Anatomy of a health and human rights movement: Empowering medical and public health students to be leaders in international health policy

From AIDS to Darfur, students are at the vanguard of international health advocacy. Physicians for Human Rights' National Student Program (PHR) is indispensable to cultivating student leadership in the global fight for the right to health. The National Student Program, with 3,800 members representing 66 medical and public health school chapters nationwide, provides a unique model of education and advocacy to amplify students' power as international health advocates.

Training and Education: PHR trains roughly 200 student leaders in human rights and advocacy at Regional Advocacy Institutes every fall, and amplifies this outreach at our annual National Student Conference. Nationwide, chapters organize panel discussions, film screenings and more in their communities.

National Actions: PHR offers students the opportunity to participate in four national actions every year so they can provide a united voice for international health policy. These include coordinated action on World AIDS Day and a Global Health Week of Action. More than 7,000 students took action in 2008.

Advancing the Paradigm of Medicine to Embrace Human Rights: PHR also works with student chapters to advocate for human rights to be taught as part of medical and public health curriculum, which promotes strong international health advocacy.

Impact of PHR's Student Program: Students are critical to PHR's policy success. Since 2007, PHR student members have run campaigns to help secure $48 billion for global health programs, lift the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs, end the HIV Travel Ban, advance accountability mechanisms for torture by U.S. forces, and more.