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Abstract

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Women and the Abuse of Power
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-335-9

Book part
Publication date: 10 September 2018

Jaswant Kaur Bajwa, Sean Kidd, Sidonia Couto, Natasha Lidkea, Mulugeta Abai, Abby Jackman and Kwame McKenzie

This chapter provides information on the specific programming needs of victims of torture pursuing higher education, and policy and practice guidelines which will support them in…

Abstract

This chapter provides information on the specific programming needs of victims of torture pursuing higher education, and policy and practice guidelines which will support them in that pursuit. This is a community-based participatory action research project that brought together partners who had educational, research, practical, and real-life expertise in working with marginalized groups on this complex issue, with each partner playing an essential and a vital role in the research. A partnership between George Brown College, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Wellesley Institute, and the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture established this community-based participatory action research project. The project established innovative outreach for people seeking to integrate into Canadian society through education following experiences of torture and war as a means to aid in the meaningful integration of survivors into Canadian society. This work is scalable to other settings (e.g., universities and colleges across Canada) and groups with experiences of marginalization (e.g., Aboriginals, visible minorities, etc.).

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Refugee Education: Integration and Acceptance of Refugees in Mainstream Society
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-796-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2008

Rick Lines

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise…

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Abstract

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise the highest attainable standard of health. It examines this right as articulated within United Nations and regional human rights treaties, non‐binding or so‐called soft law instruments from international organisations and the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. It explores the use of economic, social and cultural rights mechanisms, and those within civil and political rights, as they engage the right to health of prisoners, and identifies the minimum legal obligations of governments in order to remain compliant with human rights norms as defined within the international case law. In addressing these issues, this article adopts a holistic approach to the definition of the highest attainable standard of health. This includes a consideration of adequate standards of general medical care, including preventative health and mental health services. It also examines the question of environmental health, and those poor conditions of detention that may exacerbate health decline, disease transmission, mental illness or death. The paper examines the approach to prison health of the United Nations human rights system and its various monitoring bodies, as well as the regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Based upon this analysis, the paper draws conclusions on the current fulfilment of the right to health of prisoners on an international scale, and proposes expanded mechanisms under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment to monitor and promote the health rights of prisoners at the international and domestic levels.

Details

International Journal of Prisoner Health, vol. 4 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-9200

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 September 2014

Benjamin Thomas Greer and Scott Davidson Dyle

The purpose of this paper is to explore and expand the legal discussion on T-Visa requirements and how it can be better structured to provide support for victims of sex…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore and expand the legal discussion on T-Visa requirements and how it can be better structured to provide support for victims of sex trafficking that suffer from severe mental health injuries.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted extensive US legal and sociological research compiling human trafficking mental health report data, primarily conducted in Europe. Based on these finding, the authors interviewed practitioners in the legal field to verify assumed legal hurdles. Once validated the author's attempted to address and design an equitable approach towards mitigating the demonstrated legal shortfall.

Findings

There is a dearth of US research on mental health trauma survivors of trafficking endure. This void prevents the legal system from adequately addressing likely outcomes suffered by the victims of this crime and prevents policy makers from structuring legal requirements equitably. Policy makers often need concrete examples of problems before reacting. This paper attempts to demonstrate how the current T-Visa requirements fail to fully recognize mental health injuries of sex trafficking and begins to provide a pathway to balance.

Originality/value

While the statistical data was previously conducted by outside sources, the legal analysis is completely original by the author's and is likely to have a very high value to policy makers when addressing these issues. This paper also highlights the need for a more robust research program into human trafficking and mental health injuries within the US so that many of the analogies and assumptions can be supported.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 10 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2024

Helen Jane Liebling, Hazel Rose Barrett, Lillian Artz and Ayesha Shahid

The study aimed to listen to refugee survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and/or torture and explore what justice meant to them in exile. This study argues that…

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Abstract

Purpose

The study aimed to listen to refugee survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and/or torture and explore what justice meant to them in exile. This study argues that what the survivors who participated in this research wanted was “viable justice”. The research was funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a survivor-focussed justice lens combined with a trauma-informed approach, narrative interviews were held with 41 women and 20 men refugee survivors living in refugee settlements in Northern Uganda. The researchers also conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 key informants including refugee welfare councils, the UN, civil society, non-government and government organisations. Thematic analysis of the data resulted in the following themes being identified: no hope of formal justice for atrocities that occurred in South Sudan; insecurity; lack of confidence in transitional justice processes in Ugandan refugee settlements; abuse and loss of freedom in refugee settlements; and lack of access to health and justice services in refugee settlements.

Findings

This study argues that what the survivors who participated in this research wanted was “viable justice”. That is justice that is survivor-centred and includes elements of traditional and transitional justice, underpinned by social justice. By including the voices of both men and women survivors of SGBV and/or torture and getting the views of service providers and other stakeholders, this paper offers an alternative form of justice to the internationally accepted types of justice, which offer little relevance or restitution to refugees, particularly where the crime has been committed in a different country and where there is little chance that perpetrators will be prosecuted in a formal court of law.

Research limitations/implications

The research findings are based on a small sample of South Sudanese refugees living in three refugee settlements in Northern Uganda. Thus, wider conclusions should not be drawn. However, the research does suggest that a “viable justice” approach should be implemented that is gender and culturally sensitive and which could also be trialled in different refugee contexts.

Practical implications

Improvements in refugee survivors’ dignity, resilience and recovery are dependent upon the active engagement of refugees themselves using a “survivor-focussed approach” which combines formal and community-based health services with traditional and transitional justice responses.

Social implications

The provision of a “viable justice approach” ensures those who have experienced SGBV and/or torture, and their families, feel validated. It will assist them to use their internal, cultural and traditional resilience and agency in the process of recovery.

