Commentary, Opinion & News
This section contains blog-posts, podcasts and articles by activists working in social justice and human rights, discussing their experiences with, and the importance of self-care and collective care, holistic security, healing justice and finding hope and resilience within their work.
Crucial Need to Improve Mental Health Research and Training for Human Rights Advocates, Rohini Bagrodia, Sarah Knuckey, Margaret L Satterthwaite, Ria Singh Sawhney, Adam Brown, The Lancet, June 2018.
The authors discuss the urgent need to better understand the mental health risks faced by human rights advocates, and to increase the availability of tailored mental health resources suitable to this population.
Open Global Rights Blog Series
A blog series that examines a range of critical questions and issues relating to the mental health and wellbeing of human rights activists. Topics discussed include research on the mental health impacts of human rights work, obstacles to advancing mental health and well-being in this field, as well as innovative approaches and strategies to prevent and alleviate the harmful effects of human rights work.
We Need More than Self-care; We Need Healing, Too, Richael Faithful, The Root (May 25, 2017).
This deep and incisive article by a folk healer discusses the need for black communities to focus on healing, rather than self-care, as way of restoring (rather than maintaining) their well-being, after having experienced generations of trauma. The intentional healing requires a process of consciously adopting practices, naming harms to uncover harmful coping mechanisms, working on creating supportive interpersonal relationships, and focusing on public spaces have to be changed to foster healing.
Healing Justice is how we can Sustain Black Lives, Prentis Hemphill, HuffPost (Feb. 7, 2017).
This article by the Director of Healing Justice at Black Lives Matter discusses the importance adopting a healing justice framework which can heal both the personal and the collective trauma faced by people (in the present, and historically), to ensure the resilience of the movement for Black lives - “we heal so we can act and organise”. It also unpacks the concept of healing justice.
Sustainable Activism: Managing hope and despair in social movements, Paul Hoggett and Rosemary Randall, Transformation, Open Democracy (Dec. 12, 2016).
Hoggett and Randall explore the importance of managing emotions in activism. They draw from their research conducting interviews with activists in the United Kingdom. From their research, they discovered emotional challenges activists face, such as binary thinking and the potential for despair. However, they also found that the newer generation of activists were developing a more emotionally-intelligent culture around their work.
Self Care in the Multiracial Movement for Black Lives, Jennifer L. Pozner, ColorLines, (Sept. 21, 2016).
In this article, Pozner discusses the importance of self-care in making resistance work sustainable. The article identifies a number of ways in which leaders of Multiracial Movements for Black Lives engage in self-care. Pozner takes care to reinforce that self-care looks different for every person; it can be something as simple as spending time alone, or something more formal such as seeking counseling.
4 Self-Care Resources for Days When the World is Terrible, Miriam Zoila Pérez, ColorLines, (Jul. 7, 2016).
This article refers to four critical resources for “when the trauma won’t stop,” which provide practical advice for helping you disengage, ensuring self-care, and ways to protect yourself in spaces with “unaware people” .
Reflections from Detroit: Transforming Wellness & Wholeness, Cara Page (2010).
This blogpost by Cara Page, a black queer healer who has previously worked on documenting southern healers from the U.S., discusses the work done around healing justice at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit in 2010. Through the creation of two spaces: the US Social Forum Healing Justice Practice Space, and the People’s Movement Assembly, she discuss how people of color can reclaim notions of wellness, and the role of healing justice as a political tool.
What is ‘Self-care’ and Why is it Important for Human Rights Activists?, New Tactics (Sept. 21, 2010)
In this online dialogue, human rights practitioners discuss how activists can sustain their mental health and energy. Participants in the discussion discuss the necessity of self-care, and share approaches and resources they find useful.
Healing Justice Podcast, Kate Werning
This podcast curated and hosted by social justice activist Kate Werning at the “intersection of collective healing and social change” contains weekly interviews with leaders in the social justice movement, along with accompanying practices. (Also in Tools & Trainings)
Solidarity is This, Deepa Iyer
This podcast by Soros Equality Fellow and former director of SAALT, Deepa Iyer contains interviews with activists and organizers talking about their experiences with working within solidarity frameworks. Episode 4 deals explicitly with trauma and resilience.
The authors discuss the urgent need to better understand the mental health risks faced by human rights advocates, and to increase the availability of tailored mental health resources suitable to this population.
Open Global Rights Blog Series
A blog series that examines a range of critical questions and issues relating to the mental health and wellbeing of human rights activists. Topics discussed include research on the mental health impacts of human rights work, obstacles to advancing mental health and well-being in this field, as well as innovative approaches and strategies to prevent and alleviate the harmful effects of human rights work.
