Human Rights Forum’s goal is to advance the idea that universal 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, health disparities can be understood as universal rights violations. Therefore, finding ways to empower the disenfranchised populations of society is a key component of this approach to public health research and practice.  The right to health provides a normative framework with universal standards to articulate government responsibilities and evaluate health outcomes; empirical evidence supports the assertion that the existence of the right leads to positive health outcomes.

The theme of this year’s APHA Annual Meeting focuses on violence prevention as a public health concern. Violence has unfortunately been a part of the human experience since the beginning. It is manifested throughout diverse societal levels—intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional and systematic. Violence knows no boundaries, it crosses all personal characteristics such as age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality and citizenship. The range of negative health outcomes connected to violence are numerous and egregious. Some of these outcomes encompass: homicide, suicide, injuries, disability, chronic diseases, infectious diseases, physical injuries, mental illness, and marginalization. Millions of lives are lost yearly due to the different types of violence experienced throughout the world. It is therefore an urgent high call to intervene and prevent violence in all of its forms. Thus, the Human Rights Forum seeks to provide space for intersectional perspectives, discoveries, evidence-based practices, and accomplishments that seek the protection of universal human rights. Therefore, the Human Rights Forum encourages input from all types of experts whose work affects public health and human rights protection.

• Creative Solutions to End Human Rights Abuses through the Intersections of Human Rights, Law, and Multi-Disciplinary Collaborations
  The Public Health community constantly finds itself searching for creative solutions to the endless challenges. Innovation, thinking critically, collaborative work and an acutely understanding of populations served are essential tools and strategies needed to move society closer to the realization of human rights obligations. Previous public health efforts demonstrated that multisectoral response is required to tackle complex issues. Therefore, the collaboration among various disciplines including law, human rights and other key fields such as medicine, social work, psychology, environmental engineering, architecture just to mention a few, is essential to reduce pressing human rights in our local and global communities. We invite abstracts that illustrate multidisciplinary work and creative solutions in addressing human rights issues where human rights, law, and other disciplines intersect.
• Human Rights Approaches to Gender-Based Violence: Challenges and Success in the 21^st Century.
  Gender-based violence is recognized as a public health issue worldwide and is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. Despite the efforts of the international leading entities, gender-based violence is still pervasive and systemic across the globe. Forms of gender-based violence may include intimate partner violence/domestic violence, rape, incest, sex trafficking, sexual harassment in the workplace and in educational institutions, reproductive coercion, violence against imprisoned women, and violence against displaced refugees—minors and adults. This session aims to provide a platform to discuss the challenges faced by communities and states as well as collective actions illustrating the progress made on the elimination of gender-based violence through success stories from a human rights perspective.
• Prevention of Human Rights Violations As Outcomes of Structural Violence and Social Inequalities
  This topic recognizes that violence extends beyond personal or proximate level violence and that the forms of violence such as systematic and structural violence is a significant form of violence. Structural violence refers to the invisible manifestation of violence or any harm that is rooted in the political and economic organization of the society that forms and preserves inequalities within and between various social groups, gender, and ethnic-cultural groups. Structural violence is invisible and has an indirect effect expressing itself in a range of factors including unequal access to goods and services, unemployment, exploitation, etc. This session will bring attention to the violence and inequalities at the macro level and how they impact the societies, communities, and individuals by applying the human rights lens to these issues. This session welcomes abstracts representing both global and national studies.
• Protection and Empowerment of Universal Human Rights Among Vulnerable Populations.
  This topic is related to the theme of the Annual Meeting. Research and practice demonstrate that unless there is protection through laws, policies, cultural norms, and regulations at multiple levels of society, vulnerable populations will continue to experience human rights violations and violence. Yet, even when rules and regulations are in place, empowerment of those who have experienced cycles of violence and abuse throughout generations require populations to learn how to utilize their universal human rights protections to make their voices heard and collaboratively move closer to restoration and wellbeing. Therefore, establishing protective mechanisms and self-advocacy to vulnerable groups are both essential components in creating healthier communities across the United States and the world.
• Utilizing Human Rights Framework as a Foundation for the Elimination of Violence and Health Disparities.
  This session devotes special attention to the intersection of health disparities, violence, and human rights. In recent years, the field of health disparities has extended its attention in the inclusion of sex, age, socioeconomic status, rural/urban populations, and gender identification into its analysis and application. This session aims to assemble studies that discuss how health disparities intersect with violence such as hate crime, gun violence, policy brutality, forceful displacement and so forth and to propose the human rights framework as a potential solution to the current challenges.

Abstracts must be submitted under one of the categories above. All submissions must relate to human rights as a basis for public health. Abstracts are limited to 250 words. Referral to web pages or URLs may not be used for abstracts. An author may not submit the same abstract to more than one Section, SPIG, Caucus or other Forum of the APHA. Oral presentations are generally 13-15 minutes in length, with 4 presenters per session being standard. Those presenting posters should display and be available to answer questions throughout the scheduled 60-minute poster session. If you have any questions, please contact the Co-Chairs Programming Officers.

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Ready?

Program Planner Contact Information:

Arduizur Carli Richie-Zavaleta, DrPH, MASP, MAIPS
College of Gradutate & Professional Studies-Public Health
University of New England
716 Stevens Avenue
Portland, ME 04103
Phone: 760-310-4426
arichiezavaleta@gmail.com

and
Sarbinaz Bekmuratova, PhD
Occupational Therapy
Creighton University
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178
Phone: 4027397626
sarbinazbekmuratova@creighton.edu