The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

4272.0: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - Board 1

Abstract #37585

A report card on health-related human rights

Dabney P Evans, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1525 Clifton Road, Office 108, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404-727-3061, devan01@sph.emory.edu and Alan R. Hinman, MD,, MPH, Task Force for Child Survival and Development, All Kids Count, 750 Commerce Drive, Suite 400, Decatur, GA 30030.

In recent years the reciprocal relationship between health and human rights has come to the forefront. Health is defined in the WHO Constitution and the “right to health” is explicitly defined in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as well as other documents in the human rights corpus. Gruskin and Tarantola identify the “development of monitoring tools reflecting both health and human rights concerns” as being one of the key elements in further developing the synergy of health and human rights.

Based on this recognized need, the researchers have developed a health and human rights report card. The researchers identified rights related to heath as specified in international human rights documents. Identified rights were then related to health indicators. These indicators serve as a proxy to the realization of rights. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was used as a covariate to recognize the “progressive realization of rights” by nation states with varying economic resources. Linear regression was used to develop a predicted outcome based on GDP and compared with the actual outcome. Data were analyzed on both the individual health indicator and aggregate level. The report card serves as an index of identified human right to health and the degree to which nation states have attained this right. Data are based on the 2001 World Development Indicators, which are self-reported data from nation states to the World Bank. Data are from the most recent available year and include 214 nation states.

Learning Objectives:

  • By the end of the session, participants should be able to

    Keywords: Human Rights, Report Card

    Presenting author's disclosure statement:
    I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

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    The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA