Survivors Of Human Rights Violations Research Articles

Agensi Perempuan Penyintas dalam Inisiatif Keadilan Transisi di Tingkat Lokal

This article will describe the contribution of women survivors of human rights violations in promoting transitional justice initiatives at the local or community level in Indonesia. In their marginal position, both as women and victims of human rights violations, the women survivors show their agencies to face social, political, cultural and structural barriers. The initiatives and participation of women survivors in Central Sulawesi, Aceh, and Yogyakarta Province, have contributed to the emergence of transitional justice models at the local level, such as apologies for victims, health assistance programs, scholarships, and truth-telling. These transitional justice initiatives at the local level not only fill the gap in the accountability that should be borne by the state, but they also strengthen the implementation of transitional justice mechanisms organized by the state or government, both at the local and national levels.

Acts of Truth Telling and Testimony in the Conceptualisation of Reparations in Post-conflict Peru

ABSTRACTThe internal armed conflict of Peru (1980–2000), a struggle which saw the rise of various guerrilla movements, notably Shining Path, against the State, left an estimated 69,280 fatalities and countless survivors of human rights violations. Among the victims, particularly toward the end of the conflict, were over 300,000 indigenous, predominantly illiterate, women in impoverished rural communities who had been targeted by State officials and forced into undergoing sterilisation surgeries. To date, no reparation has been enacted in response. This article reviews acts of truth telling, in particular the use of oral testimony within the project of Quipu, of the victims of these enforced sterilisations, as a nonviolent method of historical justice. The article finds that calls for violent social justice (that is, the internal armed conflict) have not protected the rights of the most vulnerable (among them, indigenous women), though arms may have been taken up in an attempt to do so, but have in fact increased the forms of violence within the armed conflict. By contrast, testimony as nonviolent action protects victims’ right to the truth and their right to resist, as it turns against violent histories and toward possible reparation.

Using visual methods in human rights research

How might we use visual images in research on human rights violations? This article describes four approaches and the advantages and difficulties associated with each of them. It illustrates this with examples from research on how women in shantytowns experienced extreme poverty and state violence during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and on these women's coping strategies and human rights activism (Adams, 2012). The first approach, photo analysis, involves the collection and analysis of photographs showing the conditions that people experience. The second, art analysis, involves photographing and analyzing art works, in this case art works by the victims or survivors of human rights violations. The third, art elicitation, involves asking research participants to look at art works and talk about them or about subjects related to them. The final approach, the collection and analysis of ephemera with visual content, involves examining handbills, flyers, bulletins, newsletters, and the like. These visual methods are of value in and of themselves but can also serve to complement textual and other forms of data and enrich research that is primarily based on other methods.

Break the rules, save the records: human rights archives and the search for justice in East Timor

How do distinctive historical experiences and political regimes shape human rights archives? How do those archives and those experiences in turn influence the way painful pasts are remembered or forgotten? And what can historical accounts tell us about the wisdom of prevailing norms and practices regarding the management and control of human rights records? This paper explores these questions through a close analysis of the history and politics of the principal archive documenting human rights abuse in East Timor. It underscores the work of archival studies scholars who argue that human rights archives are always in some degree shaped by the historical and political context in which they emerge and that conflicts over matters of content, mandate, and rules of access are virtually inevitable. Noting that such conflicts typically pit political authorities against victims and their advocates, it argues that successful human rights archival programs hinge critically on sensitive historical and political analysis and that, under certain conditions, human rights archivists should play a more active role in facilitating the pursuit of justice for victims of human rights abuse. It also makes the case for a move away from large, state-controlled archives toward multiple, smaller archives with varied mandates. Finally, it proposes the adoption of a new hierarchy of interest in the management of archives; away from the long-accepted principles of national sovereignty and inalienability, and in the direction of access to the survivors of human rights violations and their advocates.

Bridging through Occupation: Stories of Elderly Survivors of Human Rights Violations Living in Sweden

Experiences of elderly survivors of human rights violations can inform understandings of occupation in relation to how people manage extreme situations and cope with them while growing older. Using a narrative approach, this study explored the importance of everyday life focused on elderly Chilean immigrants in Sweden, who had experienced human rights violations. Data were collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews and analyzed using a narrative interpretative method. Findings are presented as three emploted participants' stories and their possible interpretations. The results highlight the role of occupation in the creation of liminal spaces that make it possible to bridge past and current dimensions of the participants' experiences. The findings show the centrality and the diverse role of occupation in mastering life while growing older and the importance of its political and cultural features for the participants.

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder and survivors of human rights violations

This article reviews recent findings on Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and proposes future research which would help to establish the nature of CPTSD in relation to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Research on survivors of torture and war has found that CPTSD can occur when there is no history of childhood abuse. fMRI studies appear to highlight differences in neural activity in individuals exhibiting primary dissociation compared with individuals exhibiting secondary dissociation. Research has begun to show that, when symptoms of secondary dissociation are appropriately managed, exposure-based therapies are an effective treatment for individuals with CPTSD. Much research on CPTSD has emphasized its developmental basis and the disruptive effects of trauma in childhood and adolescence on subsequent emotional development. However, some studies on survivors of torture in adult life identify similar symptom patterns, despite there being no history of childhood trauma. It is argued that comparative research is required between victims of developmental trauma (such as childhood sexual abuse) and victims who experienced prolonged interpersonal trauma in adulthood (such as torture), as this could be useful in establishing the cause of CPTSD and in delineating clinically and therapeutically meaningful subtypes. It is also proposed that a focus on underlying neurobiological processes would help in developing and refining CPTSD as a construct and informing treatment.

