Music therapy can help traumatized children and adults to stabilize and to create a safe space for the expression of feelings and thoughts. In a 1 day international symposium on Friday May 26, presenting lectures and workshops, we’ll highlight the way music therapy research, methods and technique...s are applied to treating childhood trauma and sexual abuse, traumatized refugees, prisoners and victims of violence.
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Case Study on Improving HIV Testing and Services for Children Orphaned or made Vulnerable by HIV (OVC)
In its resolution 34/16, the Human Rights Council decided to focus its next full-day meeting on “Protecting the rights of the child in humanitarian situations” and invited the Office of the High Commissioner to prepare a report on that issue, in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders. Th...e report is to be presented to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-seventh session to inform the annual day of discussion on children’s rights.
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The Central African Republic is at a major turning point in its history. The country
is just emerging from a very violent conflict, during which thousands of human lives were lost and one-third of the population was displaced. After
a three-year transition, and with the support of the internationa...l community, authorities successfully created the conditions required to conduct credible presidential and legislative
elections. Central African citizens mobilized to express their desire for peace and to break
with the cycle of past violence. Their exemplary democratic maturity ensured the electoral
process was peaceful, despite palpable tensions. The welcome given Pope Francis in Bangui in
November 2015 and visible reconciliation efforts demonstrate the population wishes to turn
the page on this conflict.
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Globally, it is estimated that 128.6 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance. Of these individuals, approximately one-fourth are women and girls of reproductive age. Although family planning is one of the most life-saving, empowering, and cost-effective interventions for wome...n and girls, it remains an overwhelming gap in emergency responses due to a lack of prioritisation and funding. Consequently, many women and girls are forced to contend with an unmet need for family planning and unplanned pregnancies in addition to the traumas of conflict, disaster, and displacement.
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Reducing the humanitarian impact of the use of explosive weapons in populated areas is a key priority for the United
Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), civil society and an increasing number of Member States.
The United Nations Secretary-General has expressly called on... parties to conflict to avoid the use in populated areas of
explosive weapons with wide-area effects.
While the use of explosive weapons in populated areas may in some circumstances be lawful under international
humanitarian law (IHL), empirical evidence reveals a foreseeable and often widespread pattern of harm to civilians,
particularly from explosive weapons with wide-area effects.
Many types of explosive weapons exist and are currently in use. These include air-delivered bombs, artillery projectiles,
missiles and rockets, mortar bombs, and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Some are launched from the air and
others are surface launched. Whilst different technical features dictate their accuracy of delivery and explosive effect,
these weapons generally create a zone of blast and fragmentation with the potential to kill, injure or damage anyone
or anything within that zone. This makes their use in populated areas – such as towns, cities, markets and camps for
refugees and displaced persons or other concentrations of civilians – particularly problematic. The problems increase
further if the effects of the weapon extend across a wide-area either because of the scale of blast that they produce; their
inaccuracy; the use of multiple munitions across an area; or a combination thereof.
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A compendium of TB REACH case studies, lessons learned and a monitoring and evaluation framework.
Accessed November 2017.
Large size: 27 MB. Download directly from the website: https://www.unicef.org/cholera_toolkit/Cholera-Toolkit-2017.pdf
This paper is Oxfam’s essential guide for WASH staff and partners. It describes the processes and standards that Oxfam WASH programmes should follow if they are to be carried out effectively, consistently and in a way which treats affected communities with respect.
All WASH staff members are expe...cted to understand and follow these Minimum Requirements. However, it is recognised that in acute emergencies it is preferable to start work on the basics immediately, and build up a comprehensive, quality programme in the following days and weeks. There will, therefore, be some programmes in which certain individual requirements are not appropriate or relevant; in such cases staff members responsible should be able to justify why she/he did things differently, or how the minimum requirement was achieved over time.
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In March 2017 MSF and St Josef Hospital in Schweinfurt (Germany) began a pilot project for low threshold psychosocial support for refugees and asylum seekers. The project has been independently continued by St Josef Hospital from August 2017. Refugees and asylum seekers are approached with an inform...ation and counseling service from psychosocial peer counselors with relevant backgrounds (regarding language, culture and refugee experience). The psychosocial peer counselors undergo training with a specifically tailored curriculum and are supervised in their work by qualified staff.
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