Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human

Chapter 3
Trauma and Coping Strategies for Human Rights Defenders
As a Human Rights Defender, you face many risks in
your work. Many of you have been abused, tortured
and otherwise traumatized – either directly, or
as a result of witnessing and documenting the
stories of others. Coping with the after-effects of
your experiences can be very difficult, particularly
in circumstances of exile and isolation, which are
traumatic experiences themselves. Access to decent
health care and short or long term professional
trauma counselling (according your individual
needs) is necessary, along with community support.
In some cases, it can be difficult to get appropriate
clinical treatment – either the services are not there,
or because of generalized fear in the population,
treatment is not available to the traumatized
person. It is therefore important to develop a
network of community support where you can find
understanding and acknowledgement. Community
support can be narrow or broad, depending on
the unique circumstances of the individual. It
can encompass fellow human rights defenders,
family, friends, religious leaders, teachers, media,
institutions, community groups, and more. The
community is significant not only because of the
personal support it provides you, but also because
of its power to advocate for an intervention – to
push the authorities (not just the government,
but also religious authorities) to acknowledge that
something did happen, to understand the reasons
why it happened and to provide redress and
compensation for what happened. 17
It is vital to develop meaning for one’s experiences
in order to process and integrate them. An
understanding of how trauma can affect you is also
essential; as it helps you develop appropriate coping
strategies in your daily life so you can continue to
function as a whole human being. It is important
for human rights defenders to realize that their
experiences are not unique phenomena, but a result
of carefully thought out strategies of oppression,
with clearly defined goals. This understanding,
grouped with appropriate medical interventions,
attention to self-care, a sense of belonging and
feeling of support from the community, can
assist you in coming to terms with your traumatic
experiences.
Defender can build upon in your work, and can be
adapted to your needs and the environment at
hand. It is based on a model of care developed by
the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT)
in Toronto, Canada and the work of the Cordelia
Foundation in Hungary.
Torture and Organized Violence
Torture and organized violence is not something
that “happens”. They are not irrational, chaotic,
mad acts of insane people. They are carefully
planned, rational strategies of social control. The
techniques of torture and organized violence have
history and they are taught. Different countries
have their preferred practices and specialties.
Individual perpetrators will consciously tailor the
violations to the individual. One may experience
torture and organized violence as an individual,
however, the main audience is the larger
community. The whole purpose is to destroy the
individual physically, psychologically and spiritually
in order to intimidate, demoralize and suppress
his or her larger community. It is no accident that
community leaders are often the first targets. It
should be no surprise that human rights defenders
are specifically singled out. When a strong leader
is taken from a community, held for a time without
any communication and nobody knows what is
happening and there is no one you can approach
for help, and then if she or he survives and is placed
back into the community damaged, scarred and
traumatized, it sends a strong message to the rest
of the community not to struggle, to speak up, or to
demand justice and equity. It can be a very effective
tool of oppression. The fact that people continue
to struggle and to speak up and denounce abuses
is testament to their courage and commitment. But
one cannot deny that they often pay a very high
price.
This section will hopefully assist you in developing a
basic model of support that you, as a Human Rights
17 Article written by Maria Teresa Dremetsikas and Michele Millard.
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Defending Human Rights: A Resource Book for Human Rights Defenders | 2nd Edition