Appendix D. The Social Medicine, Community Health, and Human Rights Curriculum

The Health Equity Network of the Americas (HENA) is a multidisciplinary network that promotes knowledge sharing and intersectoral action for equity in health and human rights in the Americas. The objectives of HENA are: 1) to share successful experiences in the development of interventions, considering the social determinants and determination of health, to achieve participatory and community-based health responses; 2) to analyze the health, social, political, environmental and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; 3) to identify the effects of pandemic care on populations most at risk because of their age and pre-existing health conditions; 4) examine the situation at borders and population movements in the spread of the pandemic and its effects on migrant populations; 5) propose strategies to ensure access to comprehensive care for pregnant women in order to reduce maternal and neonatal suffering, morbidity, and mortality; and 6) analyze violations of human rights and the right to health of historically marginalized populations, including street dwellers and other communities that depend on public spaces and the street for survival. The analytical and intervention models for health equity at HENA are based on various approaches, including social medicine, social epidemiology, medical anthropology, human ecology, and One Health.

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COVID-19—The Case for Rethinking Health and Human Rights in Prisons

American Journal of Public Health ◽

10.2105/ajph.2021.306170 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. e1-e5

Author(s):

Jörg Pont ◽

Stefan Enggist ◽

Heino Stöver ◽

Stéphanie Baggio ◽

Laurent Gétaz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Human Rights ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Infection Control ◽

Community Health ◽

Health Risks ◽

Small Proportion ◽

Public Health Emergency ◽

Health And Human Rights ◽

Detention Centers

This article considers health and human rights implications for people deprived of liberty during the COVID-19 crisis. The health risks of incarceration for individual and community health, particularly in overcrowded and underresourced prisons and detention centers, are well known, but with the COVID-19 pandemic have become a public health emergency. Physical distancing in prisons is hardly manageable, and protective means are poor or lacking. Emergency releases have been shown to be feasible in terms of public safety but lack sustainability in reducing the number of people living in detention, and, globally, only a small proportion of them have been released. Without controlling the infection inside prisons, global efforts to tackle the spread of the disease may fail. People living in detention are not only more vulnerable to infection with COVID-19 but they are also especially vulnerable to human rights violations induced by inappropriate restrictions under the pretext of infection control. Therefore, alternatives for detention should be promoted and the number of incarcerated people radically decreased. This article calls on policymakers and all professionals involved in public health and criminal justice not to waste the opportunities provided by the crisis but to act now. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print April 15, 2021: e1–e5. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306170 )

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Grass Roots Promotion of Community Health and Human Rights for People with Disabilities in Post-communist Central Europe: A profile of the Slovak Republic

Disability & Society ◽

10.1080/0968759032000052798 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 133-143 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

DANIEL HOLLAND

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Community Health ◽

Central Europe ◽

Slovak Republic ◽

People With Disabilities ◽

Health And Human Rights ◽

Grass Roots

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Struggles for Human Rights in Health in an Age of Neoliberalism: From Civil Disobedience to Epistemic Disobedience

Journal of Human Rights Practice ◽

10.1093/jhuman/huz026 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 357-372

Author(s):

Alicia Ely Yamin

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Social Construction ◽

Inflection Point ◽

Civil Disobedience ◽

Well Being ◽

The Political ◽

Special Issue ◽

Health And Human Rights ◽

The Social ◽

Health And Well Being

Abstract Like other contributors to this special issue and beyond, I believe we are at a critical inflection point in human rights and need to re-energize our work broadly to address growing economic inequality as well as inequalities based on different axes of identity. In relation to the constellation of fields involved in ‘health and human rights’ specifically—which link distinct communities with dissonant values, methods and orthodoxies—I argue that we also need to challenge ideas that are taken for granted in the fields that we are trying to transform. After setting out a personal and subjective account of why human rights-based approaches (HRBAs) are unlikely to be meaningful tools for social change as they are now generally being deployed, I suggest we collectively—scholars, practitioners and advocates—need to grapple with how to think about: (1) biomedicine in relation to the social as well as biological nature of health and well-being; and (2) conventional public health in relation to the social construction of health within and across borders and health systems. In each case, I suggest that challenging accepted truths in different disciplines, and in turn in the political economy of global health, have dramatic implications for not just theory but informing different strategies for advancing health (and social) justice through rights in practice.

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Training medical students in human rights: a fifteen-year experience in Geneva

Canadian Medical Education Journal ◽

10.36834/cmej.36595 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. e151-e158

Author(s):

Philippe Chastonay ◽

Véronique Zesiger ◽

Jackeline Ferreira ◽

Emmanuel Kabengele Mpinga

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Social Inequalities ◽

Vulnerable Groups ◽

Community Impact ◽

Health And Human Rights ◽

High Satisfaction ◽

The Social ◽

Community Projects

Background: Training health professionals in the field of human rights has long been advocated by the United Nations. Over the past decade some medical schools have introduced health and human rights courses, yet by far not all. This paper describes the objectives and the content of the Health and Human Rights program developed at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva. Methods: The health and human rights program was developed through the identification of the course objectives, contents, and educational modalities using consensus techniques, and through a step by step implementation procedure integrating multiple evaluation processes. Results: Defined objectives included the familiarization with the concepts, instruments and mechanisms of human rights, the links between health and human rights, and the role of health professionals in promoting human rights. The content ultimately adopted focused on the typology of human rights, their mechanisms of protection, their instruments, as well as social inequalities and vulnerable groups of the population. The implementation proceeded through a step by step approach. Evaluation showed high satisfaction of students, good achievement of learning objectives, and some academic and community impact. Conclusions: High interest of students for a human rights course is encouraging. Furthermore, the community projects initiated and implemented by students may contribute to the social responsibility of the academic institution.

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