Well-Being Research

There is an increasing body of research on how human rights work can affect mental health and well-being. However, there are many research gaps. There is a need for more interdisciplinary research to understand the extent of harm, the factors impacting risk and resilience, and the mechanisms adopted by individuals, communities, and organizations to counter harmful impacts.

​This section contains papers, reports, and books on mental health, well-being, and resilience within human rights and social justice work. It includes psychological research, qualitative assessments, case studies of organizations that have taken steps to protect advocates, articles by human rights funders, and books on self-care and healing justice.  
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HRRP Research

This global study, the first of its kind, and based on interviews with advocates at 70 organizations from 35 countries and dozens of experts, mapped how human rights organizations are responding to the mental health and well-being needs of advocates. The study found that, generally, organizations have responded poorly and much more needs to be done at all levels—individual, organizational, and field-wide. The study addressed: (1) sources of stress and the harms advocates see as resulting from poor mental health and stress exposure; (2) the challenges to improving well-being; and (3) positive organizational practices for supporting well-being and building more resilient advocates and organizations. The study concludes with recommended next steps, including further research, knowledge-sharing, and tailored education and trainings. 
 
A summary of the full article is available here and also in Policy Brief No. 7 by the Human Rights Defenders Hub of the University of York. Based upon findings from this study, our Recommendations to Funders to Improve Mental Health & Well-being in the Human Rights Field are available here. 
This study draws on findings from a cross-sectional internet based survey tailored for the human rights community, which sheds light on a number of occupational and individual processes - including trauma exposure, coping flexibility, perfectionisms, which are associated with mental health outcomes among human rights advocates. It concludes with recommendations for a future research and action agenda, including the need more dedicated research on how human rights organizations respond to mental health concerns, longitudinal research with human rights movements and organizations, studying low-cost, non stigmatizing interventions, and overall building a community of practice which can advance opportunities for wellbeing and resilience among advocates. 
This empirical study of 346 human rights advocates found that greater "coping flexibility," was associated with lower levels of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder subsequent to trauma exposure. Coping flexibility is understood as the ability to employ different coping styles in response to trauma exposure, such as focusing on the experience of traumatic event, and high levels of "forward-focused thoughts" or optimism. The study points to the need for further longitudinal studies to understand how the potential negative mental health impacts of human rights work can be mitigated by increasing coping flexibility. 
This internet-based cross-sectional survey of 346 advocates currently or formerly working in human rights examined their mental health profiles and the risk factors associated with their psychological functioning. It found that among the advocates that completed the survey, 19.4% met criteria for PTSD, 18.8% met criteria for subthreshold PTSD, and 14.7% met criteria for depression, levels which were comparable to those reported by combat veterans. 

