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Press Release:
We are pleased to announce the publication of the mental health report 2023.
This report provides a framework for understanding the trauma lawyers experience due to China’s political violence, from a mental health perspective. This framework informs our approach to mental health support, and this report examines the difficulties of providing mental health support, while hoping to offer a solution that is effective, suitable, and safe.
The report covers a comprehensive summary of the common forms of political violence used by Chinese authorities against human rights lawyers in mainland China. This covers suppression experienced both inside and outside of detention, and specifically highlights the impact this has on the mental health of victims and their families. This is followed by an examination of barriers that lawyers face to accessing mental health services, including the CCP’s utilisation of mental health diagnoses to further suppression. The report then offers a brief analysis of the incidents of violence suffered by human rights lawyers to examine the spread of how these methods have been utilised on the ground, before offering some conclusions for what this means for those offering mental health services.
In particular, our framework points towards 3 key recommendations:
Trauma-Informed Care: Human rights lawyers suffer a variety of physical and psychological torture which can manifest a complex nexus of ongoing physical and mental traumas. In order to prevent human rights lawyers or family members from being re-traumatised when receiving services, it is imperative that services are conducted on the basis of “trauma-informed care”.
Whole Community Approach: China’s methods of torture focus not solely on the individual but hinge on the manipulation of family and community ties to isolate, guilt, and pressure lawyers into stopping their work. This social stigmatisation is further exacerbated when traumatised victims return to their families and social settings. Mental health support services cannot focus solely on the individual victim, but must look to rebuild supporting communities, help those suffering from secondary or intergenerational trauma, and build community resilience and understanding.
Battling Stigma: Human rights lawyers battle stigma coming from themselves, the wider legal community and wider society when they seek support for their mental health. We recommend that legal communities both in China and internationally increase their awareness of mental health and pay attention to the mental health of Chinese human rights lawyers. We must reach a consensus on the importance of mental health and the acceptability of seeking help.
Full report: The 29 Principles’ Mental Health Report 2023: A Framework for Understanding Political Violence and Mental Health Amongst Chinese Human Rights Lawyers