indicators concerning the rights of people with disabilities generally. For mental health-focused efforts, compliance tools have focused on either (1) the implementation of specific CRPD provisions, (2) mental health-related legislation, or (3) consisted of audit and service quality assessment tools that consider human rights at the service level. We observe that no tools or indicators have been developed in the mental health context that include a full, integrated assessment of the CRPD across society (both including and extending beyond healthcare services to include areas like housing, employment, and anti-discrimination law). To address this gap, we conclude by proposing the development of a co-designed indicator that is inclusive of the full spectrum of rights contained within the CRPD.

The coercive legacy of Article 763 LEC: sociolegal perspectives on involuntary psychiatric treatment in Spain.

Tuition-free lower secondary education and women's healthcare decision-making in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This article examines systematic breaches of medical confidentiality in Argentina's reproductive healthcare system, where healthcare providers often report patients experiencing obstetric emergencies to law enforcement agencies. Drawing on judicial records, interviews with healthcare professionals, and analysis of medical curricula, the study shows how structural weaknesses, regulatory ambiguities, and biases in medical education undermine professional confidentiality, turning hospitals into patients' entry points to the criminal justice system rather than spaces of care. Despite strong constitutional protections and Supreme Court rulings affirming patients' rights to confidentiality, significant gaps persist between legal standards and practice. Situating Argentina within broader Latin American patterns, the article argues that clearer institutional guidelines, improved professional training, and consistent judicial interpretation are needed to align medical practice with human rights standards and rebuild patient trust.

Psychosis, human rights, and legal frameworks: global perspectives, with a focus on low-income and middle-income countries.

Social work is an interdisciplinary field aimed at enhancing the quality of life for individuals and societies, shaped on the foundation of social justice and human rights. The objective of this study is to evaluate the concept of social work through the case of Spain, which possesses an established system in Europe, and to elucidate the country's current practices alongside their outcomes. Designed as a review study, this article examines the relationship between the development of Spain's social policy and the evolution of its social structure from a historical perspective. It discusses how the church-centered assistance that began in the Middle Ages transformed into an institutional, decentralized, and rights-based structure through the industrialization process, the democratization of the 1970s, and the 1985 Social Services Law. The literature review indicates that the current system is shaped by the multi-layered collaboration of the state, local governments, and non-governmental organizations. While inclusive policies directed at the integration of Roma (Gitano) communities, education, and care programs for the elderly and people with disabilities such as IMSERSO are examined, attention is also drawn to economic challenges and access issues in rural areas. By presenting the evolution of social work in Spain through a holistic approach, this article provides a conceptual framework for social policy debates in Europe and contributes to the existing literature.

Sex workers worldwide experience different forms of violence and stigma that increase the risk of adverse health outcomes. It is assumed that a discriminatory, criminalizing context as well as intersectional stigma increases the risk of sexual violence for sex workers. We aim to answer the following questions: (1) What types of sexual violence do sex workers experience and (2) how frequently do they encounter it? (3) To what extent are these types of sexual violence associated with mental and sexual health conditions? (4) Are these associations moderated by legislative models? In a preregistered systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42024503922), scientific databases, references from meta-analyses, and publications from sex work organizations were searched. A total k = 207 quantitative and qualitative studies (N = 157,991) published since 2013 were summarized meta-analytically and narratively. Sex workers experience sexual violence across various contexts, with quantitative records identifying rape as the most prevalent form. Qualitative findings document varied forms of sexual violence including non-penetrative acts, sexual harassment, technology-facilitated sexual violence, and sexual neglect. The lifetime prevalence of sexual violence is 26.3% (95% Confidence Interval [CI] 22.0-31.0). Mental health conditions (depressive, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and suicidality) were associated with sexual violence: OR [95% CI] = 1.85 [1.58-2.16], p < .001, as were alcohol and other recreational drugs: OR [95% CI] = 1.95 [1.59-2.38], p < .001. Both sexually transmitted infections, including HIV (OR [95% CI] = 1.36 [1.11-1.66], p = .003) and reproductive health related outcomes (OR [95% CI] = 1.76 [1.18-2.63], p = .013) were significantly associated with sexual violence. Potential moderation by legislative model could not be detected due to insufficient data. This systematic review suggests sexual violence against sex workers as a critical human rights issue. However, the generalisability of these findings is constrained by substantial statistical heterogeneity and limited representativeness within the current literature, which remains focused predominantly on cisgender women in in-person sex work. This calls for redefining sexual violence with input by sex workers and addressing structural inequities to aid in destigmatizing sex work and reducing social inequities.

Interventions to support recovery of people with psychosis in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.

