Institute for International Health and Development - Staff Profiles

Dr Rebecca Horn

Areas of interest

• Psychosocial well-being and interventions in conflict-affected areas

• Psychosocial impact of conflict and displacement

• Domestic violence within displaced populations

• Effective evaluation of psychosocial interventions

Biographical statement

Rebecca Horn is a psychologist, with a background in forensic psychology. Early in her career she conducted applied research with police forces, probation services and the prison service, and worked for the Prison Service as a forensic psychologist. In 2003 she left the UK to work with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Kakuma Refugee Camp, northern Kenya, where she spent the next three and a half years managing four psychosocial programmes in the camp. In 2007 she worked for the Witness and Victims Section of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in Freetown, initially conducting a research project for the SCSL looking at the impact on witnesses of testifying in an international war crimes tribunal, and subsequently as the psychologist for the Witness and Victims Section.

She joined IIHD at QMU in February 2008, after being awarded an Economic and Social Research Council Fellowship to develop and write up three research projects related to her work in Kakuma refugee camp, and in Kitgum (Northern Uganda). Since then she has conducted work for a number of organisations in conflict and post-conflict settings, including Gaza, Kenya, Jordan and Ethiopia.

Recent publications

Horn,R. (in press) A mixed methods evaluation of the Kakuma Emotional Wellbeing Interview Intervention (Special issue on combining qualitative and quantitative research methods to inform psychosocial and mental health programmes in complex humanitarian emergencies or other situations of extreme stress or adversity)

Horn,R. (in press) Responses to intimate partner violence in Kakuma refugee camp: Refugee interactions with agency systems Social Science and Medicine (Special Issue: Violence, Conflict & Health)

Horn,R. (2009) Coping with Displacement: Problems and responses in Kitgum, northern Uganda Intervention, 7 (2) 110-129

Horn,R.; Charters,S. & Vahidy,S. (in press) Testifying in the Special Court for Sierra Leone: The Impact on Witness Security and Emotional Welfare Psychology, Crime and Law

Horn,R. & Strang,A. (2008) Implementation Of The IASC MHPSS Guidelines: A Jordanian Case Study Intervention 6 (3/4) 291-293

Horn,R. & Strang,A. (2008) Implementation Of The IASC MHPSS Guidelines: A Kenyan Case Study Intervention 6 (3/4) 294-297

Horn,R.; Charters,S. & Vahidy,S. (2009) Witnesses in the Special Court for Sierra Leone: The Importance of the Witness-Lawyer Relationship International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 37 (1) 25-38

Horn,R.; Charters,S. & Vahidy,S. (2009) Testifying In An International War Crimes Tribunal: The Experience Of Witnesses In The Special Court For Sierra Leone International Journal of Transitional Justice doi: 10.1093/ijtj/ijn039

Horn,R.; Charters,S. & Vahidy,S. (2009) The Victim-Witness Experience In The Special Court For Sierra Leone International Review of Victimology 15, 277-298

Charters,S.Horn,R. & Vahidy,S. (2008) Best Practice Recommendations for the Protection and Support of Witnesses Freetown: Special Court for Sierra Leone

Feyissa, A. & Horn,R. (2008) There is more than one way of dying: An Ethiopian perspective of the effects of long stays in refugee camps In Hollenbach,D. (ed) Ethical Responsibilities towards Forced Migrants as a Framework for Advocacy: African Perspectives Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice

Eidenson, R.J. & Horn, R. (2008) Who Wants to Return Home? A Survey of Sudanese Refugees in Kakuma, Kenya Refuge: Canada’s Periodical on Refugees, 25 (1) 15-26

Horn, R. (2007) Psychosocial work in a refugee camp In Eidelson,R., Laske,J. & Cherfas,L. (eds) Peacemaker 101: Careers Confronting Conflict Philadelphia, PA: Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict

Horn,R. (2006) Kenya: When resettlement is the only long-term option Servir, 38 (Nov 2006)

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