The Human Rights Forum of the American Public Health Association (APHA) seeks abstracts for the 2026 APHA Annual Meeting and Expo, to be held in San Antonio, TX, November 1–4, 2026.

Human rights provide a foundational framework for public health. A rights-based approach recognizes that health inequities are often the result of political, structural, social, and environmental conditions that produce unequal opportunities for health across the lifespan. Understanding these disparities as rights violations expands how we identify root causes, evaluate accountability, and design interventions. This framework also highlights the role of participation, equity, collective action, and shared power in advancing public health.

A right-to-health perspective encourages evidence-informed strategies that strengthen systems, improve access to services, and promote dignity and well-being for all communities. It also supports community-driven resilience, cross-sector collaboration, and data-informed policies that respond to systemic harms and lived experiences.

The Human Rights Forum welcomes abstracts that deepen understanding of these intersections between public health and human rights, illuminating the mechanisms that create inequities and the strategies that advance justice, health, and human dignity across the lifespan.

• Analyzing Artificial Intelligence through the Human Rights Lens
  This topic examines how emerging AI technologies influence Ethics, Equity, and Public Health, exploring Challenges like autonomy, privacy, surveillance, discrimination, and human rights protections within public health systems.
• Approaches to political inclusion, civic participation, and community empowerment through the human rights framework
  The session examines how political participation, civic engagement, and governance shape health and human rights across communities and populations.
• Education as a human right
  Education as a human right: Challenges within the Educational System and its Impacts on Equity and Wellbeing
• Females within the Correctional System in the United States
  Women and Girls within the Correctional System–An Analysis of Policies, Practices and Solutions.
• Health and vulnerable populations
  Health and vulnerable populations: Human Rights-based approaches to clinical care, access, and structural inequities
• Immigration–Current Crisis, Challenges and Vulnerabilities
  Dismantled Protection, Increasing Vulnerabilities–Analyzing Immigration Policies through the framework of Human Rights.

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. Referrals 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 another forum of the APHA. Oral presentations are generally 13–15 minutes in length, with four 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. 

1. Structural abstract format (suitable for abstracts on scientific research):

• Background
• Human Rights Framework
• Objectives
• Methods
• Results
• Conclusions

2. Alternative format (suitable for abstracts about policy, programs, interventions, and other types of research evaluations): 

• Background
• Human Rights Framework
• Description
• Results or Lessons Learned
• Recommendations