The development of infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative has had a significant impact on post-conflict reconstruction in Asia and Africa. However, the Initiative’s reliance on bilateral government-to-government agreements has had the effect of marginalising affected communities from project governance. This paper explores how a state-centric model engenders governance distortions in fragile institutional environments. It draws evidence from the Thar coalfield development in Pakistan, the Kyaukpyu port project in Myanmar, the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya, and Hambantota port in Sri Lanka to support this investigation. Each case demonstrates that rapid infrastructure deployment without meaningful community consultation produces displacement, environmental degradation, and erosion of citizen trust in state institutions. It also examines civil society responses across three areas: domestic litigation that challenges procedural deficiencies in environmental and land acquisition processes; transnational advocacy campaigns that link local grievances to international human rights discourse; and mobilisation strategies rooted in culturally specific claims to territory and belonging. An analysis of the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations reveals that neither organisation has successfully transitioned from facilitating dialogue among member states to establishing enforceable standards governing infrastructure investment. Four reforms are proposed: the institutionalisation of community voice through tripartite project committees, the mandating of cultural heritage assessments alongside environmental review, the development of regional investment protocols with accessible grievance mechanisms, and the embedding of conflict sensitivity into project design where historical injustices shape contemporary land tenure.

Digital Technologies for Healthy Longevity: A Policy Agenda from the Einstein Circle on Inclusive, Data-Driven Ageing Societies.

Armed conflicts in Africa disrupt physical and mental healthcare, yet ethical frameworks guiding interventions remain underdeveloped and rarely grounded in local political, cultural, and global realities. Mental health, chronically underfunded, is further devastated by conflict. This paper advances a human rights ethics approach to safeguarding health rights. Integrating Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach, John Rawls's difference principle, and the African value of ubuntu, it focuses on mental health while assigning responsibilities to global actors whose economic policies fuel conflict. It reframes destruction of health infrastructure, cultural stigma, and weak accountability as violations of dignity and justice, not logistical challenges. Subsidiarity assigns primary responsibility to local actors; international actors bear a duty of solidarity, including addressing upstream conflict drivers. Restoring mental health services empowers individuals and communities-agency is central to healing. Short-term actions include integrating mental health into emergency responses, scaling community-based care, and launching culturally grounded anti-stigma campaigns. Long-term, resilient health systems and accountability, through the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and targeted international measures that avoid civilian harm-can hold violators responsible, even governments. Grounded in a coherent, locally situated human rights ethics, even fragile settings can advance the right to health, affirming dignity and solidarity as non-negotiable in war.

Elder abuse constitutes a significant violation of human rights and is linked to various harmful psychological and physical consequences. This research aimed to investigate these effects by assessing the prevalence of elder abuse and its relationship with resilience and health-related quality of life among older adults who attended the comprehensive health centers in Sanandaj, Iran, in 2023. This study employed a cross-sectional design that involved 200 elderly individuals who sought services at comprehensive health centers in Sanandaj city, located in the Kurdistan province of Iran, in 2023. Participants were chosen through a two-stage process. The data collection instruments included a form for recording demographic information, a questionnaire on elder abuse, and the CD-RISC measure. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression, along with the Pearson Correlation test in STATA12 software, setting the significance level p-value ≤ 0.05. The findings revealed that 57.5% of the participants had encountered some form of abuse, with psychological abuse being the most prevalent at 50%. The examination illustrated a significant relationship between the extent of elder abuse and the average mental health scores (p=0.001), resilience (p=0.001), living situation (p=0.05), and Educational level (p=0.05). Furthermore, there was a statistically significant relationship between resilience scores and mental health (r=0.572, p less than 0.001). In conclusion, the research indicated that a majority of elderly individuals had faced abuse, with higher occurrences among those who were illiterate and resided in rural settings. The findings also suggested that older adults with greater resilience scores experienced lower levels of elder abuse and reported better mental health.

We compare indicators of HIV prevention and care in two rounds of National HIV Behavioral Surveillance for transgender women (NHBS-Trans) in San Francisco. NHBS-Trans recruited 201 trans women in 2019/20 and 339 in 2023/2024 through peer referral methods. The proportion of trans women on ART significantly improved from 90% to 98% ([Formula: see text]=6.33, p = 0.018) over this time period. Additionally, methamphetamine use decreased overall from 32% to 22% (χ2 = 7.08, p = 0.008). Among trans women living with HIV, the proportion reporting injection drug use also decreased from 22% to 11% (χ2 = 3.98, p=0.046). HIV prevalence did not significantly change (42% in 2019/20 and 36% in 2023/24), nor did the proportion of participants reporting HIV testing (91% vs. 84%), condom use (45% vs. 48%), or PrEP use (43% vs. 40%). Notably, the proportions aware of their HIV status and virally suppressed remain below 90% in 2023/24, falling short of the > 95% targets set to end the HIV epidemic. Transgender women have consistently faced profound marginalization in the U.S. Stalled progress in addressing the HIV epidemic occurs in an era of increased politicization of transgender identity, cuts to HIV programs and research, and threats to the rights of transgender people in the United States. These efforts at erasure threaten progress in ending the HIV epidemic and risk creating structural, irreversible harm that no clinical innovation alone can overcome.

