The Presence of Coping Education in American Sign Language Interpreter Education Programs as Perceived by Graduates

This study investigated whether coping strategies were part of the curriculum in various American Sign Language interpreter education programs (ASL IEPs). The researcher conducted a national survey and ten interviews with participants to assess their current coping strategies, where they had been learned, and whether their IEPs had prepared them to cope with the possibility of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and vicarious trauma (VT). The researcher utilized literature regarding risks of STS and VT in several settings for interpreters to position the gap of literature regarding coping strategies interpreters use. This study focused on graduates of IEPs because IEPs provide an appropriate environment in which to learn coping strategies. The study has found that interpreters are not being prepared with the skills to cope with STS or VT, and that graduates’ perceptions of the demand-control schema as a coping strategy do not align with its emphasis in interpreter education

Women, peace and security as an ASEAN priority

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat and its member states have repeatedly professed their commitment to the protection and advancement of women’s economic and human rights. Such commitments have included the Declaration on the Advancement of Women in ASEAN in 1988, the ASEAN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in 2004, and the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights in 2012, as well as the establishment of the ASEAN Committee on Women in 2002 and the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Women and Children in 2009. However, none of these regional commitments or institutions expressly take up the core concern of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda set out in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1325 in 2000. ASEAN has no 1325 regional action plan and amongst the ASEAN membership, the Philippines is the only state that has adopted a 1325 National Action Plan (NAP). We explore the possible reasons for lack of ASEAN institutional engagement with 1325, outline the case for regional engagement, and suggest specific roles for ASEAN Secretariat, donor governments and individual member states to commit to UNSCR 1325 as a regional priority

Bridging the gap: Early warning, gender and the responsibility to protect

Women, Peace and Security (WPS) scholars and practitioners have expressed reservations about the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle because of its popular use as a synonym for armed humanitarian intervention. On the other hand, R2P’s early failure to engage with and advance WPS efforts such as United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1325 (2000) has seen the perpetuation of limited roles ascribed to women in implementing the R2P principle. As a result, there has been a knowledge and practice gap between the R2P and WPS agendas, despite the fact that their advocates share common goals in relation to the prevention of atrocities and protection of populations. In this article we propose to examine just one of the potential avenues for aligning the WPS agenda and R2P principle in a way that is beneficial to both and strengthens the pursuit of a shared goal – prevention. We argue that the development and inclusion of gender-specific indicators – particularly economic, social and political discriminatory practices against women – has the potential to improve the capacity of early warning frameworks to forecast future mass atrocities

Assessing Polemics, Principles and Practices: China and the Responsibility to Protect

This article offers an overview of subtle yet significant shifts in Beijing's stance on non-interference and evolving standards of responsible and responsive international engagement in humanitarian crises to highlight China's firm, but cautious, support for the responsibility to protect (R2P). Although it is reticent to apply sanctions and objects to nonconsensual force, China has clearly and consistently affirmed the R2P principle and issued corresponding statements in favor of bolstering the UN's capacity to avert mass atrocity. China's statements provide a basis for Beijing to play a constructive, if reserved, role in translating the responsibility to protect from principle to practice. This article argues that the path of most promise and least resistance for consolidating China's support for implementing the responsibility to protect is paved in practical engagement rather than polemics. It concludes with specific measures that may be taken for China to contribute to upholding the global pledge to protect populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity

Asia Pacific and South Asia

There is a tendency to view R2P diffusion in the Asia Pacific region as a function of ‘norm containment’, which explains endorsement of R2P as a result of the weakening, deconstruction, or dilution of R2P to render it more compatible with the region’s state-centred security norms and practices. This chapter demonstrates, however, that R2P has diffused in the Asia Pacific region through a dynamic process of negotiation and compromise between international R2P norm advocates and Asia Pacific actors, which has witnessed concession and accommodation on both sides. Through case study analysis of how the governments of Japan and India have engaged with R2P, the chapter argues that the Asia Pacific’s socialization to R2P is most aptly characterized as a balance of R2P norm containment and localization, witnessed in Asia Pacific actors shaping the contours of the R2P norm and accommodating its prescriptions through gradual, incremental normative and institutional change.</p

Paper tiger or platform for action? South Asia and the responsibility to protect

South Asia is a region plagued by episodes of violent internal and cross-border conflict that have been accompanied by high levels of displacement and, at times, indiscriminate attacks on civilians and widespread human rights abuses. Weak national institutions, limited regional security cooperation and resistance to international engagement in internal and regional crises hamper efforts to protect South Asian populations from mass atrocity crimes. [extract