Originality/value

The research findings are original in that data was collected from men and women survivors of SGBV and/or torture and service providers. The empirical evidence supports this study’s recommendation for an approach that combines both formal and survivor-focussed approaches towards health and viable justice services to meet the needs of refugees living in refugee settlements. This is a response that listens to and responds to the needs of refugee survivors in a way that continues to build their resilience and agency and restores their dignity.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 September 2015

Michael Welch

This chapter delves into the controversy over detention and interrogation in the war on terror carried out by American operatives. While attending to political, legal, and ethical…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter delves into the controversy over detention and interrogation in the war on terror carried out by American operatives. While attending to political, legal, and ethical concerns, critical attention is directed at the manner by which certain interrogation techniques have been framed as being “scientific” and therefore effective in extracting truthful disclosures from terror suspects.

Methodology/approach

Drawing on extensive legal and medical literature, the critique offers a postmodern analysis by raising serious questions over the effectiveness and legitimacy of enhanced interrogation espoused by the Bush administration. By doing so, the conceits of the war on terror are exposed and confronted.

Findings

In 2014, the report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program) was unclassified and released to the public. Among other revelations, the document clearly shows that interrogators and their psychological consultants committed torture. In doing so, they often relied on medical knowledge for harming, rather than healing. Ethical and legal remedies aimed at correcting those problems are recommended.

Originality/value

The chapter delivers a sophisticated critique that blends recently revealed evidence of torture with postmodern interpretation. While casting doubt on the effectiveness and legitimacy of enhanced interrogation, discussion throws critical light on incidents of human rights abuses committed by health professionals. Paradoxically, those physicians and psychologists opted to use their medical skills and expertise to inflict suffering rather than alleviating it. Those acts constitute egregious ethical and legal violations that warrant prosecution.

Details

Terrorism and Counterterrorism Today
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-191-0

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 10 December 2003

Lisa Hajjar

Utopia, a term first coined by Sir Thomas More in the sixteenth century, referred to a place of unattainable social perfection. But the appeal of a concept that embraces rather…

Abstract

Utopia, a term first coined by Sir Thomas More in the sixteenth century, referred to a place of unattainable social perfection. But the appeal of a concept that embraces rather than mocks the imagination has broadened its meanings and uses. In the early twentieth century, Anatole France wrote, “Out of generous dreams come beneficial realities. Utopia is the principle of all progress, and the essay into a better future.” In contemporary vernacular, utopia has come to refer not only to imagining perfection but cures for imperfection. By this definition, any struggle for rights could be conceived as utopian to the extent that it represents a desire to make the world a better place for the would-be beneficiaries. The utopianism of rights envisions conditions in which human dignity can be ensured and vulnerability minimized.

Details

Studies in Law, Politics and Society
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-252-8

Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Jennifer J. Esala, Leora Hudak, Alyce Eaton and Maria Vukovich

The purpose of this paper is to explore the “active ingredients” of integrated behavioral health care (IBHC) from the perspective of Karen refugee participants in an IBHC…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the “active ingredients” of integrated behavioral health care (IBHC) from the perspective of Karen refugee participants in an IBHC intervention.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with participants (n=40) who have received an IBHC intervention for one year. These qualitative data are supplemented by descriptive quantitative data from those same participants.

Findings

This research suggested that IBHC increased awareness and access to behavioral health services, and that IBHC may be especially amenable to treating complex health conditions. The research also found that IBHC provided a point of regular contact for patients who had limited time with their primary care providers, which helped to enhance access to and engagement with health care.

Practical implications

IBHC has the potential to meet the complex needs of Karen resettled refugees living in an urban setting in the USA.

Originality/value

IBHC is a promising approach to help meet the mental health needs of refugees in the USA. There are, however, gaps in knowledge about the “active ingredients” of IBHC. This paper helps fill these gaps by studying how IBHC works from the perspective of a group of Karen refugees; these are critical perspectives, missing in the literature, which must be heard in order to better address the complex conditions and needs of resettled refugees.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 July 2007

Leah Schmalzbauer, Alice Verghese and Meenu Vadera

The structure and functioning of poor families have been deeply changed by processes of globalization. The concentration of capital in core areas of the world economy, for…

Abstract

The structure and functioning of poor families have been deeply changed by processes of globalization. The concentration of capital in core areas of the world economy, for example, has spurred massive migrations, as many poor families in the Global South are faced with the decision of sinking further into poverty together or sending a member North in search of survival wages (Sassen, 1998). In places in the Global South where migration is not a viable response to economic crisis, families find other creative ways to make do (Moser, 1993). Compounding poverty, political instability in many areas threatens family safety and health (Lentin, 1997; Davies, 1994). In all situations of marginality and vulnerability, family survival and well-being depend on creative means of survival. This survival is often gendered.

Details

Sustainable Feminisms
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1439-3

Book part
Publication date: 1 January 2005

Pamela Bell

Trauma has become a buzz term, and the responses to trauma are slick and swift. Teams of mental health professionals can now be dispatched within hours of a catastrophe, and…

Abstract

Trauma has become a buzz term, and the responses to trauma are slick and swift. Teams of mental health professionals can now be dispatched within hours of a catastrophe, and psychological intervention is fast becoming an industry. A more penetrating look at the state of trauma intervention reveals a less impressive picture. In spite of the heightened interest in the effects of trauma, mental health professionals are in fact a long way from fully understanding the impact of such trauma, and from providing responses to victims that are effective. Not only do we lack a psychotherapeutic antidote that can be distributed to the hundreds of thousands of victims of conflict across the globe, but to date we have failed to provide scientifically evaluated, evidence-based treatment guidelines for the psychological rehabilitation of victims.

Details

Military Missions and their Implications Reconsidered: The Aftermath of September 11th
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-012-8

1 – 10 of over 1000