The term 'climate violence' is increasingly used to describe the intersection of climate change and violence. In the research literature, climate violence has been conceptualised in varied ways, reflected in emergent and intersecting definitions and descriptions. How concepts are understood and used in academic discourse impacts policy developments, including justice responses to violence and climate change. This paper scopes how the term 'climate violence' is defined and described in research literature, synthesising the current conceptual landscape to provide the foundational knowledge necessary for future development of a bounded interdisciplinary framework. A rigorous scoping review systematically analysed peer-reviewed, English-language literature published on or before November 13, 2023, that used the term 'climate violence' and offered an explicit definition or description of its components. Twenty-three articles met the criteria for inclusion, revealing that while the concept is emerging across diverse disciplines, it is rarely explicitly defined, and authorship is dominated by those located in Global North institutions. Through inductive analysis, three broad themes were identified as common features of climate violence; the phenomenon is fundamentally intersectional and structural, encompasses manifold forms of violence, and conceptualisations emphasise accountability and responsibility, primarily from states and corporations. This paper argues that a shared understanding of climate violence can support development of integrated, cross-sectoral policy responses that address its violent manifestations, underscoring the legal and moral obligations of states to protect human rights and mitigate climate change. Additionally, future research and practice implications of the climate violence concept are identified.

ABSTRACT The emergence of conditions such as migration, asylum-seeking, and dislocation compels translators to navigate complex agendas in these emergent settings. Despite the growing interest in translation as a form of activism, there have been few studies exploring the convergence of translation studies and theories of activism. Against this backdrop, the current study adopts the perspective of translation as a form of activism in order to throw light on Omid Tofighian’s role as an activist through a case study of Behrouz Boochani, a prominent human rights advocate and an asylum seeker detained from 2013 to 2019 in different carceral sites. The central argument is that Tofighian addresses the plight of Boochani and his fellow asylum seekers while incorporating his own agendas through paratextual elements in Boochani’s novel, No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison. The findings reveal that Tofighian’s agenda amplifies the voices of asylum seekers, conceptualize the pain and experiences in concrete terms, and promote transnational discourse on refugeehood. The implications of this study provide a foundation for analysing the translator’s role as a vital actor who makes every attempt at his disposal to bring about political and social changes through translation with an activist mission.

ABSTRACT Nation-making is often shaped by elite politics and calculated aspirations which are far removed from the lives of ordinary citizens, who ultimately shoulder its gravest burdens. The 1947 Partition illustrates this, as millions of Bengali Hindus in East Pakistan were abruptly transformed from citizens into refugees. The situation became extremely grievous for marginalised Bengali peasantry lacking any social capital and depending on state sponsored relief and rehabilitation. Crossing into West Bengal exposed them to new forms of state-inflicted violence in the hostland layered with caste-based marginalisation. In India, state rehabilitation programmes framed in humanitarianism displaced this group multiple times. This pattern reached its tragic culmination in the 1979 Marichjhapi Massacre, when the West Bengal government deployed lethal force to evict and suppress a group of such marginalised refugees who reverse migrated from Dandakaranya to self-settle on the island, resulting in widespread human rights violations. This paper examines Marichjhapi carnage through a human rights lens to demonstrate how state-led rehabilitation, frequently driven by electoral priorities and agendas can directly contradict the very rights it claims to uphold. Drawing on archival records, oral testimonies, and secondary sources, the study traces the gross human rights violations endured by these socially marginalised refugees in post-Partition India.

