Activities
July–September 2001
Executive
Summary
The
third quarter of 2001 ended with massive loss of life and a national
trauma resulting from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon and on the sense of security of people living in the
United States. Center staff grieved the losses and contributed to Harvard's
efforts to console and explain. As usual, this report will first cover
the core activities in education, training, collaboration, and information
before outlining salient events under each of the three programs during
the third quarter of 2001.
Core
Activities
Education and Training
At Harvard
In this period, Professor Sofia Gruskin began teaching Health and
Human Rights: Concepts and Methods in Public Health. Twenty-five students
have registered for the course. Hannah Cooper will now serve as the
teaching assistant in the course.
Intensive Course on Health and Human Rights
On September 25, Professors Stephen Marks, Jennifer Leaning, and Sofia
Gruskin, as well as Ms. Pippa Amick, attended a post-course evaluation
meeting with the Continuing Professional Education program director
and staff. Of the 51 participants, 38 completed course evaluations (a
75% response rate). In general, participants responded with enthusiasm
about the course. The facilities, administration, and the case-study
approach were all rated very highly. Suggested improvements included
increasing the number of interactive case-study sessions.
Beyond Harvard
Presentations/Guest Lectures
Professor Marks delivered a paper on the international law of species-altering
technology and chaired a plenary panel for "Beyond Cloning: Species
Altering Technology," a conference held at Boston University on September
21 and 22.
On July 25,
Professor Leaning gave a one-day presentation on human security at the
HELP/ICRC (Health Emergencies in Large Populations/International Committee
of the Red Cross) course at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in
Baltimore, MD. And on August 1, Professor Leaning gave a one-day presentation
on human rights and medical ethics in relief work at the HELP/ICRC course
at the University of Hawaii, John Burns School of Medicine, at the Tripler
Army Base in Honolulu.
Professor
Gruskin was invited to give a keynote address at the opening plenary
session of the annual conference on the International Union for Health
Promotion and Education, held from July 16 through 20 in Paris. Her
talk (to be published in the International Unions Policy Journal)
focused on the relationship between ethics and human rights and the
implication of the work of each for health promotion activities in the
future. Professor Gruskin also participated in a "Meet the Experts"
roundtable, which prompted an informative dialogue with conference participants.
Two thousand experts in health promotion from around the world attended
this conference. On August 17, Professor Gruskin presented the academic
seminar at Wits University in Johannesburg South Africa. The seminar
"The UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS: Was it Good for
Human Rights?" was attended by faculty, researchers, and public health
specialists and generated discussion on the implications of the special
session for the future of HIV/AIDS policy and programs within South
Africa.
FXB Center
Collaborations and Partnerships
With NGOs and Other Institutions
Consortium
for Health and Human Rights
The Consortium, comprising the FXB Center, Physicians for Human Rights,
and Global Lawyers and Physicians for Human Rights, met once during
this period (on July 24, 2001). Professor Marks attended on behalf of
the Center. In partnership with the Consortium, FXBC continued its compilation
of an updated international list of health and human rights courses
and syllabi, for Web and possible print publication. During this period,
the initial research was completed and final editing began.
International
Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
Professor Marks continued to coordinate the New York operation of this
Geneva-based NGO and act as its representative to the UN, delegating
the representation functions to the Deputy Representative in New York.
During this period, he coordinated the creation of an office across
from the UN, which provides a useful setting for the FXB Center when
at the UN.
Albert Einstein
Institution
In his capacity as a board member of the Albert Einstein Institution,
Professor Marks participated in several discussions regarding the future
of the organization. Professor Marks continued to act as treasurer and
help with the transition to new leadership and also participated in
board meetings on August 30 and September 17.
Carnegie Council
on Ethics in International Affairs
As a member of the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Initiative
of the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs, Professor
Marks is active in integrating health and human rights concerns into
this project. In addition to proposing an issue of the initiative's
publication, Human Rights Dialogue, on health and human rights
and suggesting authors for it, he contributed an article. (See below
under "Publications.")
American Bar
Association Subcommittee on Children's Rights
Dr. Mindy Roseman was invited to join this subcommittee.
