Category: Perspectives

Benjamin Mason Meier, Paul Henry Brodish, and Meri Koivusalo From June 10-14, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health will host the Eighth Global Conference on Health Promotion in Helsinki, Finland.1 The Global Conference will highlight Health in All Policies (HiAP), an approach that evolved over the past quarter century and arose out of a focus on primary health care in the 1978 Alma…

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Pamela J. Surkan, Luke C. Mullany, Namrita S. Singh, Chris Beyrer Abstract We propose that human rights indicators related to women’s health be developed. First, we present two published examples from Burma and Afghanistan that illustrate how specific violations of human rights have been related to women’s health outcomes in the literature. We then review the state of current human rights measures relevant to women’s health, propose a process through…

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Benjamin Mason Meier and Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum Abstract The United Nations recently launched a US $40 billion Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals related to improving the health of women and children. To create state accountability for this bold five-year effort, the World Health Organization has convened a Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health to recommend international…

Continue reading “The Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health: Establishing international processes for state reporting to an independent monitoring body”

Walter Flores, Ana Lorena Ruano, y Denise Phé Funchal Resumen La participación social se ha entendido de muchas formas y existen tipologías en la literatura que la clasifican por los niveles de control por parte de la población en la toma de decisiones. Así, la participación puede ser un hecho simbólico, sin toma de decisión, hasta procesos en los cuales es el principal instrumento para redistribuir el poder entre la…

Continue reading “La participación social en un contexto de violencia política: Implicaciones para la promoción y ejercicio del derecho a la salud en Guatemala”

Beth Waldman Abstract The United States spends more per capita on health care than nearly every other country; yet despite this level of spending,quality outcomes in the United States are lower than in many developed countries. This poor quality is due in part to the fact that over 45 million Americans are uninsured. Health care in the US is provided mainly through employers as an employee benefit; those who work…

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Joseph J. Amon, Françoise Girard, and Salmaan Keshavjee [Editor’s note: A PDF version of this article is available here.] Abstract Recent attention to multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR- and XDR-TB) has increased discussion and debate over the extent to which limitations to human rights can be justified in the name of public health. In their recent article “Limitations on human rights: Are they justifiable to reduce the burden of…

Continue reading “Limitations on human rights in the context of drug-resistant tuberculosis: A reply to Boggio et al.”

Camila Gianella-Malca, Oscar Parra-Vera, Alicia Ely Yamin, y Mauricio Torres-Tovar [Editor’s note: A PDF version of this article is available here.] Executive Summary [English] Democratic deliberation or social marketing? The dilemmas of a public definition of health in the context of the implementation of Judgment T–760/08 In July 2008, the Colombian Constitutional Court (the Court) issued a decision in which it called upon the Colombian government to adopt a series…

Continue reading “¿Deliberación democrática o mercadeo social? Los dilemas de la definición pública en salud en el contexto del seguimiento de la Sentencia T–760 de 2008”

Agnès Binagwaho, Niloo Ratnayake, Mary C. Smith Fawzi [PDF version] At a time when accountability is a key message for countries, constituencies, and organizations, it is important that major multilateral agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) are also held accountable for actions taken or not taken. This article first reviews the methods of monitoring growth and development among children under five years of age by the WHO. It…

Continue reading “Holding multilateral organizations accountable: The failure of WHO in regards to childhood malnutrition”

In 1995, after producing a successful weekly TV program about apartheid in South Africa against all odds, we broadcast an edition of a new series that explored revolutionary ideas about human rights, such as those then being formulated by a visionary at Harvard named Jonathan Mann. In our show, called Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television, Dr. Mann laid out in typically brilliant fashion the crystal-clear thinking behind his vision…

Continue reading “Health and Human Rights: A Journalist’s Perspective”

I’ve been supporting Partners In Health’s project in Lesotho for more than two years – almost since it began. Lesotho is a world away – both literally & figuratively – from the FXB Center office in Boston where I work and where the Health and Human Rights editorial office is based. An independent country completely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho is home to almost two million people, most of whom…

Continue reading “One baby at a time: Saving children in Lesotho”