Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.

The experience of offering therapeutic support to the Uyghur Tribunal held in London in June and September 2021 powerfully brought home the critical variations in the meanings of witnessing and bearing witness and what they entail. In this paper, we explore the role of witnessing through offering s...

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Main Authors: Charlotte Burck, Gillian Hughes, Julia Granville, Julia Nelki
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Everything is Connected Press 2022-07-01
Series:Murmurations
Subjects:
Online Access:https://murmurations.cloud/ojs/index.php/murmurations/article/view/179
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author Charlotte Burck
Gillian Hughes
Julia Granville
Julia Nelki
author_facet Charlotte Burck
Gillian Hughes
Julia Granville
Julia Nelki
author_sort Charlotte Burck
collection DOAJ
description The experience of offering therapeutic support to the Uyghur Tribunal held in London in June and September 2021 powerfully brought home the critical variations in the meanings of witnessing and bearing witness and what they entail. In this paper, we explore the role of witnessing through offering systemic consultation to those who have experienced human rights violations and those who have witnessed these accounts and discuss our observations about the healing power of acts of resistance/activism. We are four systemic psychotherapists, with a particular interest in narrative practices, and approaches that foreground social justice. With a concern not to become “failed witnesses” which Jessica Benjamin (2014) describes as “a failure of those not involved in the acts of injury to serve the function of acknowledging and actively countering or repairing the suffering and injury that they encounter as observers in the social world”, we attempt here to communicate our experience of witnessing and joining with, through practices of solidarity, those bearing witness at the People's Tribunal held to hear evidence about China's alleged genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghur, Kazakh and other Turkic Muslim populations.
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spelling doaj.art-b73c2f569fe74d1d9bec8fb093f12ff42022-12-22T04:02:04ZengEverything is Connected PressMurmurations2516-00522022-07-015210.28963/5.2.2Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.Charlotte Burck0Gillian HughesJulia GranvilleJulia NelkiFamily Therapy and Systemic Research Centre The experience of offering therapeutic support to the Uyghur Tribunal held in London in June and September 2021 powerfully brought home the critical variations in the meanings of witnessing and bearing witness and what they entail. In this paper, we explore the role of witnessing through offering systemic consultation to those who have experienced human rights violations and those who have witnessed these accounts and discuss our observations about the healing power of acts of resistance/activism. We are four systemic psychotherapists, with a particular interest in narrative practices, and approaches that foreground social justice. With a concern not to become “failed witnesses” which Jessica Benjamin (2014) describes as “a failure of those not involved in the acts of injury to serve the function of acknowledging and actively countering or repairing the suffering and injury that they encounter as observers in the social world”, we attempt here to communicate our experience of witnessing and joining with, through practices of solidarity, those bearing witness at the People's Tribunal held to hear evidence about China's alleged genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghur, Kazakh and other Turkic Muslim populations. https://murmurations.cloud/ojs/index.php/murmurations/article/view/179Uyghur Testimonybearing witnesswitnessingPeople’s Tribunalhuman rightsnarrative approach
spellingShingle Charlotte Burck
Gillian Hughes
Julia Granville
Julia Nelki
Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.
Murmurations
Uyghur Testimony
bearing witness
witnessing
People’s Tribunal
human rights
narrative approach
title Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.
title_full Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.
title_fullStr Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.
title_full_unstemmed Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.
title_short Witnessing and Bearing Witness. On offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the Uyghur Tribunal.
title_sort witnessing and bearing witness on offering systemic consultations and practices of solidarity at the uyghur tribunal
topic Uyghur Testimony
bearing witness
witnessing
People’s Tribunal
human rights
narrative approach
url https://murmurations.cloud/ojs/index.php/murmurations/article/view/179
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