International Coordination of Gender Justice in Iraq

Seminar

Conflict: The effect on child mental health

Iraq – a case study

Thursday 15 May 2008

5:30 - 8:00 pm

Co-sponsored by

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Unit

University College London Institute of Child Health

and

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

30 Guilford Street,

Leolin Price Lecture Theatre

London   WC1N 1EH

A seminar with a panel of speakers and discussion

“Ameliorating the effects of war and displacement on children”

Professor William Yule

Emeritus Professor of Applied Child Psychology,

Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London 

“The current situation and condition of Iraqi children”

Rosa Mohammed Ali

Iraqi Association and Iraq Child Group

“The effects of trauma on brain and behaviour”

Professor Faraneh Vargha-Khadem

Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Institute of Child Health & Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

Chair - Zarin Hainsworth

President, UNIFEM UK

Free entry

Refreshments

All welcome

Organised by the International Coordination for Gender Justice in Iraq

In cooperation with the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Unit,

University College London Institute of Child Health and

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children

RSVP

info@genderjusticeiraq.com or zarin@serenecommunications.com

Abstracts

Ameliorating the effects of war and displacement on children

Women and children are not only the largest group of victims of modern warfare, they are also often deliberately targeted. Moved by the obvious effects of war on children, many altruistic people flock to give help, but too often that help is neither well integrated with local services nor is it evidence based.

The Children and War Foundation was established after the civil war in Yugoslavia with the express aim of developing evidence based approaches to helping large groups of children affected by war and natural disasters (see www.childrenandwar.org ). This talk will describe the main effects of war and displacement on children and adolescents and present some lessons learned from current projects in Sri Lanka, Jordan and the UK.

The current situation of children in Iraq

The situation and condition of Iraqi children at present is one created by repression, war and sectarian fighting. This presentation will give an idea of the current situation of children and the work being undertaken to assist them within Iraq.

The effects of trauma on brain and  behaviour

Trauma affects the functioning of the brain and thus human behaviour. This presentation will give a brief overview of how traumatic experiences interfere with cognition and behaviour leading to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  The neural basis of PTSD and its long term consequences on children will be discussed.

Questions and discussions

Participants will be able to ask questions, give comments and provide recommendations for improving the life of children in post conflict Iraq.

Mini-bios

Professor William Yule

William Yule trained as a clinical psychologist at the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital in London, and was for many years head of the clinical psychology services and Professor of Applied Child Psychology.   He is currently Consultant Psychologist in the National and Specialist division of the Children's Directorate in the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. . 

For the past twenty years, he has been heavily involved in the study and treatment of PTSD in both adults and children.   He has shown that PTSD is both a commoner and more chronic reaction in children and adolescents than had hitherto been suspected.  Current research in PTSD includes studies of the buffering effects of social support; the relationship between causal attribution and degrees of distress in survivors; developing cognitive behavioural treatments for children and adolescents; and five year follow up studies of child survivors; studies of emotional processing in survivors.

Since the summer of 1993, he has been an advisor to UNICEF on its psychosocial programme for war affected children in former Yugoslavia and was Technical Director of a major programme to develop services for war affected children in Mostar in Bosnia. 

He is a member of the Board of the Foundation for Children and War, Bergen, Norway (www.childrenandwar.org). In 1998, he was elected to the Green Cross Foundation Academy of Traumatology, and was appointed as Honorary Consultant in Clinical Psychology to the Army in March 2000.  He is also a member of the Defence Scientific Advisory Committee (DSAC).  He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the ISTSS in 2005. He is a member of the European Federation of Psychology Associations' standing Committee on Crisis, Disasters and Trauma, as well as it British Psychological Society counterpart.  He was a member of the NICE Guideline Development Group on PTSD.  He was a member of the Department of Health Emergency Planning Guidance group on Children in Emergencies (2005/6).

Faraneh Vargha-Khadem

Professor Faraneh Vargha-Khadem completed her doctoral and post doctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts in the United States and McGill University in Montreal, Canada.  She moved to London in 1983 to take a position at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children where she has helped create the first academic department of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the UK, and its clinical counterpart, the Department of Clinical Neuropsychology.

Professor Vargha-Khadem's research and clinical work is focused on the cognitive and behavioural deficits of children with brain injury or disease with the goal of understanding how brain systems develop during childhood. She has been investigating developmental amnesia, genetic abnormalities resulting in speech and language disorders, and brain plasticity in children with epilepsy. She holds a personal chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, and is also the head of her department. She was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000, and has received a number of awards including the 2006 Jean Louis Signoret Prize for her contributions to genetics of behaviour

Rosa Mohammed Ali

Rosa is a solicitor practicing in London. She is a member of the Iraqi Association Management Committee and a member of the Iraq Child Group and International Coordination for Gender Justice in Iraq.

Venue

The Institute of Child Health is close to Russell Square or King's Cross/St Pancreas tube stations.

UCL Institute of Child Health

Leolin Price Lecture Theatre

30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH

Tel: +44 (0)20 7242 9789, Fax: +44 (0)20 7831 0488

Ongoing ICGJI Projects

1. The coordination of an international effort to collect and submit amicus briefs to the Iraq High Tribunal. These briefs will urge the Iraq High Tribunal Judges to implement Security Council Resolution 1325 through their rulings in an effort to uphold gender justice. We seek to encourage groups from diverse backgrounds to submit briefs covering the gamut of issues related to gender violence.
2. Outreach to several Iraqi Women's groups to increase awareness and participation in this campaign. The ICGJI has been in contact with numerous NGOs as well as other groups, including the Women's Caucus for Gender Justice at the ICC, to gain support for this effort. As more organizations join the campaign to advance women's rights in Iraq, women have the potential to develop a stronger voice, gain greater political representation, and realize justice in Iraq.
3. Collaboration with international government officials to make governments worldwide aware of the Iraqi High Tribunal's influence on international jurisprudence on gender and the advancement of women's rights in Iraq. The ICGJI works with the British All Party Group on 1325 as well as other parliamentarians, high level officials and government groups to educate them on the potential of the Tribunal to positively affect women's rights in Iraq and the region.
4. Seeing that support for the use of 1325 in the Iraqi Tribunal Context is recognized in national action plans on 1325 being pioneered in Britain as well as a handful of other countries including Canada, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. The Iraqi High Tribunal could be the first body to use 1325 as a legal argument (in a war crimes tribunal context) and therefore could set an important precedent for women worldwide. The ICGJI seeks to ensure that NGOs, Governments, and individuals worldwide that are working on 1325 become aware of this possibility and that they actively lobby these groups to ensure that they recognize this possibility and promote its becoming a reality.
5. Providing a forum for the voice of Iraqi women survivors of violence in Iraq and throughout the world. The ICGJI will work to provide a space for victims to speak publicly about the crimes committed against them to raise awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence under Saddam and continuing as well as provide necessary measures to protect and support witness testimony of victims.