Human Rights Resilience Project

The Human Rights Resilience Project is an interdisciplinary research initiative co-led by Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, CHRGJ Faculty Director and Co-Chair, in collaboration with Professor Sarah Knuckey of Columbia Law School and Professor Adam Brown of Sarah Lawrence University and NYU School of Medicine. Since 2015, a research team of human rights lawyers and psychologists have been working to document, raise awareness, and develop culturally-sensitive training programs to promote well-being and resilience among human rights workers. The project is grounded in the belief that the well-being of human rights activists is essential for sustainable movements.

The project’s initial phase consisted of an online survey of human rights workers based in dozens of countries. An analysis of survey results, published in December 2015, found high rates of adverse mental health impacts among the 346 respondents. Of those studied, 19% appeared to have PTSD, 19% had significant symptoms associated with PTSD, 15% seemed to be experiencing depression, and 19% reported burnout – rates comparable to those found among first responders and combat veterans.

With a grant from Open Society Foundations, the research team is currently mapping the ways in which human rights organizations manage and deal with the chronic stress, vicarious trauma, and trauma associated with the work. The aim is to understand the well-being challenges and opportunities in the human rights field, and the resources and approaches that human rights groups and organizations have found to be useful in protecting the well-being and mental health of their staff and volunteers.

Visit the project website to learn more.

Margaret L. Satterthwaite

CHRGJ Director
Director, Global Justice Clinic
Professor of Clinical Law

Katie Wightman

Legal and Program Director, Prevention Project

Resilience as Resistance: Mental Health and Well-Being in Human Rights

April 2017

openGlobalRights

In 2017, Human Rights Resilience Project co-directors Meg Satterthwaite and Sarah Knuckey collaborated with CHRGJ Scholar in Residence Lúcia Nader, Fred Abrahams, Farea Al-Muslimi, and Douglas Mawadri to produce an openDemocracy series to examine under-explored questions regarding the mental health and well-being of advocates.

Read excerpts in this slideshow, and read the full series on openDemocracy in English, Français, Español and العربية .
Evidence of Trauma: The Impact of Human Rights Work on Advocates

April 7, 2017

Meg Satterthwaite, CHRGJ Faculty Director and Co-Chair

It’s time to think seriously about the effects of trauma on human rights activists.

Human rights activists have always told stories in an unnervingly light-hearted manner about their experiences: the time an activist was almost kidnapped when investigating an execution, or answering too graphically when her friends ask what she has been working on. …What is frequently left unsaid in these discussions is that trauma—direct and indirect, personal and vicarious—has a real, serious, and lasting impact on the lives of human rights advocates.

I am relieved to be part of a growing community of advocates and researchers who have begun to think seriously about these issues.

Read full article
Turning Weakness into Strength: Lessons as a New Advocate

April 27, 2017

Alexandra Zetes, JD ’16, 2016-2017 Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellow

Without adequate preparation, new human rights advocates can be easily traumatized and struggle to understand what they are going through.

In 2011, I spent six months working in Rwanda with a local NGO. Through my work, I witnessed traumatic events that affected me deeply and for which I was not adequately prepared. … Today, the mental health impacts of my current work are less intense, usually manifesting in waves of fatigue or the inability to focus. Now, as then, I sometimes get frustrated with myself, wondering what is wrong with me or why I am struggling.

It took me a long time to think about my mental health and well-being not in terms of weakness or selfishness, but as part of my job that I must engage with to do this work sustainably. …”

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Making Our Movements Sustainable: Practicing Holistic Security Every Day

Deepa Ranganathan and María Díaz Ezquerro

What does holistic security and collective self-care in human rights work look like on a day-to-day basis?

As Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD) operating from different cultures, contexts and political environments, our strategies are also diverse and constantly in flux. Our work can be dangerous, difficult and subject to punitive action, simply due to the fact that we exist or organize as a young human rights group or collective.

In the fight to defend human rights and make sure justice is accessible and attainable to everyone, we risk our physical and psychological well-being. … Collective self-care, as an essential part of integrated security, is a feminist act of resistance and resilience that contributes to transformative social change and strengthens the sustainability of our work.

Read full article

Photo credit: Deepa Ranganathan