Trauma and Human Rights: Integrating Approaches to Address Human Suffering

Human rights violations and traumatic events often comingle in victims’ experiences; however, the human rights framework and trauma theory are rarely deployed together to illuminate such experiences. This edited volume explores the intersection of trauma and human rights by presenting the development and current status of each of these frameworks, examining traumatic experiences and human rights violations across a range of populations and describing efforts to remediate them. Individual chapters address these topics among Native Americans, African Americans, children, women, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender individuals, those with mental disabilities, refugees and asylees, and older adults, and also in the context of social policy and truth and reconciliation commissions. The authors demonstrate that the trauma and human rights frameworks each contribute invaluable and complementary insights, and that their integration can help us fully appreciate and address human suffering at both individual and collective levels.

Lisa D. Butler, PhD, is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo, NY, USA.

Filomena M. Critelli, PhD, is Associate Professor and the Co-Director of the Institute for Sustainable Global Engagement in the School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo, in Buffalo, NY, USA. 

Janice Carello, LMSW, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Edinboro University, in Edinboro, PA, USA.