Evidence from psychosocial support-based peace education work with young displaced Syrians shows that addressing trauma is critical in overcoming psychological barriers to social cohesion.

Lessons from responses to the Syrian displacement crisis can inform broader discussions on how to build responses that better address vulnerability, support resilience and include displaced women, children and young people in all their diversity.

By understanding the role that social capital plays in the lives of Syrian refugees in Lebanon – how it is created, sustained, converted and what happens when it breaks down – we hope to generate discussion about ways to further tailor assessments, targeting and programming in this and other situations of protracted displacement.

Local non-governmental organisations in Lebanon’s Bourj al-Barajneh camp face challenges in responding to the complex needs of three different refugee groups.

This important issue of Forced Migration Review draws our attention to the current challenges facing displaced Syrians and the continuing search for solutions. The statistics of Syrian displacement are staggering – and the numbers continue to rise. Half of Syria’s population has been displaced: five and a half million are registered refugees and over six million are internally displaced.

Michel Dückers heeft een bijzondere baan: hij is rampenonderzoeker bij het NIVEL, het Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek van de Gezondheidszorg en bij Impact, het nationaal kennis- en adviescentrum psychosociale hulp bij rampen. Een gesprek over hoe kwetsbaar Nederland is en hoe we moelijk reageren bij een grote overstroming.

Vreemdelingendetentie is regelmatig onderwerp geweest van onderzoek. Al sinds de Schipholbrand, nu ruim twaalf jaar geleden, vraagt Amnesty International aandacht voor de mensenrechtelijke problemen rond dit middel. In het (internationale) rapport The Netherlands: the Detention of Irregular Migrants and Asylum-Seekers uit 2008, concludeerde Amnesty International dat ‘Elements of Dutch policies and practices constitute human rights violations’.

Sinds de Schipholbrand in 2005 doet Amnesty International onderzoek naar de mensenrechtelijke aspecten van vreemdelingendetentie in Nederland. Het onderzoek richt zich allereerst op de vraag of het Nederlandse beleid wel voldoet aan het ultimum remedium-beginsel. Dit beginsel vraagt immers om uiterste terughoudendheid bij het toepassen van vreemdelingendetentie. In ieder individueel geval moet de noodzakelijkheid en de proportionaliteit van de detentie vaststaan.

Whistleblowers play a very important and indispensable role in society and health care sector, but their act may elicit retaliation and other negative effects, which may impact their mental health.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals are at heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following exposure to trauma. Yet a study of cross-national lifetime prevalence rates of PTSD revealed that countries scoring high on an index reflecting cultural and socioeconomic disadvantage exhibited lower rates of PTSD in response to trauma, evincing what the authors called “a vulnerability paradox in the cross-national prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder” Dückers, Alisic, & Brewin (2016a, p. 300).