Peter Bumke
Trauma Centered Psychotherapy and EMDR in a Humanitarian Mass Disaster: Evaluating the Aceh Experience…………………………………………………………2
Harald Jürgen Freyberger
60 Years Later: Posttraumatic Stress Disorders, Salutogenetic Factors, Medical Expert Opinions in Holocaust Survivors in the Longitudinal Section Course …………………………………………………………2
Joop de Jong
Public Mental Health: State of the Art of Dealing with Massive Stress …………………………………………………………2
Manfred Nowak
Fact-Finding and Documentation of Torture: Experiences of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture…………………………………………………………3
Nora Sveaass
Gross Human Rights Violations and Reparation: Rehabilitation as a Form of Reparation under International Law – Challenges and Approaches…………………………………………………………3
1. KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND INVITED PLENARY LECTURES – CONTENTS
Peter Bumke, Germany
Social anthropologist, member of Trauma Aid-HAP Germany, EMDR Europe
Trauma Centered Psychotherapy and EMDR in a Humanitarian Mass Disaster: Evaluating the Aceh Experience
In a project carried out by Trauma Aid-HAP Germany between 2007 and 2009 and sponsored by Terre des Hommes and the German Official Development Assistance more than 3200 adult and child clients were treated for mental disorders related to traumatic experiences after the Tsunami in 2004 and the civil war in Aceh/ Indonesia.
An accompanying monitoring and research component provided detailed diagnostic data before and after therapy. This guided both the therapeutic process, and the training process in psychotraumatology. Also with this component the long term effectiveness of the interventions was assessed. In turn these findings were related to various traumatic events, socio-economic conditions and other non-psychological factors that influenced therapy outcome. Particular attention was paid to a variety of cultural implications entailed in using therapies such as EMDR in a non-Western, deeply religious and traditional context. Main results, implications for further research and future intervention strategies will be addressed.
Harald Jürgen Freyberger, Germany
Prof. Dr. med., Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Greifswald
60 Years Later: Posttraumatic Stress Disorders, Salutogenetic Factors, Medical Expert Opinions in Holocaust Survivors in the Longitudinal Section Course
Starting from 600 medical experts opinions with regard to applicants to German compensation boards each individual share of the posttraumatic stress disorders and the different salutogenetic elements are identified. In more than half of the patients posttraumatic stress disorder did not occur progressively. Their most frequent posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were sleep disturbances, recurrent nightmares, intrusive recollections as well as depressive and anxiety disorders. The salutogenetic factors concerned the state of Israel, the distinguished communications within the marriage of two survivors, the birth of children and the systematic dealing with well describing holocaust topics.
Joop de Jong, Netherlands
MD, PhD, is Professor of Cultural and International Psychiatry at the VU University in Amsterdam, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University, and Visiting Professor at Rhodes University, S Africa
Public Mental Health: State of the Art of Dealing with Massive Stress
Trauma societies around the world are gradually shifting towards a public health paradigm. Despite high hopes of developments in psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, we realize that we need to pay more attention to contextual variables in managing mass traumatic stress, wherever it occurs in the world.
Low- and middle-income countries are disproportionally affected by disasters and armed conflicts with increased migration flows, poverty, a large burden of psychosocial and mental health problems, human rights violations, and very few mental health professionals. The resulting treatment gap in the aftermath of massive humanitarian emergencies obliges us to develop contextually relevant and culturally appropriate preventive and curative interventions, which is the main theme of this lecture.
Manfred Nowak, Austria
Univ. Prof. Dr. Manfred Nowak, Head of the Research Platform “Human Rights in the European Context”, University of Vienna, Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
Fact-Finding and Documentation of Torture: The Experiences of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
Today, psychological expertise plays a crucial role in professional human rights work. Its contribution is no longer limited to aspects of rehabilitation of victims of human rights violation, but also assumes an important role in the course of human rights fact-finding and prevention. Based on his professional experience as UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and former member of the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, Prof. Manfred Nowak will enquire into the need for a “main-streaming” of psychological know-how. He will also highlight key areas such as the challenges of interviewing victims of torture and family members of disappeared. Correspondingly the need for psychological supervision for human rights professionals to cope with the suffering encountered will be discussed. While focusing on the overwhelmingly beneficial role of psychological expertise, its abuse, such as revealed in relation to the interrogation of detainees at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, shall be raised additionally.
Nora Sveaass, Norway
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Member of the UN Committee against Torture
Gross Human Rights Violations and Reparation: Rehabilitation as a Form of Reparation under International Law – Challenges and Approaches
The strengthening of the International Criminal Law system and a growing focus on the right to redress and reparation for victims of human rights violations represent important challenges for health professionals, in particular for those engaged in the field of trauma research and therapy. As recognized in the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law, the means to achieve full reparation include among others: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition (G.A. Res. 60/147, U.N. Doc. A/RES/60/147, Dec. 16, 2005). The Convention against torture defines state obligations under article 14 as ensuring “that victims of torture obtain redress and have enforceable rights to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible” (UNCAT, 1984).
This paper will discuss these obligations from a perspective of psychological trauma and treatment, and touch upon some of the questions raised by these important principles: How can health professionals participate in order to ensure that the right to rehabilitation after gross human rights violations is actually provided, and in the best possible way? What does rehabilitation in a context of social and political trauma mean and what does it imply in a context of reparation after such trauma? And – must rehabilitation as reparation rely on the initiation of legal procedures? If the survivor lives in exile, does the right to rehabilitation as part of reparation extend beyond borders? And finally there is also a need to find a balance between the right to health as a free standing human right in relation to the right to rehabilitation as a form of reparation.
In the international legal deliberations on the right to redress, including the right to rehabilitation, the issues pointed out here are not adequately addressed. I will therefore take the opportunity to reflect upon ways in which researchers and clinicians from the trauma field can actively participate and contribute to this discussion, in a world where accountability and reparations after atrocities are understood as important steps in the struggle for global respect for human rights.