PHA-Exchange> Health & Human Rights Conference - Call for Abstracts

[Claudio]

From: Raskin, Sarah [mailto:cuv7 at cdc.gov] 
 

Lessons Learned from Rights Based Approaches to Health


Emory University Conference Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA - April 14-16, 2005

 

Website: http://humanrights.emory.edu

 

The Institute of Human Rights of Emory University, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), CARE USA, the Carter Center human rights office, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Doctors for Global Health, proudly announce an international conference on health and human rights.  Titled, Lessons Learned from Rights Based Approaches to Health, the conference will explore evidence-based relationships between health and human rights.  Featured speakers include former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health Paul Hunt, along with other leaders in the fields of health and human rights.

 

Conference Background
The highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being, incorporated in Article 12 in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  Poverty, inequity, civil conflict, discrimination and violence are all factors in denial of the basic rights of individuals and groups - and also constitute significant barriers to their achievement of health and well-being.  Scholars and practitioners in the growing field of health and human rights recognize three main areas of theory and practice which, when applied to policy and programs in the field, can result in "advancing human well-being beyond what could be achieved through an isolated health or human rights-based approach."[1][1] 

 

These three major linkages between health and human rights are: (a) the impact, both positive and negative, of public health policies and practice on human rights, (b) the recognition and assessment of the impact of human rights violations on health and well-being, and (c) the proposition that the promotion and protection of health is fundamentally linked to the promotion and protection of human rights.[2][2]  Abstracts about other explicit linkages between health and human rights are encouraged as well.  

 

In embracing a rights-based approach to development programming, conference partner organizations are committed to using theoretical frameworks and practical experiences from the health and human rights field to strengthen the effectiveness of our own health interventions.  The host organizations' portfolio of programs includes interventions in social determinants of health, HIV/AIDS, economic development and globalization, children's health, reproductive health, mental health, infectious disease, violence, and refugee and internally displaced populations in more than 60 countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.  In taking a rights-based approach to design and implementation of programs, sponsoring and participating organizations and individuals have the potential to make a substantive contribution to the growing body of practical work in rights-based approaches to health.  

 

In order to advance the dialogue among public health and human rights practitioners, activists and scholars, a group of Atlanta-based organizations have joined together to organize and sponsor the International Conference on Health and Human Rights.  Along with the sponsor and co-sponsors of the conference, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and the Health and Human Rights Strategy Unit within the Office of the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva have indicated their support and enthusiasm for the conference.  

 

Goals

The conference will focus on examples of successful and promising rights-based health programming, research, and advocacy.  Conference plenary, panel and roundtable sessions will emphasize linkages between human rights theory and health practice.  Specific conference goals include:

·         Sharing evidence-based models of rights based approaches to health, with a special emphasis on case studies and field examples 

·         Building awareness on and capacity for rights based approaches to health programming 

·         Facilitating networking and collaborating opportunities among professionals 

·         Advancing rights based health agendas from basic awareness to evidence-based practice 

 

Participants

The primary audience for the conference will include public health and development professionals who have, at minimum, a basic understanding of relationships between health and human rights.  The conference proceedings will benefit middle and senior level program managers, as well as community level practitioners, from the public, non-governmental and private sectors.  

 

Call for Abstracts

Conference cosponsors are pleased to invite individuals to submit abstracts within the conference theme of Lessons Learned from Rights Based Approaches to Health.  Each proposal must explicitly outline its relevance to health, to human rights, and to the interrelationship between the topics.  Although evidence-based lessons learned (i.e. case studies and field examples) are of particular interest to the selection committee, a diverse array of abstracts will be accepted for presentation.  Examples of acceptable abstracts include research and program frameworks, assessment strategies, methodologies, curricula and evaluation programs.  

 

Conference Topics

The conference panels will be organized around the following health topics.  When submitting your abstract proposal, please specify which of the following topics it fits within:

 

      Children's Health

      Conflict & War

      Economic Development & Globalization

      Education

      HIV/AIDS

      Humanitarian Aid

      Infectious Disease

      Mental Health

      Nutrition

      Other
     Poverty & Other Social Determinants of Health

      Racism & Other Systems of Injustice

      Refugee & Internally Displaced Populations

      Reparations for Human Rights Abuses

      Sexual & Gender Minorities

      Sexual & Reproductive Health

      Violence

      Water & Sanitation
     

  

Sarah Raskin, MPH -- cuv7 at cdc.gov - 



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