Dear Colleagues:  attached are two articles on the effects on legal staff from hearing histories of survivors of atrocities.  The articles list the symptoms (mostly the 17 Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms), possible effects on work and private life, and coping mechanisms.  Lawyers and judges in the tribunals, in political asylum appeals, etc. are at risk and can protect themselves.

Article- Vicarious Trauma in Judges: The Personal Challenge of Dispensing Justice

Article- Secondary Trauma in the Legal Professions, a Clinical Perspective

I am from a non-legal profession.  For years, as a clinician I have worked with the legal profession to protect traumatized refugee patients from torturers and other criminals, and try in turn to protect  the legal profession and others we work with—police, interpreters, military personnel—from debilitating symptoms they can suffer in hearing histories of atrocities in their work.  My particular concern these days is war crimes tribunal staffs. Read more »

It is my honor and responsibility to moderate the session for Medicine and Public Health.  We will have only one hour together to start our work with the Forum—the first half hour to establishing the importance of the rule of law to our profession, and the second half hour to understand where our profession has contributed to advancement of rule of law and to think of future interactions.  As our time in this session is short and precious, I will briefly here give my own history in this regard.  I hope that frees me to help you with your contributions; it certainly frees you from having to hear my involvement from the podium.  Read more »