The Human Rights Forum seeks to advance the idea that human rights are an essential foundation of public health and to mainstream human rights in all spheres of public health practice.

Human rights are now held up as a modern guide for public health, a vision that all public health scholars and practitioners should uphold in their work.  Under this rights-based approach to health, public health practitioners have framed health disparities as “rights violations,” offering universal standards by which to frame government responsibilities and evaluate health outcomes.  These international human rights standards have been shown repeatedly to impact public health, restricting and emboldening government action to realize the highest attainable standard of health.  With human rights inextricably linked to the achievement of public health goals, a growing discipline has arisen in Health and Human Rights, examining the human right to health and interconnected rights to underlying determinants of health.

Climate change, the theme of this year’s APHA Annual Meeting, contributes a new sense of dynamism and urgency, introducing a new systemic dynamic to public health. Health organizations that merely react to community health needs will always be playing catch up. Even worse, climate change exacerbates health needs. It does so directly, by increasing the expanses of diseases or the prevalence of extreme weather, and indirectly, by contributing to conflict and migration when crops and other resources are disrupted. For each issue, certain populations are more vulnerable than others to experience worse health outcomes.

Abstracts should address issues that arise at the intersection of public health and human rights and should be designed to help attendees recognize and respond to human rights issues in public health practice. Addressing both the climate change theme and other pressing public health issues, abstracts may consider issues ranging from:

• A Rights-Based Approach to Global Health Governance
  
• Human Rights for Planetary Health & Climate Justice
  
• Indigenous Rights impacted by Climate Change & Extractive Industries
  
• Maternal mortality & Reproductive Rights in the United States
  
• Right to Health Advocacy in the United States
  
• The Right to Health of Refugees and Migrants
  

Abstracts must be submitted under one of the categories above. Certain categories are issue specific while others are understood broadly. All submissions must relate to human rights as a basis for public health. For more information please contact the program planner below.

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Ready?

Program Planner Contact Information:

Gabriel Armas-Cardona, J.D.
None
Arabkir 43rd St, 41/3
Yerevan,
Armenia
Phone: +37498620217
gabe.armas-cardona@nyu.edu