Justice in Times
of Transition
Professor Marks participated in a meeting of Justice in Times of Transition
at the United Nations Association in New York on July 12, 2001.
At HSPH and Harvard
Faculty Affairs
Professor Marks met on several occasions with representatives from Harvard
Medical School to discuss ways to collaborate with the FXB Center.
Professor
Leaning continued to chair the Harvard University Student Health Coordinating
Board and also serves on the PIH MS Committee. In this period, HSPH
faculty discussed the possible creation of a formal curriculum on international
health policy. One of the six clusters in such a curriculum would be
human rights; others included humanitarian crises and reproductive health.
Professor Gruskin continued to serve on the HSPH Human Subjects Committee,
which involved substantial work as new policies and procedures for both
the functioning of the committee and for receiving approval to work
with human subjects are put into place. Professor Gruskin also attended
the two-day retreat for all junior faculty within HSPH. The meeting
brought together people from every department in the school and led
to discussions about potential avenues in future collaboration as well
as opportunities for mutual support in relation to career development.
Professor
Marks continued to be active on this committee. He and two committee
colleagues, Anthony Appia and Andrew Moravcsik, began developing ideas
for undergraduate education in human rights and for grant recommendations
on human rights research through a competitive process open to the Harvard
community.
HSPH Working
Group on Women, Gender and Health
The HSPH Working Group on Women, Gender, and Health continued to meet
monthly to discuss ways to foster the advancement of these issues at
HSPH. Professor Gruskin, Nancy Krieger, and other members of the Working
Group prepared material to present to students at registration for the
upcoming academic year. In addition, plans were launched for a meeting
of interested faculty throughout the school to inform them of the Working
Group's efforts and to enlist their support for creating doctoral- and
masters-degree programs in Women, Gender, and Health in the next year
or so.
Inter-University
Graduate Student Working Group on Human Rights
Dr. Roseman presented a paper on obstacles to promoting human rights,
specifically as they relate to the UN General Assembly Special Session
(UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS. She also discussed potential collaboration for
work related to the UNGASS conference on children.
Publications
and Information
Health and Human Rights, Vol. 5, No. 2, the special issue on
children's health and human rights, continued to take shape. In this
period, editorial work and peer reviews progressed with a goal of publishing
the issue in the next few months. This issue promises to be exceptional
and will cover a range of subjects, including pieces on the right to
health of children and the World Bank, economic exploitation of children,
and adolescent sexual and reproductive rights in Latin America.
Staff and
Administration
Arrivals
After completing a master's in public health, Pippa Amick joined the
FXB Center as Director of Operations and Projects. Nancy Briton joined
the FXB Center as a Research Associate with the Program on Humanitarian
Crises and Human Rights. Jenna LeMieux moved from part-time to full-time
Program Manager for the Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights.
Bonnie Shepard, who spent 2000-2001 as a Visiting Fellow, joined the
staff of the International Health and Human Rights Program as a part-time
Senior Program Manager. Her primary responsibilities concern coordinating
the Latin American Program of Catholics for Free Choice.
Departures
Erin Gibson left the International Health and Human Rights Program to
begin graduate school in social work in the fall. Gilbert Holleufer,
visiting fellow working on the People on War Project, left the FXB Center
to return to Geneva and his position with the International Committee
of the Red Cross. Sarah Martin left her position as research assistant
with the Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights. We will miss
Erin, Gilbert, and Sarah tremendously and wish them well in their future
careers.
Program
Activities
International
Health and Human Rights Program
Collaborations and Partnerships
The International Health and Human Rights Program began an exercise
in strategic planning to help assure a reasoned approach to future growth
and development. All program staff participated in defining the program's
mission, objectives, and priorities and, once finalized, it will be
shared with other FXB programs as well as with other relevant partners
and colleagues.
At HSPH and Harvard
Enhancing Care Initiative
This project is jointly carried out by the Harvard AIDS Institute, the
FXB Center, other entities within Harvard, and counterpart institutions
in Brazil, Senegal, Thailand, South Africa and Puerto Rico. ECI has
been developing a conceptual and practical framework on how to assess,
plan for, and evaluate care for people living with HIV/AIDS. This framework
uses both a human rights and gender-sensitive approach. Professor Gruskin,
who was one of the four Harvard investigators, supported management
of the Initiative and worked with each of the teams to ensure consistency
in research and integrating human rights and gender into their research
agendas. She remained the focal point for the Brazilian team.
