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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Jennifer Kasper, MD, MPH, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Arizona, PO Box 245052, Tucson, AZ 85724-5052, 520-626-7962, jkasper66@yahoo.com, Timothy Holtz, MD, MPH, Doctors for Global Health, PO Box 1761, Decatur, GA 30031, and Clyde L. Smith, MD, MPH, DTM&H, Depts of Medicine and Family and Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 3544 Jerome Ave, Bronx, NY 10467.

Since its formation in 1995, Doctors for Global Health (DGH) has endeavored to apply human rights principles in all aspects of our community health work. Our principles are derived from the WHO Charter, Declaration of Alma Ata, and contemporary scholarship of Jonathan Mann. We operationalize inextricable link between health and human rights through practice of “liberation medicine,” defined as conscious and conscientious use of health to promote social justice and human dignity. We pay particular attention to disparities that exist between national data and local people we serve. Violations of social, cultural and economic rights worsen their health and well-being. Our advocacy efforts occur on multiple levels: individual, community, national, and international. Over the past decade, we have advocated for the right to health, the right to adequate standard of living (e.g. food, clothing, shelter, education, and economic opportunities), and right to development in following ways: accompanied hundreds of communities in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Argentina, Uganda; helped train hundreds of health promoters; helped people finish their formal education; assisted communities with cooperative and microenterprise projects; constructed clinics, daycare centers; and supported formation of local non-governmental organizations. In US, we advocate for policies that promote human rights both in countries where we work and in world at large. We follow specific guidelines regarding foundation, corporate, and pharmaceutical company support that reflect our principles. We strike balance between when to accompany (in relative silence) and when to give testimony. We work closely with People's Health Movement to promote human rights internationally.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain knowledge of Doctors for Global Health.
• Understand accompaniment and liberation medicine in the context of the work of Doctors for Global Health.
• Understand how DGH advocates on individual, community, national, and international levels.

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Human Rights

Related Web page: www.dghonline.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No