Category: Blog

Sharing event information from The Center for Reproductive Rights:  After four successful rounds, the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation, together with the  Center for Reproductive Rights and the Network of East-West Women, and in cooperation with representatives of the Euroregional Center for Public Initiatives, are thrilled to announce the Call for Applications to participate in the fifth round of the Women’s Human Rights Training Institute (WHRTI) program. The WHRTI was founded in 2004 as a first-of-its-kind…

Continue reading “Upcoming Event: Women’s Human Rights Training Institute”

Public Health and Social Justice Martin Donohoe Jossey-Bass (October 2012) ISBN: 111808814X 656 pages $60.00 Reviewed by Daniel R. George,  Ph.D, M.Sc, and Peter J. Whitehouse, MD, Ph.D Comedian Stephen Colbert, who plays a faux archconservative on the popular show The Colbert Report, has famously joked, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”  So too might this clever turn of phrase apply to the field of public health, which has for centuries held…

Continue reading “Book Review: Public Health and Social Justice”

By guest contributors Johanna Hanefeld and Anuj Kapilashrami The Global Fund to Fight AIDS Malaria and TB is a leading funder in global health. In just over a decade since its inception in 2002, the organization has committed over USD 20 billion in funding for the three focal diseases. The organization has been at the forefront of the scale up of treatment for HIV, TB, and Malaria, and is credited…

Continue reading “The Global Fund’s new funding model–missed opportunities for human rights?”

By HHR editorial assistant Krista Oehlke Girls’ significant lack of access to education worldwide was linked to economic factors, entrenched customary practices, and inadequate government and global priorities in a recent Forum at the Harvard School of Public Health. The Forum was titled “Igniting Change Worldwide,” and used Richard Robbins’ new documentary Girl Rising as a launching pad to discuss barriers to girls’ education and what can be done to…

Continue reading “A spotlight on girls’ education: Analogous to a global health emergency”

By guest blogger Beth E. Rivin, M.D., M.P.H. Holding governments accountable for their legal and political obligations to women’s rights, including the right to the highest attainable standard of health, requires civil society to engage in activities not only at the national level but also at the municipal level of government.  Civil society organizations can assure that governments are complying with their obligations. Measuring and monitoring all aspects of the…

Continue reading “FCGH can support accountability for women’s right to health”

By guest blogger Anna Malavisi While we need to applaud the proposal of a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) as a way to address health inequalities and inequities, we cannot be complacent in believing that such a framework will achieve its goal. Other frameworks have preceded this one (Global Strategy for  Health for All by the Year 2000, Millennium Development Goals, etc.), and yet the reality is that in…

Continue reading “Towards a Framework Convention on Global Health”

By FXB Research Assistant Carrie Bronsther On April 16, the Forum at Harvard School of Public Health, in collaboration with the GlobalPost, presented a panel discussion on The Cost of Inaction: The Consequences of Failing the World’s Children. The panel featured four expert participants: Countess Albina du Boisrouvray, Dean Julio Frenk, Professor Sudhir Anand, and Honorable Dr. Timothy Thahane, and was moderated by Samuel Loewenberg. The participants discussed the implications…

Continue reading “The cost of inaction: The consequences of failing the world’s children”

Ed. Lanse Minkler Cambridge University Press (Jan 2013) ISBN 9781107609136 408 pages $36.99 In The State of Economic and Social Human Rights, Minkler draws on the insight of scholars in economics, law, sociology, anthropology, and political science to provide insight on core economic and social human rights. He aims to explore the “obstacles that prevent governments from fulfilling their obligations” by looking at the performance of countries throughout the world.…

Continue reading “Book Brief: The State of Economic and Social Human Rights: A Global Overview”

By Ashish Premkumar, Allison Barker, Amanda DeLoureiro, MPH, Leela Sarathy, Daniel A. Dworkis As medical students, we operate in a world of graduated clinical responsibility, traversing the divide from taking vitals to complex differential diagnoses and unsupervised minor procedures. We are taught that as our skills and sophistication grow, we will be caring for increasingly complex patients. When patients suffering from violations of their human rights are mentioned, often in…

Continue reading “A call from below: Why deeper education in health and human rights is crucial for medical students”

MSF teams near the eastern border of Morocco have seen a dramatic influx of migrants with severe physical wounds such as broken limbs, dislocated jaws, and concussions. As reported on AlertNet, the migrants claim they are being attacked by Moroccan and Spanish security forces. The sub-Saharan African migrants have been traveling through Morocco in an attempt to either reach Europe or return to their homes. They have been subject to…

Continue reading “Rise in anti-migrant violence in Morocco”