The effects of torture-related injuries on long-term psychological distress in a Punjabi Sikh sample.

Torture survivors often report chronic debilitating physical and psychological distress. Prior research on the relationship between physical and psychological trauma suggests that the 2 are not independent. Injury sustained during torture may increase the likelihood of subsequent distress as either a moderator or mediator. For long-term psychopathology in a sample of Punjabi Sikh survivors of human rights violations (N = 116), chronic injuries mediated the path between torture and posttraumatic stress disorder, specifically the severity of numbing symptoms. Although injuries were associated with major depression, torture was not, and injuries did not moderate the relationship between major depression and torture. Chronic injuries may represent trauma severity or persistent traumatic cues. These findings emphasize connections between physical and psychological trauma and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to torture treatment.

Political Violence, Impunity, and Emotional Climate in Maya Communities

This article explores the effects of political violence and impunity on the emotional climate of Guatemalan Maya communities and the processes that may be drawn upon to improve such climates as revealed by three studies conducted in the 1990s. The first investigated Guatemalan peasants' emotional responses to political and military repression during an ongoing conflict; the second, the effects of participation in judicial processes among a Guatemalan community recovering from a massacre as peace was being negotiated; and the third, the emotional impact of responding to extreme human rights violations among rural Maya women who also critically examined their gendered location in war and peacemaking. Taken collectively, the findings of these studies suggest several resources that have been deployed by survivors of human rights violations in Guatemala as tools for improving emotional climate and for moving forward in ongoing struggles for truth and justice, even in contexts of persistent violence and impunity.

Ethics of research on survivors of trauma.

Essential elements of all research include balance of risks and benefits, unbiased selection of research samples, and assurance of the rights of individual participants. This paper highlights some key ethical issues and summarizes recent evidence relating to participation in, and conduct of, trauma-focused studies with special reference to vulnerable populations (eg, women and children, refugees, survivors of human rights violations, and survivors of trauma in the developing world). A concise ethical framework, rather than rigid guidelines (that may not be applicable to all trauma studies), may be a more useful point of reference for investigators and ethics committees or institutional review boards. Despite the increased empiric data available to inform ethical dilemmas regarding trauma research, more cost-burden analysis research in varying trauma populations and careful investigation of factors that contribute to risk and benefit is required.

Conducting Research with South African Survivors of Human Rights Violations: Some Considerations

Behavioural science research in a developing world context involves unique methodological and logistical challenges and requires cognisance of local sensitivities. This paper discusses the ethical, logistical, and methodological problems encountered during the conduct of a study with survivors of human rights violations in South Africa. Research practices such as subject recruitment, negotiating language and literacy, and other methodological concerns are considered in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. The legacy of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is also addressed in terms of the manner in which it affects the conduct of research. Finally, the manner in which research into highly politicised traumatic events is affected by the South African social and historical context is examined and recommendations are offered for behavioural science research in developing countries.

Present concerns of survivors of human rights violations in South Africa

Most research on persons subjected to physical torture for political reasons has framed this experience as traumatic, with the sequelae approximating the diagnostic criteria of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, responses to checklists, questionnaires, and structured interview schedules may reflect the effect of demand characteristics more than the actual concerns of respondents. Thus semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 South Africans who were detained for political reasons during the apartheid era. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed with the assistance of the Atlas.ti 4.5 programme. Results showed that the major concerns expressed by the sample were somatic problems, economic marginalization, non-clinical emotional distress, and dissatisfaction with the present political dispensation in South Africa. Respondents also expressed concerns that reflected symptoms of traumatization, but these were not salient in comparison with the other themes that emerged. These data suggest that a model of trauma and the diagnostic category of PTSD may be less appropriate than suggested by most of the literature in accounting for the concerns of many South African former political detainees. This paper critiques the hegemony of the psychiatric model of traumatization in conceptualizing the needs of this population, and suggests an alternate perspective that is broader and more inclusive than a psychiatric paradigm. It also discusses the research and possible clinical implications of the results in terms of addressing the needs of former detainees in South Africa.

“A Forgotten History” and Related Risks for Speech Genre Users in Trauma Mental Health: A Commentary

This paper utilizes the concept of the “speech genre” as defined by the Russian literary scholarly Mikhail Bakhtin to examine several discourses related to trauma psychotherapy. It explores the theme of “A Forgotten History” in trauma mental health and then relates it to current problematic patterns in trauma mental health work with international survivors of human rights violations. It considers the theme of “A Forgotten History” which has been an important narrative in shaping the trauma mental health movement. It argues that it may put genre users at risk of undesirable practices, and cites as examples current trends in torture treatment and trauma training being used with international survivors of human rights violations. Several recommendations for how the trauma mental health field can better conduct itself as a speech genre are proposed.