Health and Human Rights: An International Journal

Special Focus: Violence, Health, and Human Rights
Vol. 6, No. 2

Editorial

Violence Prevention: Bringing Health and Human Rights Together
Sofia Gruskin and Alexander Butchart

Commentary

Violence, Health, and Human Rights: Toward a Shared Agenda for Prevention
Gro Harlem Brundtland

Articles

Homicide Rates and Human Rights Violations in São Paulo, Brazil: 1990 to 2002
Nancy Cardia, Sérgio Adorno, and Frederico Z. Poleto

Preventing Child Maltreatment: An Integrated, Multisectoral Approach
John Kydd

Abstract
This article reviews the global incidence and effects of child maltreatment, focusing on theories of causation and parameters of prevention. Based on this and on an analysis of the various types of abandonment that frustrate prevention, the article proposes an integrated health and human rights process for prevention. This process is based on a summary matrix that incorporates children’s rights, medical evidence, relevant social sectors, and professional responsibilities for each stage of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. The article then looks at the ways in which the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) supports this type of endeavor and explains the linked roles of WHO and CRC implementation. The stages of implementation at a country level are reviewed with attention to the needs of less-resourced countries. The potential impacts of full implementation are also explored.

Integrating Human Rights and Public Health to Prevent Interpersonal Violence
Alison Phinney and Sarah De Hovre

Abstract
Interpersonal violence accounts for a significant portion of the global burden of disease and imposes substantial direct and indirect costs on society. This article reviews a public health approach to the problem, describing the health dimensions of interpersonal violence and strategies for intervention, and then looks at human rights approaches to the problem, focusing on specific examples of violence against women and child abuse. The discussion shows that public health and human rights approaches to interpersonal violence are complementary and can operate in tandem with shared goals and strategies. Deliberate integration of the two approaches could facilitate a more comprehensive and sustainable response to interpersonal violence.

Violence Against Women
Susana T. Fried

Abstract
Over the past three decades, women’s organizations have created a paradigm shift in understanding and acting to end violence against women. Where gender-based violence was once confined to whispers and silent suffering, it is now part of the public agenda. Women’s groups and networks have insisted that violence against women is not only a crime; it is a violation of women’s human rights. Rape, for example, is not an “affront to a woman’s chastity” but rather a profound violation of her bodily integrity and her right to dignity, security, and freedom from discrimination. This article examines a recent assessment of initiatives to end violence against women that was conducted in 2002 by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and connected to current research, advocacy, and antiviolence organizing.

Responding to Violence Against Women: A WHO Multicountry Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence
Claudia García-Moreno, Charlotte Watts, Henriette Jansen, Mary Ellsberg, and Lori Heise

Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO), in response to the lack of data on the magnitude and nature of violence against women, initiated a multicountry study on women’s health and domestic violence. The WHO study, implemented in eight countries, was the first global effort to gather reliable and comparable data on domestic violence and women’s health across countries. The study also demonstrates how carefully developed and applied research can act as a useful intervention at many levels of society and government and for all participants, researchers as well as respondents. The study further illustrates how partnering with researchers and women’s organizations to collect evidence of the magnitude, consequences, and determinants of domestic violence can help strengthen national efforts to address violence against women and can act as a facilitating force for change.

Suicide and Human Rights: A Suicidologist's Perspective
Antoon Leenaars

Abstract
Suicide is lethal violence. The World Health Organization’s recent report, World Report on Violence and Health, noted that suicide constitutes a serious public and mental health problem worldwide. The question posed in this article is, “Do people have a right to suicide and/or attempted suicide?” After a brief discussion of the word “suicide,” an international perspective is offered as a way to answer the question and to offer views from a variety of countries. The history of suicide and contemporary perspectives on suicide are explicated. It is concluded that there is no universal answer to the question, but some commonalities exist that have an impact on issues of rights, such as treating suicide as a taboo, a crime, or a sin. A global response to suicide is needed so that suicide is not seen primarily as a crime, but as a multidimensional mental-health problem that can be reduced.

Human Rights and Conflict
Jennifer Leaning

Abstract
Analysis of recent field experience suggests that the health and human rights perspective has demonstrably influenced academic and policy approaches to mass violence (war, conflict, sweeping assaults on civilian populations). This influence can be seen in five activities that have now become to a varying degree accepted aspects of the mainstream response to instances of mass violence: early warning, specification of behavioral standards, mobilizing international action, expanding capacity in conflict monitoring, and developing rights-based strategies for mitigation and prevention. Each of these activities is discussed briefly and recommendations are then advanced for future work on the part of the health and human rights community.

Roundtable Discussion: People's Right to Safety

Safety as a Human Right
Dinesh Mohan
Advancing Safety as a Fundamental Health and Human Right
Garth Stevens
Declaring the Right to Safety: Advancing Health and Human Rights?
Mindy Jane Roseman
Why Declaring Safety a Right Might Not (and Should Not) Make it Right
Alice Miller
Right to Safety? Declaration or Not, It is Time for Action
Adnan Hyder
Safety as a Human Right: Response to the Discussants
Dinesh Mohan
Montreal Declaration: People's Right to Safety

Profiles

The Role of Núcleo de Estudos da Violência in the Struggle for Universal Access to Human Rights in Brazil
Nancy Cardia

Using Social Justice, Public Health, and Human Rights to Prevent Violence in South Africa
Garth Stevens