Research

"​The article proposes the notion of emotional attrition to capture the process through which activists working in high-risk environments may develop a lasting state of emotional exhaustion caused by protracted exposure to adversarial conditions. Combining insights from clinical psychology and the sociology of emotions, it outlines a novel framework to understand the relationship between activism, emotions, and disengagement. We argue that activists can develop an emotional state characterized by dispiriting emotions and disengaging attitudes that affect their well-being and ability to sustain their activism. This argument is grounded on an in-depth analysis of more than 130 interviews with local human rights activists in Colombia, Kenya, and Indonesia. By examining their experiences and pressures in relation to the arena of repression, their immediate social circle, and the broader sociopolitical and cultural context, we shed light on the complex intersections between activists’ emotional challenges and the range of contextual and strategic factors shaping their work and lives."
“How do people engaged in risky forms of activism understand and manage their mental and emotional wellbeing? What factors shape these responses? How is this significant for the sustainability of activism and human rights movements around the world? Drawing on a study with 407 participants who experienced high risks in human rights practice in Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, Kenya, and Indonesia, this article argues that cultures of human rights practice shape the way that mental and emotional wellbeing is understood and practiced."
“This book assesses the construction, operation and effects of the international protection regime for human rights defenders, which has evolved significantly over the last twenty years in response to the risks people face as they promote and protect human rights."
“Threats against feminists, LGBTQI+ people and black women [in Brazil] in their diversity are becoming increasingly evident. This violence exposes civil society’́s lack of preparedness to handle the considerable risks to human rights work, in the current political scenario. Therefore, it has become very important to act quickly, to guarantee the day to day safety of women defenders, but also to support sustainability and protection in the long term. The analysis presented in this article was produced based on the testimonials of nine women who are feminists and human rights defenders. This article is an appeal for the need to deepen reflection on developing protection mechanisms to respond to the way in which gender and race inequality operate in preventing women from claiming their human rights, from living free of violence and participating fully in democratic processes.”
Human rights investigators often review graphic imagery of potential war crimes and human rights abuses while conducting open source investigations. As a result, they are at risk of developing secondary trauma. In recent years, several university programs offering students practical experience in open source human rights investigations have implemented training on secondary trauma mitigation. The authors administered a survey to students in these programs to determine whether they are implementing recommended mitigation techniques and to document what techniques they find helpful. From 33 responses, six general practices were identified as helping mitigate secondary trauma: processing graphic content, limiting exposure to graphic content, drawing boundaries between personal life and investigations, bringing positivity into investigations, learning from more experienced investigators, and employing a combination of techniques. The paper identifies recommendations for institutions to protect the right to health of investigators and to support secondary trauma mitigation, both through frequent training and through practices such as labeling graphic content and emphasizing self-care. 
Recent cases have highlighted how human rights defending is having to reckon with a sustained underinvestment in leadership. Narratives about human rights defending and activism in challenging contexts make at best only fleeting and often implicit reference to leadership with the result that leadership and the contexts for human rights defending remain poorly understood. This working paper presents findings from a review of the literature on leadership in times of stress and crisis. It presents various leadership concepts, frameworks, historical lessons and strategic insights from the academic literature outside the field of human rights practice. Overall, the working paper builds towards an integrated research and practice agenda for understanding and supporting human rights leadership. It also aims to serve as reference point on leadership for human rights organisations, movements, practitioners and academics in the field.
“The physical and psychological well being of human rights defenders is key to the sustainability of their difficult and demanding work. This publication supplements the 2019 Barcelona Guidelines that provide principles to guide the work of wellbeing support providers [for human rights defenders] (e.g. coaches, therapists and mental health professionals) and coordinators of temporary international relocation initiatives. It collects best practices and concrete examples from different initiatives on the topics of social networks and support for relocated [HRDs] persons (such as recreational and educational activities, local friendship or professional networks, counseling or therapy), integration of wellbeing activities in relocation plans and wellbeing of staff and supporters of relocation initiatives.”
Those working in social change are tackling the world’s most urgent issues like climate change and inequality. But increasingly, these changemakers are facing chronic stress, depression and burnout. To learn more about the challenges surrounding contemporary changemakers—including activists, teachers, non-profit leaders, social workers, social entrepreneurs and health care providers—the Wellbeing Project interviewed and documented the inner wellbeing journey of social change leaders from around the world over several years. The study found that wellbeing inspires welldoing.
United Nations (UN) personnel address a diverse range of political, social, and cultural crises throughout the world. Compared with other occupations routinely exposed to traumatic stress, there remains a paucity of research on mental health disorders and access to mental healthcare in this population. To fill this gap, personnel from UN agencies were surveyed for mental health disorders and mental healthcare utilization. This study concluded that UN personnel appear to be at high risk for trauma exposure and screening positive for a mental health disorder, yet a small percentage screening positive for mental health disorders sought treatment. Despite the mental health gaps observed in this study, additional research is needed, as these data reflect a large sample of convenience and it cannot be determined if the findings are representative of the UN.
“Social movement scholars have described activist burnout—when the stressors of activism become so overwhelming they debilitate activists’ abilities to remain engaged—as a formidable threat to the sustainability of social movements. However, studies designed to map the causes of burnout have failed to account for ways burnout might operate differently for privileged-identity activists such as white antiracism activists and marginalized-identity activists such as antiracism activists of color."
“Social movement scholars have identified activist burnout – when the accumulation of stressors associated with activism become so overwhelming they compromise activists’ persistence in their activism – as a threat to movement viability. This phenomenological study on the causes of burnout among racial justice activists in the United States was designed to bolster understandings of burnout and inform strategies for sustaining racial justice movements. Thirty racial justice activists who had experienced burnout were interviewed. They described four primary burnout causes: emotional- dispositional causes, structural causes, backlash causes, and in-movement causes. Implications for activist and movement sustainability are discussed."
This report by Nazariya and TARSHI on stress and burnout focuses on the unique impacts of human rights work faced by individuals and organisations working in human rights activism and advocacy, and how this is impacted by critical identities of gender and sexuality. It draws on desk research and three needs assessment workshops on stress management and burnout prevention, organised collaboratively by TARSHI and Nazariya in 2018 and 2019, across North, North East, and South India. The report finds that, despite similarities in the notion of and experience of "stress" across different communities and contexts, activists are exposed to "unique stressors," which are experienced differently depending on crucial differences and complexities within socio-cultural and political environments. The report suggests a threefold way forward: (i) activating and expanding such intervention programme spaces using a needs assessment workshop as a model; (ii) developing a curriculum intervention approach to stress management; and (iii) undertaking training of trainers towards sustaining environmental changes that foster psycho-social health and well-being.
This research and book project deals with issues that have long been ignored as ‘personal issues.’ The project is concerned with psychological health, general exhaustion, financial security, as well as growing old as neglected intersections, despite how important they are in the context of documenting the struggle of women in the public space. This project attempts to offer a space where private worries can be expressed, and to normalize the idea that ‘exhaustion’ is one of the outcomes of interacting with the public space. Extending across three geographical stops, this project is divided into three phases; the first of which is concerned with Egypt and Tunisia. The research questions how feminist activists manage different aspects of their private lives and concurrently deal with the difficulties of being in the public space.  