In addition
to organizing substantive support for the teams, much attention was
paid to the preparations for and the running of an all-ECI team meeting
that took place from June 5 through 7 in Boston. Each team sent two
representatives and considerable work was done both in preparation and
with the teams to develop a conceptual and strategic work plan for the
next several years. Meetings with individual teams assessed current
and future work, and joint meetings were held to determine collectively
the future of ECI. Professor Gruskin also traveled to South Africa to
work with the KWA Zulu Natal team on the next phase of its research.
With National
and International Institutions
UNAIDS
The Program continued to work extensively with UNAIDS and to offer support
to the organization in its human rights work. Also, Surabhi Kukke provided
ongoing support in shaping the content of and approach to the Vulnerability
Training Modules, which will be submitted to UNAIDS for review within
the next several months.
World Health
Organization
The program continued its collaboration with various departments of
WHO. In her ongoing role as External Advisor on Health and Human Rights
for the organization, Professor Gruskin offers substantive and technical
assistance when requested. Work continued on the items in the Memorandum
of Understanding between FXBC and WHO, which include the following:
Production
of an annotated bibliography on health and human rights, with yearly
updates for two years. Former HSPH student Alexandra Huttinger continued
to work on this project the objective of which is to provide WHO staff
and others with state-of-the-art writings that articulate the links
between health and human rights within specific areas of work, as well
as to identify gaps where additional research needs to be done.
Identification
of health and human rights actors and institutions doing work at a global
level. HSPH doctoral student Scott Gordon devised the initial survey
and database for this project. A full-scale follow-up mailing was sent
in January, which yielded a highly successful 15% response rate. Meanwhile,
HSPH master's student David Hanna continued to refine the database design
and enter data from the surveys. This information is being stored in
an online database and will be available on the FXBC Web site and internally
for use by WHO staff.
Articulation
of WHO's strategy for the Human Rights Treaty Bodies, which seeks to
bring more consistency to the organization's approach to working with
the various bodies on reporting, provision of information and establishment
of indicators. In this period, a meeting was held with representatives
from a number of departments with WHO to ensure that the draft strategy
to be presented to the organization and the staff for next year would
best reflect the concerns and suggestions of all concerned. Also in
this period, HSPH student Eduardo Pesqueira began to provide assistance
to our work on this project.
Health
and human rights training for WHO staff. It had been agreed that during
the first year, a basic modular training on health and human rights
that will be relevant and applicable to all WHO clusters would be developed.
The training is expected to be field-tested early next year and revised
on the basis of that experience, with a final product ready next year.
Specialized trainings on specific aspects of health and human rights
will be developed subsequently, as will expanded trainings. In this
period the initial framework and content of the module was presented
to WHO staff from a variety of departments for their input and guidance.
Some revisions are taking place based upon the results of this meeting.
Support
for WHO in Mozambique on the WHO initiative "Making Pregnancy Safer"
(MPS). MPS is WHO's project for integrating a human rights approach
into national efforts towards reducing maternal mortality. In this period,
Professor Gruskin and Dr. Roseman continued their analysis of preexisting
data on maternal and neonatal mortality from a human rights perspective
and further refined the draft tool based upon input from WHO staff.
Meetings were held with WHO in this period to review existing work and
to ensure consistency in future directions on the work in Mozambique.
UNICEF
The program continued to collaborate with UNICEF. In this period, Dr.
Roseman and Professor Gruskin continued work on two compendiums of governmental
commitments on HIV/AIDS and human rights. The compendiums include one
on global commitments and the other specific to the regional and global
commitments of governments in the African region.
Operationalizing
Cairo and Beijing: A Training Initiative in Gender and Reproductive
Health
This leadership training initiative, conducted in partnership with the
World Health Organization and the Women's Health Project, University
of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, has created a 3 week training course
that has run four times in South Africa, as well as in China, Australia,
Argentina, and Kenya. The final curriculum will be launched as a WHO
publication later this year under the heading "Transforming Health Systems:
Gender and Rights in Reproductive Health."
