Health and Human Rights Info: ISHHR
Dear HumanDHS network friends
Please find below information about health and human rights from ISHHR
Kind regards
Brian Ward
Health and Human Rights Info
Health and Human Rights Info makes practical information and material on mental health and human rights more available. Our aim is to give you access to organisations, publications, guidelines and manuals regarding the effects of human rights violations on mental health in the contexts of violence, conflict and disaster on individual as well as community level. This website contains a database with links to selected materials, divided into three categories and thematic pages. Health and Human Rights Info is a project initiated by the International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) . and funded by the Norwegian NGO Mental Health Project.
News letter No. 2.2008 October 10th 2008
Dear friends and colleagues
We welcome you to our new and improved website. Today we commemorate the World day of mental health, together with 100 other countries around the world. It is getting more significant, as the world is shrinking, to make mental health a global issue. Every fourth person will experience some kind of mental illness through his or her lifespan; more than 450 million people are suffering from mental illness. All the time violations of human rights in conflict areas are increasing Health and Human Rights Info finds it crucial to share information about how this will influence mental health in the context of violence, conflict and disaster. We hope that our improved site will make it even easier for you to find the information that you need efficiently.
In addition to the new look, we have also added a new search field called “Phrase in description” which allows you to search in free text in the description of our link. Our hope is that this will simplify your search.
For your convenience we have added thematic pages. On these pages we have gathered selective information essential to the different topics.
The topics have been chosen on the basis of their actuality, relevance and importance.
Torture thematic pages
Torture in any form and for any reason has been banned by international law, but it is still practiced on a million people each year around the world. Survivors of torture are found everywhere. Victims of torture and their families need rehabilitation to make it possible for them to re-establish control over their lives. This is well known, but still there is not enough help for those who need it. This page contains comprehensive material with definitions, conventions, about absolute prohibition, monitoring, organizations, treatment and repatriation and more.
Post-conflict communities and transitional justice thematic pages
There has been a greater focus on the importance of transitional justice for communities that are in a post-conflict state. Publications and articles on this important subject are many, but the links between why it is important for the individual as a part of a community to come to peace with the violation that has occurred are fewer. HHRI have tried to gather information that combines transitional justice with mental health. If you know of articles or other types of information that will complete our thematic page on transitional justice, please do not hesitate to send us an e-mail and let us know.
Asylum-seekers in Europe thematic pages
Asylum seekers are vulnerable people. Displaced from their homes, in flight from persecution, often subject to mental and physical violence, they seek sanctuary in other countries that are free of war, violence and armed conflict. Yet on arrival in Europe their health often deteriorates. Asylum-seekers have a higher risk of getting mental illness due to the fact that they often have been exposed to extreme conditions, forced migration and large personal loss and other Human Rights violations. People that need asylum are often met with stricter enforcement of who to grant asylum in order to try to restrict the flow of asylum- seekers. The process of screening asylum-seekers to decide who is eligible or not for asylum will often worsen their mental health situation. We hope that this page can give information both to health personnel and to asylum seekers about the mental health situation of
asylum- seekers in Europe.
This newsletter is the free of charge. Health and Human Rights Info makes and distributes this newsletter, currently reaching more than 2.500 subscribers. If you receive this newsletter for the first time, it is either because someone that already is subscribing has recommended that we add your e-mail address to the list of subscribers, or because we have other reasons to believe that you might be interested in some or all of its content. Consider it an offer. If you want to continue to receive this newsletter, you don’t need to do anything. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please send us an email and we will delete you from our mailing list.
If you know anyone who would benefit from receiving this e-newsletter, please forward it, and encourage them to sign up by sending us an e-mail postmaster[@]hhri.org.
Sincerely yours
Health and Human Rights Info
Elisabeth Ng Langdal
Project coordinator
postmaster[@]hhri.org
www.hhri.org