Humanitarian crises threaten the lives and security of large civilian populations and pose great challenges to the human rights and international relief community. The Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights seeks to provide strong academic leadership and critical resources to clarify the key factors that cause and sustain these crises and to train a broad range of leaders, policymakers, academics, and professionals who are engaged in all phases of prevention and response. It contributes to the understanding of the role of human rights in response to all phases of humanitarian crises, including early warning and prevention, impact assessment and intervention, and resolution and reconstruction.
Hurricane Katrina Response Public health experts needed! The new Harvard Humanitarian Initiative is involved in the relief work being conducted in response to Hurricane Katrina. Please read here for an update and volunteer information from co-directors Jennifer Leaning and Michael VanRooyen.
Tsunami Relief Efforts The Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights, in close coordination with the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, is involved in the relief work being conducted in response to the tsunami that struck 11 countries in southeast Asia on December 26, 2004. Current activities include:
HSPH Panel Discussion on the Tsunami Relief. Jennifer Leaning, Michael VanRooyen, and Hilarie Cranmer discussed humanitarian response to crises, including the tsunami, at a panel discussion held at HSPH on March 10, 2005. Click here for the web broadcast of the panel discussion.
Articles in scholarly journals. We have contributed to scholarly articles addressing the humanitarian relief efforts, including the public health needs, necessary in the tsunami-affected region.
Discussions and interviews in the media. We have conducted several radio and TV interviews and have been quoted in the print media to provide some grounded and technical advice about relief and reconstruction priorities, including spots on CSPAN, NPR, FOX, and local stations throughout New England. These include:
A January 6 article about BWH emergency room physician Hilarie Cranmer, who has been in Sumatra , Indonesia with the International Rescue Committee working to set up mobile medical clinics.
François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights ( FXB Center ) fellow Sheri Fink has been covering the tsunami aftermath in Thailand for “The World,” a co-production of BBC/PRI/WGBH. Segment topics include:
The efforts to identify victims (January 24)
The role of the U.S. military in the relief efforts (January 18)
The situation of tsunami-affected Burmese migrant workers in Thailand (January 12)
The shift in the disaster response from immediate relief work to the recovery phase (January 5)
Mike VanRooyen interviewed on the CSPAN show “Washington Journal,” January 1, 2005
Program Affiliates, HSPH Students and Alumni in the Field
Hilarie Cranmer, an attending physician and clinical instructor in the Emergency Department of Brigham & Women’s Hospital, worked with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the Aceh Province in Indonesia. Click here to read her email diary.
As President of the Board of Directors of Médecins-Sans-Frontières (MSF) Hong-Kong, FXB Center fellow and HSPH graduate Emily Chan has been supporting and providing training in emergency relief work at natural disaster sites to the 14 MSF HK relief workers who are in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
FXB Center fellow Sheri Fink, a humanitarian physician and reporter, reported on issues relating to the tsunami relief efforts for “The World,” a BBC/PRI/WGBH co-production.
Ellen Agler, a graduate of HSPH and the Inter-University Initiative on Humanitarian Studies and Field Practice, is the Director of International Operations for the International Medical Corps (IMC), a disaster and relief humanitarian organization based in Santa Monica, California. In this capacity, Ellen went to Aceh Province in Indonesia to help plan and coordinate the IMC’s relief effort.
Andrew Cavey, a graduate of HSPH and the Inter-University Initiative on Humanitarian Studies and Field Practice, participated in a 3-person exploratory team for Médecins du Monde in northern Sri Lanka. The team’s aim was to assess the humanitarian assistance needs and to provide medical relief in a region controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE).
Rachel Moresky, a graduate of HSPH and the Inter-University Initiative on Humanitarian Studies and Field Practice, is Director of International Emergency Medicine and an assistant clinical professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital. She was in Indonesia with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), where she provided clinical treatment in IDP camps and public health initiatives. Click here for an article about her work with the IRC.
Langdon Lawrence, a graduate of HSPH and the Humanitarian Studies Initiative, spent a month in Indonesia with the International Medical Corps, serving as the medical team leader for the IMC's operations in the Patek/ Suak Bukah region of the country.
Paraskevi ("Vivi") Panagopoulou, a graduate of HSPH and the Humanitarian Studies Initiative, has joined the Greek diplomatic mission's relief efforts in Sri Lanka.
HSPH graduate Ashwin Vasan joined a team of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists from Apollo Hospital, a private tertiary care network in India, to provide basic primary care in the Cuddalore district of India and surrounding villages. Ashwin works as a Technical Officer in the World Health Organization's Department of HIV/AIDS.
Karen McKoy, a dermatologist and part-time HSPH MPH student in the International Health track, traveled to Indonesia with the Project Hope / U.S.N.S. Mercy project in February-March.
