About HHR

Health and Human Rights began publication in 1994 under the editorship of Jonathan Mann. Sofia Gruskin was editor from 1997 until 2007, followed by Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health, who was editor-in-chief until his untimely death in 2022. Health and Human Rights is an online, open-access publication, supported by the FXB Harvard School of Public Health, and our partners at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, as well as our Harvard Health and Human Rights Consortium.

Health and Human Rights provides an inclusive forum for action-oriented dialogue among human rights practitioners and scholars. The journal endeavors to increase access to human rights knowledge in the health field by linking an expanded community of readers and contributors. Following the lead of a growing number of open access publications, the full text of Health and Human Rights is freely available to anyone with internet access.

Health and Human Rights focuses rigorous scholarly analysis on the conceptual foundations and challenges of rights discourse and action in relation to health. The journal is dedicated to empowering new voices from the field — highlighting the innovative work of groups and individuals in direct engagement with human rights struggles as they relate to health. We seek to foster engaged scholarship and reflective activism. In doing so, we invite informed action to realize the full spectrum of human rights.

Health and Human Rights publishes two issues each year in June and December, and publishes papers-in-press regularly in between each issue.

The Health and Human Rights website provides additional opportunities for interactive dialogue on pertinent controversial topics and news.

Mission Statement 

Health and Human Rights is an international journal dedicated to scholarship and praxis that advance health as an issue of fundamental human rights and social justice. It seeks to provide a forum for academics, practitioners and activists from public health, human rights and related fields to explore how rights-based approaches to health can be implemented in practice. In so doing, it contributes to fostering a global movement for health and human rights.

Impact Factor

Health and Human Rights’ latest impact factor is 3.7 (June 2023), having increased from 2.27 in the previous year.

Indexing

Health and Human Rights is indexed in PubMed, and the Directory of Open Access Journals. Archived issues are also available on JSTOR.