Category: Blog

Sara (Meg) Davis The International AIDS Conference is a biennial litmus test for the global HIV response: a moment to celebrate progress in research and practice, forge new connections and reconnect with allies. Human rights has long been a central topic, both on the formal program and in the Global Village where civil society gathers. This year at AIDS 2022 in Montreal, Canada, many of the human rights track sessions…

Continue reading “Power, Privacy, and the People at the AIDS 2022 Conference”

Andrés Constantin and Maia Levy Daniel A few years ago, Belén ended up in jail after being admitted to a hospital in Argentina for suffering a miscarriage.[1] Within hours, she was surrounded by the police and accused of having induced an abortion, which was illegal. Belén spent 29 months in preventive detention and was sentenced to eight years in prison for aggravated homicide due to Argentina’s strict abortion laws at…

Continue reading “Roe Overturned: Lessons from Latin America”

Johannes Wheeldon and Jon Heidt Introduction Recently, a special section in this journal reviewed the widespread misuse of compulsory drug detention and rehabilitation centers.[1] Although the issue was a welcome addition to the literature, most contributors focused on formal responses to injected drugs. A detailed discussion of the rise of coerced treatment as part of cannabis decriminalization was notable by its absence.[2] Cannabis remains the most used psychoactive substance under international control. In…

Continue reading “LETTER Cannabis, Coerced Care, and a Rights-Based Approach to Community Support”

Rosa González and Tamil Kendall In May 2022, the President of Chile made a historic public apology to Francisca, a woman living with HIV who was sterilized without her consent. The apology came  20 years after Francisca’s forced sterilization and followed a decade of litigation before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.[1] Forced and coerced sterilization is recognized as a human rights violation under international law.[2] In 2021, the Executive…

Continue reading “Delayed Justice over Forced Sterilization of a Honduran Woman Living with HIV”

Sarthak Gupta and Pruthvirajsinh Zala In May 2022, an initial draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked forewarning an overturn of the decision in Roe v. Wade. Justice Alito writes in the draft opinion, that the rationale of Roe was egregiously wrong from the beginning, although SCOTUS in a press release said…

Continue reading “Returning to a Pre-Roe World Threatens More than Abortion Rights”

Michael Garcia Bochenek and Warren Binford The sounds of sobbing children, some struggling to breathe, outraged the public in June 2018 as the impact of the Trump administration family separation policy became widely known.[1] The policy was striking for the deliberate way it inflicted harm on children in the name of deterrence. The authorities rolled it out along the US-Mexico border after a six-month pilot, fully aware of its adverse…

Continue reading “Children Arriving in the United States Need Strong Safeguards”

Jonathan Todres Child development is multi-faceted and complex. Although the lived experience of children cannot be neatly parsed into siloes, government responses to, and support for, children are typically divided among sectors. From education to health care to juvenile justice, different departments and agencies typically develop and implement narrowly defined programs. The problem with this approach is that it risks failing to deliver meaningful assistance to the children and adolescents…

Continue reading “Moving Beyond Siloes: Urgent Need for an Integrated Approach to Children’s Rights and Well-Being”

Paul Farmer 1959-2022 In memory and celebration of our Editor-in-Chief Paul Farmer, we invite contributions to an online collection that honors his legacy in global health, human rights, equality and dignity. We welcome personal reflections, comments on Paul’s work and writing, and commentaries on the ways in which Paul shaped global health. Essays are encouraged that look to the future and anticipate Paul’s legacy in promoting health and human rights.…

Continue reading “Inviting Contributions on the Theme of “Paul Farmer’s Legacy””

Joseph J. Amon and Carmel Williams On February 21, 2022, the Health and Human Rights Journal Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Paul Farmer, MD PhD, died in his sleep while working in Rwanda. In addition to his role at the Journal which he had held since 2008, Paul was Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, chief of the Division of Global…

Continue reading “In Memory of Paul Farmer who Believed the Future Could be Different”

Yazid Barhoush On March 25th, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called for governments to “not forget those behind bars” and “act quickly to reduce the number of people in detention”.[1] She urged governments and authorities to reduce the number of people in detention and explicitly called on governments to release individuals detained without sufficient legal basis. In April, the Center for…

Continue reading “Forgotten Behind Bars: COVID-19 and Palestinian Prisoners Detained in Israel”