Opportunities in the field. The needs of the NGOs are rapidly shifting. For example, as the work in southern India and Sri Lanka shifts from immediate relief work to longer-term reconstruction and development, the needs of organizations working in those countries are shifting. Also, the security situation in Indonesia is hampering current relief delivery and constraining the deployment of new relief workers. We are accepting requests both from organizations seeking volunteers and from individuals seeking volunteer opportunities. Thus far, we have received requests for specialized personnel from Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee, and are currently participating in a joint effort with Massachusetts General Hospital to find qualified physicians and nurses to staff the Project Hope / U.S. Navy Ship Mercy project. Most recent requests are for specialized personnel in epidemiology, public health, and some medical specialties, including nursing. The duration of most tours is 4-12 weeks. If you have experience in these areas and have 4-12 weeks to give, please contact us and we will try to connect you with appropriate organizations. Similarly, if you are an organization seeking volunteers, please contact us and we will refer you to interested, qualified individuals.
Research. Dr. Cranmer will also be evaluating the application by NGOs and international agencies of the SPHERE Humanitarian Standards, which articulate measurable minimum standards in five key sectors: water supply and sanitation, nutrition, food aid, shelter and health services. This is a crucial quality evaluation that can help direct organizations to support basic standards and monitor their programs. She will also be exploring, for the Program on Humanitarian Crises and the BWH Department of Emergency Medicine, possible areas for further collaboration between our institutions and the communities in Indonesia. In the next weeks, we will be identifying a “partner” community to assist in longer-term rehabilitation.
Coordination of relief efforts with the Sri Lankan Association of New England (SLANE). We have been working with this local group to identify relief and reconstruction priorities, and they have identified specific institutions that we may assist in future rehabilitation.
USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. We are continuing disaster training programs in Southeast Asia called Hospital Preparedness for Emergencies (HOPE). HOPE trains hospitals to respond to earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters. This program will continue in an expanded capacity in the future, and we will be looking for interested faculty to assist over the next several months.
Contributions. If you are interested in providing assistance, we would recommend sending a check to one of the major relief organizations, although many organizations are no longer accepting monetary donations intended specifically for the tsunami relief. For information on organizations and Harvard’s program of matching donations made by faculty, staff, and students, click here. It may sound counterintuitive, but medical supplies and material donations are almost never appropriate contributions.
Information resource. A special resource on Indonesia has been developed by the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) at the Harvard School of Public Health. Since May 2001, HPCR has been administering a web portal entitled “Building Human Security in Indonesia.” The portal provides information on human security in Indonesia and includes a database of over 4,000 documents in English and Indonesian on issues such as the political situation, economy, human rights, health, and natural disasters. In response to the recent natural disaster in Aceh, a special section has been posted on the front page, “Focus on Tsunami Disaster Relief,” which features selected articles and reports on the recovery effort, updated on a daily basis. The portal can be accessed through a free registration process at http://www.preventconflict.org/portal/.
Darfur Conflict
Dr. Leaning has recently returned from a human rights investigation with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) to the Chad/Sudan border to examine the human rights abuses taking place in Darfur, Sudan and the humanitarian situation facing the refugees who have fled to Chad. Upon the conclusion of the investigation, PHR released a report outlining indicators of genocide that the PHR team found. The findings and conclusions of PHR can be found in the PHR report and from the following interviews:
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh: The Historical Demography of Partition
With initial support from the Mellon Foundation and the South Asia Initiative of Harvard University, this project examines a particular case of sudden population dislocation - the forced displacement associated with the 1947 Partition of British India. This project also addresses important issues in contemporary humanitarian crises such as population protection, migration triggers and the role of states and voluntary agencies. The study has three major objectives: 1) to develop and document methods that can be used to quantify the demographic consequences of forced migration; 2) to obtain improved estimates regarding Partition-related migration and mortality using current demographic and statistical methods; and 3) to amplify and refine current understanding of the typical patterns of massive population movement occasioned by crises and their social, economic, and humanitarian consequences. The study is able to draw on the rich tradition of census-taking that dates back to 1871 on the Indian sub-continent, and has continued post-Partition in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, using similar procedures and providing largely comparable data. For these reasons, the 1947 Partition provides a unique opportunity to develop and test methods and approaches that may be used to study forced migration and related mortality in other settings.
