About the author(s):
Promoting information sharing and community building between individuals and organisations working on issues related to armed groups and international law. Providing updates on news stories and publicize academic journal articles and seminars, talks and conferences on issues related to armed groups.
How does war affect mental health? And is international law equipped to recognise and address these harms? In this episode of Beyond Compliance: In Conversation, Katharine and Florian speak with Lyla Schwartz, Program & Psychology Director at Poma Global and Researcher at the University of Basel, and Samantha Holmes, Researcher at the Beyond Compliance Consortium at the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights.
Listen here:
Cited documents:
Holmes, Samantha, Incidental mental harm through a decolonial lens: A culturally and contextually sensitive implementation of the principle of proportionality, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 108, No. 932, 2026.
Lway Mownt, Noon, Holmes, Samantha, Rush, Chris and Weigand, Florian, Between Aftershocks & Airstrikes in Myanmar – Accounts of Compounding Harm + Need, Armed Groups and International Law, July 2025.
Holmes, Samantha, War is not skin deep – International Humanitarian Law and mental health, Armed Groups and International Law, October 2024.
Schwartz, Lyla, Hassanpoor, Zainab, Lane, Hannah and Klapheke, Elizabeth, Economic constraints and gendered rules: Understanding women’s perspectives of how government-imposed restrictions impact women’s mental health and social wellbeing across Afghanistan, SSM – Mental Health, Vol. 6, 2024.
Schwartz, Lyla, Nakonechna, Mariia, Campbell, Georgina, Brunner, Donja, Stadler, Christina, Schmid, Marc, Fegert, Jörg M. and Bürgin, David, Addressing the mental health needs and burdens of children fleeing war: a field update from ongoing mental health and psychosocial support efforts at the Ukrainian border, European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 13 (2), 2022.
Guest Bios:
Samantha Holmes is a Research Associate at the York Law School and the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) at the University of York. She is also a member of the Beyond Compliance Consortium’s research programme “Building Evidence on Promoting Restraint by Armed Actors”. Her international humanitarian and human rights law research is informed and underpinned by her extensive human rights work across Southeast Asia. Her ongoing research focuses on the impacts of war on mental wellbeing and how the law can prevent mental harm. Samantha holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice from the University of York, and an LLB from Queen Mary University of London.
Lyla Schwartz is a PhD Candidate at the University of Basel, Switzerland, focusing on the mental health of refugees. She is a psychotherapist and clinical researcher with over a decade of experience supporting individuals, families, and communities through trauma, stress, and life transitions. Lyla has extensive field work experience in India, Peru, South Africa, Greece and Afghanistan. Specifically she has spent four years in Kabul, where she founded the organization Peace of Mind, providing services traumatized children.