World Bank Institute
In this period, Professor Gruskin agreed to run a session on concepts
and methods in health and human rights for the World Bank Institute's
Training Program to be held on September 13th. She prepared her presentation
and the material in the course, but was not able to travel to Washington,
D.C., to run the session as airports in both sides were closed due to
the tragedy of September 11. It is hoped that the course will be run
next year, without unforeseen circumstances that could prevent the session
from being included.
USAID/Lima, Peru,
and Movimiento Manuela Ramos
In September, Bonnie Shepard started as team leader of the midterm evaluation
of the Reprosalud project, an ambitious reproductive health and women's
empowerment project that works in five regions in the highlands of Peru
with indigenous women and men. The evaluation should be completed in
February 2002.
With NGOs and
Foundations
Catholics for Free Choice
Ms. Shepard started to work as Senior Consultant for Catholics for Free
Choice in Washington, DC, to assist them in their Latin American program.
She provides technical assistance in strategic planning and advocacy
to local Catholics for Free Choice organizations in Latin America, and
coordinates technical assistance to other organizations that need assistance
in Sexual and reproductive health advocacy within a Catholic context.
International
Planned Parenthood Federation
Ms. Shepard is also working on a case study based on research conducted
in July 2000 in Ecuador for the IPPF/Western Hemisphere Office on integrating
gender issues into sexual and reproductive health programs. It will
be published in the FXBC Working Papers Series.
Women's Health
Project
Professor Gruskin has been collaborating with the Women's Health Project
(WHP) in South Africa for a number of years on training and production
of the global curriculum "Transforming Health Systems: Gender and Rights
in Reproductive Health" which has been sponsored by WHO. The Women's
Health Project continues to run the course in Johannesburg for the Southern
Africa counties. WHP brought Professor Gruskin to South Africa to run
the rights module and to train local facilitators to run future sessions.
She ran two day-long sessions, which were extremely well received. Participants
came from various countries in the region and included educators from
Sudan who may also be interested in running the course in the future.
It was very moving to take part in this training, which represented
the close of our work with WHP on this course.
International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
In this period, plans were finalized with the HIV/AIDS unit of federation
headquarters concerning a joint training on AIDS and human rights, to
be held in conjunction with the Fifth International Conference on Home
and Community Care for Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (Chiang Mai, Thailand,
December 2001). A satellite session will be open to a maximum of one
hundred participant in the morning prior to the official opening session.
The purpose of the session is to offer this training on the human rights
framework to the representatives from community-based organizations
to aid them in their work.
Publications
UNICEF
Professor Gruskin and Dr. Roseman completed the compendium of global
commitments in HIV/AIDS and Human Rights and submitted it to UNICEF
for publication.
Peer Reviews
Professor Gruskin reviewed several articles for the American Journal
of Public Health.
Program
on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights
Collaborations and Partnerships
At HSPH and Harvard
Post-September 11 Activities
During the last few weeks of this period, Professor Leaning became deeply
involved in a variety of activities related to the September 11 attacks
on the World Trade Center. At Harvard, she has been actively involved
with the University's efforts to cope with the attacks, largely through
the University Student Health Coordinating Board. As chair of this Board
for the last two years, her efforts focused on developing a disaster
and crisis response plan for the University. After September 11, the
Board convened an ad-hoc group for all Deans of Students, which has
coordinated responses to issues on campus and planned educational and
counseling outreach initiatives. At HSPH, she participated in an open,
community forum activity on September 21 which brought together more
than 80 HSPH students to discuss the importance of individual and community
response and healing.
Capacity-Building
Project in Kosovo
Professor Leaning continued to work with colleagues at the International
Health Systems Group (IHSG) at HSPH and Physicians for Human Rights
on this project. The goal of the project is to assess the potential
for professional capacity and institution building with physicians and
other health care workers. Plans have begun on a more expanded series
of trainings for 2002.
