Towards a Human Rights Based and Oriented Psychology

Abstract

Psychologists have a societal responsibility for promoting human rights and preventing human rights violations. In 2013 a Board Human Rights and Psychology was established by the European Federation of Psychologists Associations (EFPA), in order to raise awareness of the importance of human rights for psychologists, and of psychology for human rights. In the first section a brief history of human rights is described. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related conventions, as the most widely accepted standards for human rights today, are taken as the starting point. The second section shows how the principles of human rights are in tune with the ethical codes of conduct of psychological associations, and a plea is made for the explicit inclusion of human rights in these codes. The third section presents a social-behavioural science perspective on human rights anchored in the Capabilities Approach of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. The fourth section describes the involvement of psychologists in a human rights based-and-oriented psychology, through research and practice, but particularly through concrete actions. The final section emphasizes the importance of human rights education for psychologists.

The macropsychology of COVID-19: Psychological governance as pandemic response.

“…In response to this neglected perspective, Marsella (2012) has called for psychologists and psychological organizations to take into consideration the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to increase their awareness of global issues and to engage in research with more global reach. Similarly, Hagenaars (2016) has argued for a rights-based psychology-one that incorporates the broader context and history of the people it addresses. Researchers are now, however, beginning to explicitly examine the interface between psychology and human rights (Velez, 2016), such as the emerging field of human rights psychology (APA, 2016).…”

Human rights, policy, and legal interventions.

“…We use the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) as a starting point for a common understanding of human rights and argue that the principles of human rights are compatible with ethical codes for psychologists. Hagenaars (2016) argued that psychologists have a particular professional and scientific responsibility to uphold human rights due to our expertise in human behavior and relationships and our mission to promote human welfare. As Hagenaars outlined, psychologists have a professional obligation to (a) promote awareness of human rights and risks of their violation, (b) prevent human rights violations, and (c) alleviate their effects when they occur.…”

References to Human Rights in Codes of Ethics for Psychologists: Critical Issues and Recommendations. Part Ii

“…Some psychologists (e.g., Hagenaars, 2016a;Seymour & Nairn, 2012) think that psychology has the duty to play a more active role in the promotion and defence of human rights. Some organizations of psychology think the same.…”

“…Various actions have been proposed to raise the awareness of human rights among psychologists. One of them has been to include references to human rights into all codes of ethics for psychologists (e.g., Hagenaars, 2016a). However, as demonstrated in the first part of this two-part article series, it cannot be recommended because of the issues it raises.…”