Psychosocial and community assessment of relatives of victims of extra-judicial killings in Peru: Informing international courts

Abstract

Introduction: During the Peruvian internal armed conflict, fifteen members of the Santa Barbara community were collectively executed by state agents, and their relatives were made victims of persecution, torture, and imprisonment. The case, known as the Santa Barbara massacre, was brought to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The documentation of individual, family and community impacts for the Court became a challenge due to the need to address cultural, geographical, political and community aspects. This paper aims to discuss the complexities of forensic documentation of human rights violations using a psychosocial and communitarian background. Method: The assessment included seven survivors from three different families. Both qualitative and quantitative instruments were used. A participative action research framework guided the design, documentation process, and discussion of outcomes with the survivors. Results/ discussion: The report included four levels of documentation exhibited in the Istanbul Protocol framework: clinical impacts from a western perspective, emic formulations and cultural idioms of distress, communitarian perspectives, and a proposal of reparation measures for the Court. Individual analysis revealed chronic mental health sequelae of forced displacement, imprisonment and torture. Local idioms of distress (in Quechuan, “pinsamientuwan,” “llaki,” “ñakary,” “umananay” and “iquyay”) deepened the understanding of the damage faced by the survivors. The analysis of the community uncovered three main areas of collective damage: broken social and cultural identity, lack of political participation, and loss of perspective on the future. Regarding reparations, survivors highlighted the pursuit for justice, the dignified remembrance of their loved ones, social re-inclusion of displaced persons into the community, education for offspring, and measures for the preservation of their community’s identity and culture. Conclusions: Psycholegal accompaniment for victims through a participatory research approach is essential for the proper documentation of the consequences of violence in complex contexts. It is also essential in guaranteeing that the forensic documentation of the impact of political violence can be proposed as reparative for the survivors in itself.

Reported Methods, Distributions, and Frequencies of Torture Globally

“…Each category of torture was also widely distributed. Physical torture was clearly reported for 67 countries and by 253 studies, psychological torture for 62 countries and by 188 studies,…”

“…A total of 9937 article titles and abstracts were screened, 1739 full-text articles were assessed, and 266 articles were included for analysis (eFigure 1 in Supplement 1). One article was published in 1947 and the rest in 1977 to 2021, with an average increase of 0.25 additional articles published per year from 1977 ...…”

“…Reports of torture could be identified for an average of 2.1 (95% CI, 1.6-2.6) countries per study, and the range was 0 to 39 countries. Only 1 country of torture could be identified for 143 studies (54%), 2 to 10 countries for 53 studies (20%), more than 10 countries for 11 studies (4%), and no single country of torture could be identified for 59 studies (22%) …”

“…The location(s) of torture included regions encompassing multiple countries (ie, “Africa”) or parts of multiple countries (ie, “Kurdistan”) in 101 studies, and single countries could not be ascribed to those regions. Overall, 113 studies (43%) included men and women, 82 studies (31%) included only men, 27 studies (10%) included only women, and the gender of the sample could not be determined for 44 studies (17%)…”

“…Migration of at least part of the study sample was found for 189 articles (71%), and most of these articles accessed individuals who experienced torture who migrated to the United States, Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe. Individuals were encountered for study in the same country that they were subjected to torture for 73 articles (27%) . The researchers who conducted the studies were housed by 44 countries (eFigure 5 and eTable 10 in …”