Other members of the research group include:
Ken Hill, PhD, Director of Hopkins Population Center and Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
Sharon Stanton Russell, PhD, Research Associate, Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
William Seltzer, Senior Research Scholar, Sociology and Anthropology, Fordham University
The Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness
The Harvard School of Public Health Center for Public Health Preparedness (HSPH-CPHP) is charged with advancing emergency preparedness and response in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and nationally through the development of curriculum, training and research. The purposes of the Center are: 1) to strengthen the public health workforce readiness through implementation of specially designed programs for life-long learning; 2) to augment capacity at the state and local level for terrorism preparedness and emergency public health response through development of strong, dynamic partnerships; and 3) to develop a solid network of academic-based programs that contribute to national terrorism preparedness and emergency response capacity through the active exchange of expertise and training assets among academic campuses and within state and local jurisdictions.
Dr. Leaning directs the HSPH-CPHP's Scientific Core, which is housed within the Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights. This core responds to emerging public health questions: what is known, what must be investigated, and what core technical skills must be developed to prepare the public health workforce? Strategically staffed by national leaders in disaster management and emergency medicine, the Scientific Core has significant expertise in topics such as emergency preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery; weapons of mass destruction; and epidemiology and surveillance. The work of the Scientific Core is guided by the Scientific Advisory Council, comprised of scientists in various fields related to emergency preparedness.
Other members of the Scientific Core of the HSPH-CPHP include:
Paul Biddinger, MD, Assistant Director of the Scientific Core and Director, Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
Jonathan Burstein, MD, FACEP, Associate Director of the Scientific Core; Assistant Professor, HSPH and Harvard Medical School; Medical Director of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health; Massachusetts State EMS Medical Director
The Inter-University Initiative on Humanitarian Studies and Field Practice Now entering into its fifth year of operation, this inter-university program between HSPH, MIT, and Tufts is designed to provide graduate students from various disciplines with a common professional training in core subject areas in humanitarian response, such as public health, nutrition, politics, and economics, to position them for effective leadership positions in NGOs or government within the field of humanitarian relief and reconstruction. Through a combination of coursework, field placements, a weekly skills seminar series, and a weekend-long field simulation, students in the program earn a certificate in humanitarian studies.
The program is geared toward students with a background in international development, overseas response to disasters and humanitarian crises, and/or related issues of international policy, management or planning. Students enrolled in the following degree programs are eligible to enroll: M.P.H. and M.S. students in the International Health Concentration at Harvard School of Public Health; M.S. and Ph.D. students in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition (Humanitarian Assistance specialization) at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University; MALD students at the Fletcher School at Tufts University; and Master's and Ph.D. students from any department at MIT. For further information regarding the program, consult the website of the Humanitarian Studies Initiative.
Human Security The topic of human security is an important focus of the Program. Professor Leaning has developed and proposed a framework for the notion of human security and its possible relevance in settings of war and complex emergencies. The framework suggests that human security is as much a psychosocial construct as a physical one, and advances four components: fulfillment of basic minimum needs for physical supports and safety, and fulfillment of needs for home, community, and sense of the future.
The Human Costs of War and Forced Migration Recent internal conflicts and civil wars have highlighted the grave costs to civilians. Human rights violations occur with great frequency; landmines inflict long-term psychological, social, and economic effects on civilian populations; and medical and public health practitioners face difficult challenges in organizing and carrying out humanitarian response. The Program's research in this area is focused on developing capacity to understand and then address the human costs of war and forced migration and to assist in reconstruction efforts from a public health and human rights perspective.
Normative Dilemmas of Humanitarian Action
Humanitarian action takes place in a context of competing norms and expectations, because many different agencies and professions are involved in the emergency response. In practice, issues of neutrality, impartiality, population protection, humanitarian access, medical ethics, and international humanitarian and human rights law are not always easily satisfied. The Program's research in this area seeks to understand and suggest ways to negotiate the normative tensions that arise when medical relief personnel, human rights officers, NGO field workers, international military forces, local leaders, and representatives from international bodies all converge in an area and attempt to work together on common or coordinated tasks.
Professor Leaning is an active investigator on human rights and humanitarian field missions and over the past decade has conducted dozens of field investigations with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), including in Albania, Afghanistan, Chad/Sudan, Congo, Israel and the Palestinian Territory, Kosovo, Macedonia, Rwanda, and Somalia. Recent investigations include:
Afghanistan: In January 2002, as the Coalition-led war in Afghanistan was easing, Dr. Leaning participated in a PHR human rights investigation to the central and northern part of the country. The team evaluated issues of collateral damage from the Coalition campaign, investigated conditions for prisoners of war, and began an assessment of the mass grave situation, finding in the process a major new mass grave that had not yet been identified by outside authorities. The findings can be found on the PHR website.