- Avoiding the “access abyss”: palliative care, pain relief, and human rights, Ravindran Daniel (April 12, 2018)
- Building the foundations of resilience: 11 lessons for human rights educators and supervisors, Sarah Knuckey & Su Anne Lee (March 7, 2018)
- The forgotten advocates of children’s rights in Guatemala, Myrella Saadeh (September 1, 2017)
- New threats against human rights defenders require new kinds of protection, Padre Melo (July 11, 2017)
- Integrating a psychosocial perspective in human rights works, Maik Müller (June 27, 2017)
- “No One Warned Me”: the trade-off between self-care and effective activism, Yara Sallam (June 20, 2017)
- Making our movements sustainable: practicing holistic security every day, Deepa Ranganathan & María Díaz Ezquerro (June 15, 2017)
- Revolutions are built on hope: the role of funders in collective self-care, Shena Cavallo & Jocelyn Berger & Michelle Truong (May 31, 2017)
- Collective care in human rights funding: a political stand, Meerim Ilyas & Tatiana Cordero Velásquez (May 18, 2017)
- Ready for anything: how preparation can improve trauma recovery, Zelalem Kibret (May 11, 2017)
- When advocacy work builds resilience, everyone benefits, Kristi Pinderi (May 11, 2017)
- Security and well-being: two sides of the same coin, Holly Davis & Magda Adamowicz (May 10, 2017)
- Turning weakness into strength: lessons as a new advocate, Alexandra Zetes (April 27, 2017)
- Healthy for the long haul: building resilience in human rights workers, Fred Abrahams (April 11, 2017)
- Fighting stigma: protecting the mental health of African rights advocates, Douglas Mathew Mawadri (April 9, 2017)
- Evidence of trauma: the impact of human rights work on advocates, Meg Satterthwaite (April 7, 2017)
We Need More than Self-care; We Need Healing, Too, Richael Faithful, The Root (May 25, 2017).
This deep and incisive article by a folk healer discusses the need for black communities to focus on healing, rather than self-care, as way of restoring (rather than maintaining) their well-being, after having experienced generations of trauma. The intentional healing requires a process of consciously adopting practices, naming harms to uncover harmful coping mechanisms, working on creating supportive interpersonal relationships, and focusing on public spaces have to be changed to foster healing.
Healing Justice is how we can Sustain Black Lives, Prentis Hemphill, HuffPost (Feb. 7, 2017).
This article by the Director of Healing Justice at Black Lives Matter discusses the importance adopting a healing justice framework which can heal both the personal and the collective trauma faced by people (in the present, and historically), to ensure the resilience of the movement for Black lives - “we heal so we can act and organise”. It also unpacks the concept of healing justice.
Sustainable Activism: Managing hope and despair in social movements, Paul Hoggett and Rosemary Randall, Transformation, Open Democracy (Dec. 12, 2016).
Hoggett and Randall explore the importance of managing emotions in activism. They draw from their research conducting interviews with activists in the United Kingdom. From their research, they discovered emotional challenges activists face, such as binary thinking and the potential for despair. However, they also found that the newer generation of activists were developing a more emotionally-intelligent culture around their work.
Self Care in the Multiracial Movement for Black Lives, Jennifer L. Pozner, ColorLines, (Sept. 21, 2016).
In this article, Pozner discusses the importance of self-care in making resistance work sustainable. The article identifies a number of ways in which leaders of Multiracial Movements for Black Lives engage in self-care. Pozner takes care to reinforce that self-care looks different for every person; it can be something as simple as spending time alone, or something more formal such as seeking counseling.
4 Self-Care Resources for Days When the World is Terrible, Miriam Zoila Pérez, ColorLines, (Jul. 7, 2016).
This article refers to four critical resources for “when the trauma won’t stop,” which provide practical advice for helping you disengage, ensuring self-care, and ways to protect yourself in spaces with “unaware people” .
Reflections from Detroit: Transforming Wellness & Wholeness, Cara Page (2010).
This blogpost by Cara Page, a black queer healer who has previously worked on documenting southern healers from the U.S., discusses the work done around healing justice at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit in 2010. Through the creation of two spaces: the US Social Forum Healing Justice Practice Space, and the People’s Movement Assembly, she discuss how people of color can reclaim notions of wellness, and the role of healing justice as a political tool.
What is ‘Self-care’ and Why is it Important for Human Rights Activists?, New Tactics (Sept. 21, 2010)
In this online dialogue, human rights practitioners discuss how activists can sustain their mental health and energy. Participants in the discussion discuss the necessity of self-care, and share approaches and resources they find useful.
Healing Justice Podcast, Kate Werning
This podcast curated and hosted by social justice activist Kate Werning at the “intersection of collective healing and social change” contains weekly interviews with leaders in the social justice movement, along with accompanying practices. (Also in Tools & Trainings)
Solidarity is This, Deepa Iyer
This podcast by Soros Equality Fellow and former director of SAALT, Deepa Iyer contains interviews with activists and organizers talking about their experiences with working within solidarity frameworks. Episode 4 deals explicitly with trauma and resilience.
Inclusion of resources does not constitute an endorsement.