​The interactive project website displays more about the project, the methodology, author's biography, and profiles of many Egyptian and Tunisian women human rights defenders who participated in the project.
These Guidelines have been developed based on a collaborative research project between CAHR, ICORN, Justice and Peace Netherlands, The Martin Roth Initiative, Adam Brown of The New School in New York, and independent expert on human rights and civil society, Sasha Koulaeva. 
The Barcelona Guidelines were developed through a process of workshops with defenders in relocation, surveys, interviews, and an international retreat in Barcelona bringing together coordinators and wellbeing service providers from around the world. They provide guidance to coordinators of relocation initiatives and to wellbeing service providers on how to support the wellbeing of defenders at risk on relocation initiatives. The Guidelines highlight that the wellbeing of defenders needs specific attention, from the very way relocation initiatives are designed, to the activities planned, expectations of defenders, and the resources and funding allocated to the programmes. The Guidelines are designed to benefit defenders, relocation coordinators, wellbeing service providers, funders, and other protection actors.
“Activist burnout scholarship has inadequately considered challenges marginalized-identity activists, such as racial justice activists of color, experience in the course of their activism – challenges from which privileged identity activists, such as white racial justice activists, are protected. This article attempts to address this gap through a phenomenological study examining activist burnout in racial justice activists of color whose primary sites of activism are predominantly white colleges and universities in the United States at which they work."
This book explores the concept of "healing justice" as a trauma-informed practice that can empower social practitioners to "cultivate the conditions that might allow them to feel more connected to themselves, their clients, colleagues, and communities." Through case studies, critical analysis of terms commonly used in the self-care context, and by sharing specific skills, it presents self-care as an act of resistance to "disconnection, marginalization, and internalized oppression." It also critically explores the commodification of self-care, and offers suggestions on how self-care practices can be shared with community members who might have less access to wellness resources. 
This guidebook for activists and social justice leaders invites readers to integrate self-care to survive and thrive and to explore the relationships between mind, body, spirit, heart and place. It contains questions which serve as journal prompts to practice living well daily.
This case study of Peace Brigades International (PBI) Mexico documents the organization's efforts to incorporate a "psychosocial perspective" to their human rights work over a ten-year period, to counter the harmful effects of human rights and "protection" work. PBI Mexico's approach was influenced by the "liberation philosophy" of Ignacio Baro, which "links mental health and human rights directly to the context of political violence", and centers around a holistic notion of mental health, and supporting individuals, communities and organizations through using participatory approaches.  
​This article by two human rights practitioners discusses the mental health challenges that human rights research poses, and details useful techniques to protect human rights advocates whose work exposes them to vast quantities of traumatic material which can strengthen resilience and reduce the risk of vicarious trauma. [Also posted in Tools and Trainings]. 
This study of over 400 human rights defenders at risk from Colombia, Mexico, Egypt, Kenya and Indonesia, conducted by the University of York’s Human Rights Defender Hub explored how they understood well-being. It found that 86% of the defenders studied were "somewhat concerned or very concerned about their physical security and digital security". It summarizes the main themes that arose relating to well-being, including the cultural bias against well-being, it's financial aspects, the "expectations of risk and sacrifice in human rights work", and the preference shown by many defenders for "personal" rather than "collective" coping mechanisms. It draws on these findings to explore what this implies for human rights practice as a whole. 
This article discusses how Venezuelan civil society and human rights organizations have managed to stay resilient in the face of the Venezuelan government’s brutal repression of the 2017 popular resistance movement. The article describes both protective methods to promote resilience in civil society as a whole, as well as specific self-care strategies adopted by human rights defenders.  
This article by the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras) and the Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity Oaxaca, AC (Consorcio para el Diálogo Parlamentario y la Equidad Oaxaca), a member of the IM-Defensoras’ Steering Committee, reflects on how the network has promoted self-care and collective care within the women human rights defenders that they work with. It discusses how they re-framed self-care and well-being from a personal concept, to a “defiant political, feminist strategy that helps...move forward in a loving and collective way”. The article also discusses the experience of running Casa La Serena, a respite program run for women human rights defenders who are in need of recovery. [See our Programs page for a discussion of Case La Serena.] 
The main goal of this descriptive study was to identify the prevalence of secondary traumatic stress (STS) symptoms in a pooled sample of Mexican journalists and human right defenders (N=88), whose activities regularly demand a close contact with victims of violence. It was found that 36.4% of the participants presented “high” or “severe” STS symptoms. However, no significant differences between these groups of professionals were observed. Conversely, women and those who worked more than 40 hours a week presented significantly more severe symptoms. The results of this transversal investigation reflect the psychologic[al] wear that these secondary exposures can generate in professionals who establish systematic links with subjects who have been traumatized by the social violence prevalent in modern Mexican society.  [Spanish only; behind a paywall]