JENNIFER LEANING, MD, SMH, Program Director. Dr. Leaning is Professor of the Practice of International Health in the Department of Population and International Health at HSPH. She is the director of the Inter-University Initiative on Humanitarian Studies and the director of the Scientific Core of the HSPH Center for Public Health Preparedness. She is also an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Emergency Department of Brigham and Women's Hospital. She holds academic degrees from Radcliffe College, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She is board-certified in internal medicine and emergency medicine. Professor Leaning has field experience in problems of disaster response and human rights, and has written widely on these issues. She serves on the board of directors of several organizations, including Physicians for Human Rights (where she was a founding board member), Oxfam America, The Humane Society of the United States, and the Massachusetts Bay Chapter of the American Red Cross. She is also the chairperson of the Dean's Advisory Committee on Sexual Assault at Harvard.
MICHAEL VANROOYEN, MD, MPH, FACEP, Associate Program Director. Dr. VanRooyen is Associate Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He is also Chief of the Division of International Health and Humanitarian Programs in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. VanRooyen has worked extensively in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in over thirty countries, including recent crises in Bosnia, Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia, Congo, and Honduras. He has considerable experience teaching in the field of disaster and humanitarian assistance and is widely published on these issues. Prior to joining the Program on Humanitarian Studies, Dr. VanRooyen was co-director of the Center for International Emergency, Disaster, and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins University, an associate professor and vice chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and a professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He holds academic degrees from Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and the University of Illinois.
TARA GINGERICH, JD, MA, Program Manager. Tara joined the Center in April 2004. Her background is in international law, including election observation and election laws, human rights, and international trade. She holds academic degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Washington College of Law and the School of International Service at American University. Most recently, she served as Legal Advisor to the OSCE election mission to Azerbaijan for the Fall 2003 presidential elections.
CASSIE WATTERS, BA, Program Coordinator and Program Assistant. Prior to joining the Center in April 2005, Cassie worked at the HSPH Division of Public Health Practice. She has experience in labor and community organizing, and has her B.A. in English & Writing with a concentration in Literature.
Fellows
ROGAIA ABUSHARAF, PHD, Visiting Scientist. Dr. Abusharaf is an anthropologist and a visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Tufts University. She holds academic degrees from the University of Connecticut and Cairo University School of Economics and Political Science. Her primary fields of interest are security, human rights protection and the cultural strategies adopted by displaced women to cope with the trauma of violence and dislocation. She is currently writing a book on the relationship between Arabization, Islamization, and the gendered nature of the forced migration and the displacement experience of Southern Sudanese women in Khartoum, Sudan.
EMILY CHAN, MBBS, MPH, Visiting Scientist. Dr. Chan is a physician and holds academic degrees from Johns Hopkins University, Hong Kong University, and the Harvard School of Public Health. She is the President of the Board of Directors of Médecins-Sans-Frontières, Hong-Kong (Doctors without Borders). Dr. Chan's research interests include disaster management and response, especially as related to earthquakes and floods, as well as HIV/AIDS treatment in rural populations in China.
ROBIN COUPLAND, MD, Visiting Scientist. Dr. Coupland is Senior Advisor on armed violence for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a senior lecturer of law at the University of Melbourne. He is a surgeon by training and has extensive field experience operating on victims of war and landmine injuries in Afghanistan, Angola, and Cambodia. He is a leading expert on the legality of the use of weapons in the framework of international humanitarian law. Dr. Coupland leads an annual seminar at HSPH on this subject.
ALEXANDER DE WAAL, D. Phil., Research Associate. Dr. de Waal is also a Research Associate at the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard's Asia Center and co-director of Justice Africa, based in London. He has recently published a book titled Islamism and Its Enemies in the Horn of Africa and will soon be re-releasing his 1989 book Famine That Kills: Darfur, Sudan. His research focuses on the social, political and health dimensions of famine, war, genocide, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region. Dr. de Waal received his D. Phil. from Oxford University.
CHARLES VIDICH, MCP, MS, Visiting Scientist. Mr. Vidich is Manager of environmental compliance for the U.S. Postal Service in Connecticut. He holds an MCP from the Harvard School of Design and an MS in environmental health from the Harvard School of Public Health. During the last several years, Mr. Vidich has been actively involved in the U.S. Postal Service's biological defense program, and is the author of the USPS's national policy concerning anthrax sampling, and detection and decontamination procedures. His research at HSPH is focused primarily on the relationship between the various disease processes that prompted quarantine responses, and the public health policies for implementing medical and administrative directives.
ANSON WRIGHT, MS, Visiting Scientist. Ms. Wright earned her MS degree in Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in 2005, where her research centered on public health response to infectious disease outbreaks. She also holds an M.S. in Applied Sciences from Harvard and was an affiliate on the United Nations Millennium Project. She is currently working with Dr. Leaning on a project entitled People on War, which stems from a project the Program on Humanitarian Crises conducted with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) several years ago. Her other research interests include bioterrorism preparedness and infectious disease control in resource-poor settings.