This research aims to analyze the legal arrangements and forms of punishment for minors who are involved in narcotics abuse, as well as to identify the factors that cause children to fall into this action. This research is motivated by the increasing number of cases of narcotics abuse by children, which raises concerns regarding legal protection for children and the effectiveness of the juvenile criminal justice system in Indonesia. The research method used is a normative juridical method with a statutory approach, case studies. Data sources were obtained through literature studies of statutory regulations, literature books, scientific journals. The results of the research show that legal regulations regarding children involved in narcotics abuse have been contained in Law Number 35 of 2009 concerning Narcotics and Law Number 11 of 2012 concerning the Juvenile Criminal Justice System. However, in practice, the approach to punishment towards children still tends to be repressive. Diversion and rehabilitation have not yet become a complete priority. Apart from that, factors such as a non-conducive family environment, peer influence, social pressure, and weak legal education are factors that encourage children to abuse narcotics. This research recommends the need to strengthen the juvenile criminal justice system based on restorative justice, legal education for children and families, as well as cross-sector collaboration in preventing and handling juvenile and narcotics cases.

ABSTRACT Nursing’s ethical identity is grounded in compassion, advocacy, and the protection of human dignity, principles aligned with the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In the face of crimes against humanity occurring in Gaza, nursing’s collective voice has been muted by political pressures, fear of reprisal, and institutional neutrality, thereby failing to meet its professional mandate. This paper examines the moral and professional implications of such silence, using Gaza as a case study to explore how suppressed speech and outrage erodes the collective nursing conscience. We trace the historical relationship between nursing and humanitarian law, framing nursing’s professional conscience through compassion, bearing witness, and moral courage. Analysis of statements from nursing bodies in Canada and the United States reveals patterns of silence that highlight the ethical cost of equivocation. We argue that silence disrupts the compassionate process and risks desensitisation to suffering, thereby undermining public trust in nursing’s moral authority. The path forward requires re-centering humanitarian principles within nursing education, policy, and practice, cultivating moral courage as a necessity, and dismantling cultures of fear that immobilise human rights advocacy grounded in international humanitarian law. Advocacy in such contexts is not peripheral to nursing but the highest expression of its professional ideals.

ABSTRACT Grassroots cultural heritage in Palestine functions as a pivotal arena of resistance, challenging hegemonic heritage approaches adopted by the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian Authority, and international heritage organisations. Focusing on the NGO Riwaq’s initiatives in rural Jerusalem, this paper demonstrates how heritage becomes a site for reimagining Palestine beyond flagged symbols of nationhood. Through these counter-hegemonic frameworks, this article sheds light on how grassroots actors subvert hegemonic heritage models. The analysis traces three interconnected practices through Riwaq’s projects: the rehabilitation of Kafr ‘Aqab Historic Centre, the ‘Mapping Rural Jerusalem’ project, and the ‘Engaged Margins’ exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2023). These scales are explored through theoretical frameworks, including Anderson’s ‘imagined communities’, Euro-American heritage management and the human rights discourse. Drawing on Chatterjee’s critique of Western modular forms of imagined communities, Barakat’s ‘deruination’ and Muñoz’s disidentification from a victim-centred aesthetic regime, this paper argues that Riwaq broadens what counts as heritage. Ultimately, the paper posits that cultural preservation is a form of resistance, enabling grassroots organisations to challenge colonial power structures, assert the right to narrate overlooked histories, and advance ‘Alter-Native’ forms of self-determination.

Newborn- and family-centered care (N&FCC) is essential for improving newborn and parental outcomes, yet no previous review focused on related newborn rights and principles. In this scoping review, we aimed to identify and synthetise related rights of hospitalised newborns and principles of N&FCC enunciated in the literature, assess correspondence of rights with international human rights instruments, examine alignments between rights and principles, and identify gaps. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar up to 20 August 2025 for records that explicitly described the rights of hospitalised newborns or articulated principles relevant to N&FCC. We thematically synthesised the identified rights and principles into overarching sets, assessed them for mutual alignment, and mapped rights to five fundamental international human rights instruments. Twelve of the 13 447 retrieved records were eligible for inclusion. We identified 40 enunciated rights and 57 principles, with no single source providing a comprehensive list of either. Thematic analysis yielded 12 overarching sets of rights and 6 overarching sets of principles which showed substantial mutual alignment. Each set of rights was supported by two or more international human rights instruments. The analysis of principles enunciated so far in the literature highlighted that newborns are not always explicitly identified as the intended subject of N&FCC. Newborn rights and N&FCC principles were predominantly developed by groups/initiatives in high income countries. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of newborn rights and N&FCC principles, demonstrating correspondence between newborn rights and international human rights law instruments, and alignment between rights and principles, thereby strengthening conceptual foundations of N&FCC. Our findings suggest that N&FCC should be considered a rights-based entitlement of hospitalised newborns, rather than solely a model of care. Future work should clarify the intended focus of N&FCC, examine mechanism for translating newborn rights into standards of care, and involve stakeholders from both high- and low- and middle-income countries to support its wider implementation.