Witness as Victim: Clinical Encounters with Children Who Observed Violence

Abstract

In the spring months of 2022, Human Rights Watch, the international humanitarian group, released stunning details of the carnage in the regions around Chernihiv and Kyiv that Russia left behind. In a report released from May 2022, Human Rights Watch stated that it was currently investigating 22 potential summary executions, nine other unlawful killings, six possible kidnappings, seven cases of torture and 21 reported incidents of other forms of “unlawful confinement in inhuman and degrading conditions” carried out by Russian forces against civilians. But even this report doesn’t take into account traumatic impact on witnesses. Having witnessed the crime once, the witness continues to see the world through the prism of the observed violence

Keywords

• trauma informed treatments
• body image distortions
• childhood trauma
• war atrocities witness