Introduction

Note: if you want to gain a certificate for completing this course, you will have to create an account and log in as a student.

This course is self-paced to work through in your own time, and provides a context and set of resources to enable readers to be able to understand the importance of Human Rights to Public Health. We will present this through a general introduction to the subject and examples of areas where the relationship is particularly important or vulnerable - humanitarian crises, reproductive health, universal health care and the provision of health services, as well as introducing some of the legal aspects of Human Rights. The course is relevant to all, but in particular those with interests in global health. It was originally developed for the Peoples-uni Open Online Courses site.

Setting the scene.

We can do no better than quote Jonathan Mann who, in 1996 in Medicine and Public Health, Ethics and Human Rights, said: "There is more to modern health than new scientific discoveries, the development of new technologies, or emerging or re-emerging diseases. World events and experiences, such as the AIDS epidemic and the humanitarian emergencies in Bosnia and Rwanda, have made this evident by creating new relationships among medicine, public health, ethics, and human rights. Each domain has seeped into the other, making allies of public health and human rights, pressing the need for an ethics of public health, and revealing the rights-related responsibilities of physicians and other health care workers." (Note: the link to the paper quoted here shows the abstract only - you will have to pay to read it all. A strange concept for a publication about ethics and human rights!)

As chronicled in 70 years of human rights in global health: drawing on a contentious past to secure a hopeful future, "the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted on Dec 10, 1948, established a modern human rights foundation that has become a cornerstone of global health, central to public health policies, programmes, and practices...In 2018, WHO revitalised its commitment to a rights-based approach to health. The 13th General Programme of Work, WHO's 5-year strategy, calls for leadership on equity, gender, and human rights to achieve its 3 billion objective: 1 billion more people accessing UHC, 1 billion more people protected from health emergencies, and 1 billion more people enjoying better health and wellbeing."

It is also worth, as an introduction, reading Editorial: Making the Case: What Is the Evidence of Impact of Applying Human Rights-Based Approaches to Health? "In 2003, the United Nations (UN) outlined the pillars of an HRBA (human rights-based approach) to development, which include universality and inalienability, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness, non-discrimination and equality, participation and inclusion, and accountability and the rule of law.¹ Since then, leaders from national governments and UN agencies have repeatedly emphasized the need to operationalize human rights and incorporate them into the implementation of policies, programs, projects, and other health-related interventions with a view to enhancing effectiveness."

How to navigate the course

Each Topic has a short introduction, a set of resources and a forum for reflection. You will see various hyperlinks - click on them to take you either to the resources page or to the linked resources themselves. If you want to post your reflections, please do so - you will receive email copies of posts from those who post after you  and can engage in a discussion through the forum if you wish.

You can earn a certificate if you access the resource pages and post a reflection in each section and pass the quiz at the end.

This course has been developed by Professor Richard Heller, with advice from Dr Claudio Schuftan, Ms Annabel Raw, and Mr Carol Ngang.