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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Alicia Ely Yamin, JD MPH, Director, Research and Investigations, Physicians for Human Rights, 2 Arrow Street, Suite 301, Cambridge, MA 02138, 617-301-4213, ayamin@phrusa.org

Conflicts, whether acute or chronic, have deep and often unrecognized impacts on population health. The right to health can be a tool both in analyzing these impacts and a strategy for ameliorating them. This presentation will use case examples to demonstrate the relationship of conflict and the right to health.

In addition to direct impacts of violence, situations of chronic conflict undermine the right to health both by undermining health systems and by fragmenting communities, which in turn often cannot function collectively to address health concerns. Governmental responses to situations of chronic conflict can exacerbate exclusion and discrimination against certain minorities and marginalized groups. A rights-based approach to health goes beyond providing a package of services to displaced or conflict-affected communities. On the contrary, rights-based approaches, while contextually-driven, comprise certain critical elements, including: (1) non-discrimination and equality, including attention to gender equality and marginalized or excluded groups; (2) meaningful popular participation by those affected by health policy-making and programming; (3) accountability and access to effective remedies in the event of violations; and (4) multi-sectoral strategies to health that include education, housing, water and sanitation, and work. A human rights approach links campaigns for improved health with broader questions of democracy, social equality and non-discrimination that relate to the full spectrum of rights set out in international instruments and considers cross-cutting issues that underlie many situations of chronic conflict.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify specific ways in which a right to health framework can guide health policy-making and programming in contexts of chronic conflict.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation