Health and Human Rights

The Harvard School of Public Health is offering an “Intensive Course on Health and Human Rights: Concepts, Implementation, and Impact” from June 10 – 13, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Learning objectives of the course are to:

• “Understand the principles and links between health and human rights in programs, policies, and organizational strategy
• Apply human rights-based frameworks, tools, and methods to participants’ fields of practice
• Evaluate existing health-related policies, programs, and legal instruments through rights-based approaches
• Mobilize colleagues, communities, and resources to achieve positive change by influencing health-related decision-making”

Individuals can register for the course here. More information can be found about the course, specific topics, and faculty here.

The 2013 North American Refugee Health Conference will be held June 6 – 8, 2013 in Toronto, Canada. The conference is focused on themes included infectious diseases (tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, etc), mental health (post traumatic stress disorder), nutrition, refugee perspectives, and many others.

The conference committee states, “Building on the momentum of the Canadian Refugee Health Conference held in 2011, health professionals and experts from many disciplines will meet to discuss the best health practices, challenges for optimal care, research and advocacy for the refugee patient population.”

Registration can be completed here, and for information email info-INT333@cepdtoronto.ca .

This list of poster sessions and schedule for the conference can be found here.

The Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma is offering a certificate in global mental health: trauma and recovery. The course will last six months with two weeks in Italy from November 10 – 23, 2013 and five months of online training from December 2013 to May 2014. This course is taught by international faculty and world-renowned experts in global mental health.  

The brochure for the coure can be viewed here, and the application deadline is July 1, 2013. 

The 5th World Congress on Women’s Mental Health will be held in Lima, Peru on March 4 – 7, 2013. Even though this is not for some months, the deadline to submit abstracts is fast approaching on September 4, 2012. Also, registration can be done early in order to ensure a spot at the conference. Some keynote speakers will be addressing topics such as the “Impact of Globalization on Women’s Rights to Mental Health”, “Gender Based Violence”, and “Empowerment of Women and Mental Health Promotion”.

More information about the conference can be found here as well as the registration link here.

The Human Rights Education Associates and Human Rights Centre of the UN Mandated University for Peace have come together to organize an online certificate e-course in Health and Human Rights. One of the main goals of the program is to bring people of different perspectives together to understand the link between health and human rights along with the challenges associated with this connection. The online certificate course is about 40 hours of interactions with other students and instructors on discussion boards, readings, quizzes, and webinars. Applications are due APRIL 30th and can be found here. The cost of the course is $435 USD and will receive a certificate when the course is completed successfully. For more information about the structure of the course content and goals, more information can be found here.

The 7th International Psychological Trauma Symposium will be held at Bilgi University in Istanbul, Turkey from November 30- December 2, 2012. The theme of this year’s symposium is Social Trauma: Consequences and Coping Methods. Some general topics that will be discussed at the symposium include immigration/forced internal migration, social trauma and a conceptual framework, forensic report processes and mental state in traumatic cases, as well as many others.

This conference connects to the themes of health and human rights as torture, social discrimination, and trauma cause not only physical harm but also psychological. Assessing psychological trauma is just as important as understanding the physical symptoms of trauma or torture. A unique aspect of this symposium is that it brings together both professionals and people affected by trauma and human rights abuses.

The symposium is held once every couple of year and described as an “International Capacity Building Workshops and Conference on Health and Human Rights is a four day distinctive event created by ISHHR to bring together health specialists, human rights advocates, social workers and other professionals that work to eliminate gross human rights violations and assist affected people all around the world. Participants share knowledge on how to combat the effects of trauma, torture and human rights abuses on mental health and gain new skills.”

Click here for more information about the conference and how to register.

The Health Sector Reform: Applying Human Rights Based Approaches conference, held at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, seeks to apply the human rights based approaches to reforms in the health sector. This conference will be held Monday July 16 – Friday July 20, 2012. Some of the goals and skills of the conference are promoting the human rights based approach in design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of programs, case studies of specific groups, and discussing the right to health as well as the relationship between different sectors with health.

This conference is aimed at a variety of people from different sectors such as law, consultants, state actors, non-state actors, healthcare professionals, as well as many others. The application deadline is  May 21, 2012, and limited numbers of scholarships are available. For more information regarding the conference and its goals, click here.