Miranda Olff
President of ESTSS

Presidential message
The preparations for the 12th ESTSS Conference on Traumatic Stress (ECOTS) in Vienna are proceeding quite well. ESTSS is happy to have the 12th ECOTS in Vienna, a city full of traditions concerning psychology and psychotherapy. The conference will focus on Human Rights and Psychotraumatology, but will also be open for other topics in the field of traumatic stress. We are very proud that we are able to attract high ranked keynote speakers and that we will be able to present a wide variety of topics in our programme. There will be something for everybody!

The 12th ECOTS will – as in previous conferences - offer the opportunity for participants to share their experiences, ideas and the results of their work. As usual we will be proud to attract a truly international audience. There is a growing number of participants, since ESTSS is proceeding successfully in helping to establish national societies all over Europe.

There will be some novelties at this conference. For the first time we have a joint programme with a regional ESTSS member society - the German Speaking Society for Psychotraumatology (DeGPT). There will be the offer of a joint day with a treatment based organization: EMDR-Europe. Additionally, we are very pleased that ISTSS will run pre conference workshops and many of their Board Directors will be present during the conference.

Those who have visited Vienna before know that it is a marvellous city. June is a perfect time to visit. We do hope that you encourage your friends and colleagues to attend and look forward to meeting and welcoming you in Vienna in June 2011. 

Georg Winckler
Rector of the University of Vienna

As the Rector of the University of Vienna, I have the great honor to welcome you to the 12th European Conference on Traumatic Stress Human Rights and Psychotraumatology. I may also take the opportunity to thank Prof. Lueger-Schuster for organizing this conference.

The promotion and protection of Human Rights has fortunately gained increasing importance on the political, social and economic level. However, not withstanding major achievements, violations including torture, forced displacement and massive rape still occur all over the world.

Traumatic Stress is one of the main consequences of Human Rights abuses and even though great undertakings have taken place on the scientific level including the establishment of specialized care and rehabilitation centers for survivors as well as the production of new forms of medication and the formation of new therapies many questions arising from a multidimensional and multidisciplinary framework remain at the intersection of traumatic stress.

The conference will highlight many of these questions and will thus attract participants from diverse fields working on the promotion and protection of Human Rights. 

Max Kothbauer
Chairman of the University Council

The formulation of human rights was a fundamental result of enlightenment. Since then, the human rights and their implementation are subject of intense academic discourse. In accordance with the academic scope of the University of Vienna human rights are approached from different perspectives. The University has therefore developed its own research platform “Human Rights in the European Context” across different faculties.

A society can neither be satisfied with regretting violations against human rights nor by simply keeping their material effects in mind. More emphasis on sensitizing society for the severity of the current situation and the work for prevention measures in all perceivable areas is needed. Precisely this complexity is being studied at different levels by the University of Vienna. This should give room to tackle this conference as a joint project of different units. Connecting theory with case studies is crucial for the credibility of “social sciences”.

 I wish this conference a success and an audible resonance, especially in places of daily struggle for human rights.