This important piece discusses how rights work impacts the well-being of human rights funders, and discusses the responsibility that donors have in ensuring that they promote the well-being of the activists that they support.
This book presents 75-practical self-care reflections and techniques by a humanitarian psychologist who drew on her long experience in the field. It is a helpful resource aimed at those working in non-profits, the humanitarian field and in the “helping professions” to avoid burnout, heal from over-work and find resilience and purpose in their work.  
This short article discusses the unhealthy work cultures and myths that inhibit resilience and promote burn-out in social justice and non-profit work. 
This article discusses how nonprofit leaders can protect themselves and their staff from burnout by orienting the entire organization around a "culture of self-care", and the important of making self-care a strategic priority for leaders, board members and funders of nonprofit work. 
“Although people involved in every kind of professional or volunteer work can be susceptible to vocational burnout, research suggests that social justice and human rights (SJHR) activists, whose activist work is fraught with unique challenges, can be especially susceptible to it. Building on a small but growing body of scholarship on SJHR activist burnout, this study is an attempt to gain insight into SJHR activists’ own experiences."
“Despite the growing body of scholarship on burnout among social justice activists who are working on a variety of issues, from labor rights to queer justice, little attention has been paid to burnout among those whose activism focuses on issues of educational justice. To begin to address this omission and understand what supports might help social justice education activists mitigate burnout and sustain their activism, we analyzed interview data from 14 activists focused on activist burnout and its implications on movements for educational justice.. This analysis identified 3 major symptom categories of activist burnout and we gained insights into the culture of martyrdom in social justice education movements. These symptoms and the culture of martyrdom, by negatively impacting the health and sustainability of activists, threaten the efficiency and effectiveness of educational justice movements.”
This book was inspired by the thoughts and experiences of over 360 women human rights defenders in Mesoamerica. It discusses the organization’s history of work on self-care, and the experiences of four national human rights defenders organizations. [Spanish only]
This report by IM-Defensoras is an in depth discussion of what self-care means for human rights defenders. It is the outcome of a regional dialogue hosted by multiple organizations focusing on self-care in human rights work. It takes on a collective perspective of self-care, and notes that although everyone deals with these challenges differently, ultimately we face the same things. [Spanish only]
This study reviews exhumation processes across 14 Latin American countries where mass massacres have occurred, noting the glaring lack of psychosocial support for  families, despite the fact that participating in exhumations carry the risks of re-traumatisation. The study proposes that a psychosocial approach that center families during exhumations should be preferred over the forensic anthropological approach that is currently commonly used. 
This article discusses the need to learn from diverse communities in Latin America in order to consider the local contexts when determining the type of psychosocial support to be provided in post-disaster and emergency settings, so that generational, spiritual, gender and practices are taken into account and existing modes of resilience are reinforced.
This project proposal describes a research initiative which explores different approaches to trauma globally, and its impact on peacebuilding and the development processes in societies coming out of conflict. It presents research from India, South Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Europe and North America, with the aim of exploring examples of where mass and collective trauma have been dealt with in a way that enhances peacebuilding and development, through a psychosocial framework that taken into account specific context and the role that the community plays.
This book documents the self-care strategies adopted by various women's rights defenders, gathered through interviews with almost 100 women human rights defenders worldwide. 
This seminal book has inspired a whole generation of activists to adopt joyful self-care practices in their social justice movements. Based on conversations more than 100 women activists around the world, the book looks at the culture of the women’s movement, and discusses the need for women human rights defenders to make their personal well-being a priority, and to think through the long-term sustainability of their work.
This book is a rich resource for people affected by trauma, and contains a wide variety of wellness practices “for grassroots leaders, professionals and individuals who desire to heal and transform the experience of traumatic stress.” It is based on research and workshops with persons affected by natural disasters and political violence in Central America. 
This thesis studies a "mind-body-soul" program for healing that was developed to counter the traumatic effects of political violence and a1999 hurricane in Central America, particularly in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
​​This is one of the first empirical studies of the psychological impact of human rights work, focusing on 70 current or former human rights workers in Kosovo. It found elevated levels of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms amongst the population studied, concluding that human rights organizations needed to consider the impact that their work had on the mental health of their staff. 
Inclusion of resources does not constitute an endorsement.