Torture Journal

CALL 1: PERSPECTIVES ON SURVIVOR ENGAGEMENT IN THE ANTI-TORTURE SECTOR

Pau Pérez Sales - Editor-in-Chief, Torture Journal

Background

Though the term ‘survivor engagement’ is itself contested, it generally entails processes or activities through which people who have undergone traumatic experiences become actively involved in efforts to address the causes or consequences of those experiences at a community or societal level.

It is apparent that a considerable knowledge gap exists in relation to ‘survivor engagement’ in torture rehabilitation and advocacy. In particular, there is a paucity of research and documentation which examines the various approaches to and the effectiveness and ethical dilemmas of ‘survivor engagement’.

In an effort to address this knowledge gap, the Torture Journal is issuing a call for papers.

The objective is to gather and disseminate perspectives and experiences from researchers and practitioners on survivor engagement within the anti-torture sector. These are expected to help organisations engaged in the sector to understand what works and under what conditions.

 Call for papers

The Torture Journal encourages authors to submit papers with a rehabilitation and/or legal orientation, particularly those that are interdisciplinary. We welcome papers on:

1. What is ‘survivor engagement in an anti-torture or torture rehabilitation context’? The definition and the theoretical underpinnings of advocacy or health-based models
2. Psychosocial and quality of life impact on survivors after participating in survivor engagement activities
3. Stigma and other barriers to survivor engagement
4. Re-traumatisation: risks and safeguards
5. Advocacy engagement of people seeking asylum
6. The role of healthcare workers and civil society organisations in supporting survivors to engage – balancing empowerment and duty of care
7. Recommended practice in survivor engagement with mass media
8. Mechanisms to support survivors to access decision-making roles in organisations addressing torture rehabilitation or legal reparation
9. The impact of survivor engagement groups in community networks
10. Gender-specific needs and gaps in participation

Deadline for submission: 31st of March, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CALL 2: INTEGRATING LIVELIHOODS INTO REHABILITATION

Pau Pérez-Sales, Editor-in-Chief
Berta Soley Daró, Guest Editor & Editorial Associate

Background

There is an on-going discussion about the need for a holistic approach to torture rehabilitation, claiming that psychosocial and medical services are not effective if basic needs remain uncovered. Mental and physical health has been a primary focus of rehabilitation programmes, but many found that progress was difficult to maintain without socio-economic support as well. Survivors still have households to feed, battled unemployment and disabilities caused by the atrocities committed against them.

Recognising the complexity and inter-connectivity of social, economic, medical and psychological sequelae of torture, where one aspect can negatively or positively affect the other, this special edition of the Torture Journal seeks to explore how the integration of rebuilding a life project and the livelihood’s component can influence rehabilitation processes. Indeed, additional academic contributions are required to better understand how healing processes can be enhanced by including socio-economic support in rehabilitation programmes.

Call for papers

The Torture Journal encourages authors to submit papers with a psychological, medical or legal orientation, particularly those that are interdisciplinary with other fields of knowledge. We welcome papers on the following:

1. Defining livelihoods and its relationship with the concept of development in the context of the work with torture survivors. Going beyond a definition centred in material outcomes and working with the idea of life projects and finding meaning as part of the work with torture survivors.
2. Survivor participation in the design and implementation of livelihoods programs
3. Innovative experiences in livelihoods programs: evolving from a business perspective to livelihoods programmes for social change.
4. Transcending the individual or family perspective: from cooperatives to collective forms of organisation in livelihoods programmes.
5. Beyond vulnerability: innovative approaches to resource allocation in precarious environments.
6. Ensuring sustainability of livelihood programs. The role of the State and civil society.
7. Working in unstable contexts: livelihoods programs under conflict situations.
8. Barriers to livelihoods programmes: limitations to work and employment integration in asylum seekers and refugees.
9. Transnational experiences connecting refugees, relatives and comrades in the country of origin.
10. Effects on the overall well-being and quality of life resulting from the integration of a socioeconomic component into the rehabilitation processes.

Deadline for submissions: 31st of March, 2023

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CALL 3: TORTURE IN PRISON AND OTHER DETENTION FACILITIES

Pau Pérez Sales, Editor-in-Chief, Torture Journal

About the call

This call for papers aims to examine prisons and other detention facilities (immigration detention centres, juvenile detention centres, etc) as torturing environments

Torture Journal encourages authors to submit papers with a psychological, medical or legal orientation, particularly those that are interdisciplinary with other fields of knowledge. We welcome contributions related (but not limited) to:

1. Conditions of detention as environments of torture: overcrowding, food, inhuman treatment, etc.
2. Carceral geographies: emotional cartographies in detention spaces.
3. Impacts of isolation and closed regime units. Alternatives.
4. Use of mechanical restraints, chemical restraints and other methods of control and coercion. Intervention programs to abolish restraints.
5. Challenges of forensic documentation in prisons and other closed institutions.
6. Studies on reprisals against persons deprived of their liberty following monitoring visits to investigate allegations of torture.
7. Violent institutional cultures. Generating and perpetuating factors, and intervention programmes on violent milieus.
8. Violence by other inmates and staff. Methods of detection and prevention.
9. Effectiveness of torture prevention measures: videotaping, civil-society monitoring, medical documentation of injuries and others
10. Sexual torture and abuse in closed institutions.
11. Short or adapted forms of the Istanbul Protocol for documenting torture during monitoring visits or short-time evaluations in closed institutions.
12. Self-harm and suicide. Self-inflicted violence in closed institutions.
13. Severe Mental Illness and Torture in closed institutions.
14. Legal contours of torture in detention centres: legal reviews with a special focus on the intentionality and purpose criteria

Deadline for submissions: 30^th of June, 2023

Submission guidelines and links

• Submit your paper here: https://tidsskrift.dk/torture-journal/about/submissions
• Author guidelines can be found here: https://irct.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Torture-Journal-formatting-checklist-for-author-v0-updated-Jan-2019-OTH.pdf
• Read more about the Torture Journal here: https://irct.org/global-resources/torture-journal
• For general submission guidelines, please see the Torture Journal website. Papers will be selected on their relevance to the field, applicability, methodological rigor, and level of innovation.

For more information

Contact Editor-in-chief (pauperez@runbox.com) if you wish to explore the suitability of a paper to the Special Section.

About the Torture Journal

Please go to our website (https://tidsskrift.dk/torture-journal) devoted to Torture Journal readers and contributors – to access the latest and archived issues