Program on Humanitarian
Policy and Conflict Research
Professor Leaning continued to chair the Advisory Committee for this
HSPH-based program, which was launched last fall. The program continued
to expand its staff and projects. Planning began for a seminar, cosponsored
by the International Committee of the Red Cross, on international humanitarian
law to be held in the fall.
With National
and International Institutions
People on War Project
ICRC Delegate Gilbert Holleufer completed his year-long visiting fellowship.
The People on War Project, the very first large-scale attempt to survey
the wartime experiences of people from around the world, evaluated the
impact of the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross over
the past 50 years. During that period, final detailed country analyses
were completed and work has begun on the final manuscript, which will
continue during the coming months.
Fetzer Project
on Compassion in War
During this period, Professor Leaning received a one-year grant from
the Fetzer Institute to examine altruism and compassion in settings
of war and conflict, utilizing qualitative data from the People on War
project. Nancy Briton (statistical consultant on first phase of the
People on War Project) will serve as a Research Associate. This study
will use the People on War focus-group interviews (which include thousands
of pages of transcribed interviews of more than 500 focus groups from
12 countries) to examine the nature of altruism and to document evidence
of compassionate behavior in times of war and conflict.
Partition of
India Project
Professor Leaning is conducting a study on the feasibility of undertaking
a large project on the demographic effects of the Partition of India.
Initial findings from the field have been promising. The project would
be done in collaboration with the MIT-Mellon Inter-University Program
on Non-Governmental Organizations and Forced Migration. During this
period, a variety of sources have been explored for modest funding to
review preliminary findings at a seminar, tentatively planned for the
coming winter.
With NGOs
Inter-University Initiative on Humanitarian Studies and Field Practice
During this period, the new Inter-University Initiative on Humanitarian
Studies and Field Practice was officially launched. Professor Leaning
has spearheaded this new program, working closely with partners at Tufts
and MIT. The program allows students from the partnering institutions
to incorporate into their individual programs of study a set of core
requirements that would provide a solid foundation in humanitarian studies
while allowing flexibility to address students' backgrounds and interests.
Critical to the program will be a supervised three-month field placement
to give students practical experience in humanitarian response. During
this period, the first class of twenty students (nine from HSPH) was
selected. Preference was given to those who had experience in humanitarian
or development work or who demonstrated a strong interest in and commitment
to the subject. The large number of applicants forced the Initiative
Steering Committee to limit admissions to the program so that issues
inherent to a new course of study could be managed successfully. Negotiating
the academic logistics and administration of this year's program has
been a focus during this period.
USAID/Human Security
Project
During this period, Professor Leaning continued her work with the CERTI
project (Complex Emergency Response and Transition Initiative) at USAID.
The first phase of the project included completing Human Security: A
Framework for Crisis and Transition, which was recently accepted into
the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies Working Paper
Series. This paper set forth a new conceptual framework for human security,
and included suggestions for incorporating the framework into USAID
policy. Negotiations were finalized for the second phase of the project.
Phase two, scheduled for completion this fall, will involve producing
a series of documents exploring detail how the human security framework
can be incorporated into the work of USAID. These documents will include
(1) a detailed case study of Angola, (2) analyses of the work of 12
USAID missions from a human-security perspective, and (3) an overall
set of policy recommendations based on the findings of the case study
and the detailed country analyses.
WHO Advisory
Group on Research Priorities in Emergencies
Professor Leaning continued to participate in the ethics subgroup of
this advisory group, which has been discussing informed consent issues.
Key discussions are underway with a network of field practitioners and
researchers, and it is planned to insert this topic in a fall conference
in Washington, DC.
Program
on Human Rights in Development
Right to Development Project
This project supports the work of the UN Independent Expert on the Right
to Development, Dr. Arjun Sengupta, and coordinates the country studies
on a human rights approach to development. Each country team is studying
the development process and prospects for enhanced application of the
human right to development with particular reference to the rights to
health, food, and education. There is also a practical component, with
one or more small-scale projects in each country applying the approach
to development. Dr. Sengupta, who is a fellow of the Center, was in
Boston from June 27 to July 3. During this visit, he and Professor Marks
worked out the framework for the six country studies.
