Recommended Reading

Books

Health and Human Rights: A Reader [7], Jonathan Mann, Michael A. Grodin, Sofia Gruskin, and George J. Annas.  (1999)

Perspectives on Health and Human Rights [8], Sofia Gruskin, Michael A. Grodin, George J. Annas, and Stephen P. Marks.  (2005)

These texts are often used in health and human rights courses.  Both are comprehensive anthologies of foundational essays on health and human rights, and examine issues from ethnic cleansing to women’s reproductive rights.

[9]The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire [6], Khassan Baiev and Ruth Daniloff. Dr. Baiev was caught in the the struggle between Chechnya and Russia. Regardless of their nationality or whether civilian or military, he treated everybody under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.  Considered a traitor to both sides, he was called a “bandit-doctor” (for treating Chechens) and a “pig-doctor” (for treating Russians). For years, PHR has worked to protect Colleagues at Risk [5] – clinicians who are targeted for adhering to their Hippocratic Oath, despite the political situation.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down [1], Anne Fadiman. Described by various PHR staff as “fantastic,” “riveting,” and “devastating and totally addictive,” this describes the clash of two cultures over a child’s health. Anne Fadiman writes with the insight of an anthropologist and the compassion of a friend. I worked with refugees for years, and I also saw heartbreaking conflict between people who each had a patient’s best interests at heart, but had very different beliefs about illness and health.

Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health [2], Laurie Garrett.  As in another of Garrett’s massive tomes, The Coming Plague, Garrett uses investigative reporting to analyze public health preparedness.

The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo [3], Clea Koff. Koff takes the reader inside her life as a forensic anthropologist to see what it’s like to excavate mass graves and build evidence of human rights violations. PHR’s International Forensic Program [4] relies on these skills in Afghanistan, Central America, and elsewhere.

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals [10], Jane Mayer. This dramatic narrative reveals the decisions behind the controversial excesses of the war on terror and considers the impact of these choices. For more background and an update, visit PHR’sreports [11]on torture of US detainees.

PHR Reports

From Persecution to Prison: The Health Consequences of Detention for Asylum Seekers [17]. Asylum seekers who come to the U.S. to escape torture, persecution, violence or abuse are often locked up in inhuman conditions. PHR conducted the first systematic and comprehensive study about the impact of detention on asylum seekers’ mental health.

Achieving the MDGs by Investing in Human Resources for Health [18] and The Right to Health and Health Workforce Planning [19]. Access to healthcare depends in large part on the ability and distribution of a country’s health workforce. Investments that sidestep the training, payment and supervision of healthcare workers do not build the overall health system.

Stateless and Starving: Persecuted Rohingya Flee Burma and Starve in Bangladesh [16]. In recent months Bangladeshi authorities have waged an unprecedented campaign of arbitrary arrest, illegal expulsion and forced internment against Burmese refugees. In this emergency report, PHR presents new data and documents dire conditions for these persecuted Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. PHR’s medical investigators warn that critical levels of acute malnutrition and a surging camp population without access to food aid will cause more deaths from starvation and disease if the humanitarian crisis is not addressed.

Articles

Health and Human Rights [15] is published by the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. The original editor-in-chief was Jonathan Mann, succeed by Sofia Gruskin and then Paul Farmer, all pioneers in the field. By posing the question, “What is a rights-based approach to health and why should we care?” this issue began a series that dealt with fundamental concepts regarding health as a human right.  Subsequent issues tackle accountability (10:2), participation (11:1), and non-discrimination and equality (11:2). The series concludes with the most recent issue on international assistance and cooperation, edited by Jennifer Leaning, the new FXB director and a former PHR Board member. All material is freely available online.

Health and Human Rights Education in U.S. Schools of Medicine and Public Health: Current Status and Future Challenges [12], L. Emily Cotter et al.  PHR’s Senior Medical Advisor Vince Iacopino and the other authors evaluated obstacles to health and human rights education at schools of medicine and public health across the country.

Health and Human Rights [13], Jonathan Mann et al. A close look at the complementary ways that health and human rights define and advance human well-being:

• The Impact of Health Policies, Programs and Practices on Human Rights
• Health Impacts Resulting from Violations of Human Rights
• The Inextricable Linkage Between Health and Human Rights

The Challenge of Global Health [14], Laurie Garrett. Garrett’s critique of misdirected investment in global health got a strong reaction from the media and the global health establishment. Don’t miss the exchange [20] between Paul Farmer and Laurie Garrett. Although the funding and policy environment has evolved since this was published, it’s a glimpse of a critical moment in global health.