The Program on Human Rights in Development conducts research, contributes to publications, and organizes courses and other educational activities, both at Harvard University and abroad. Projects have included:
Freedom from Poverty: Economic Perspectives
This book was edited by Stephen Marks, Bård Anders Andreassen and Arjun K. Sengupta for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010, and arrangements are being made for its publication.
Research Handbook on Human Rights and Development
This book is being edited by Stephen Marks and Balakrishnan Rajagopal for Edward Elgar Publishing. Chad Benoit, Courtney Cox, Erin James, Sara Lubetsky, and Rachel Sandlow-Ash are assisting in this project, which involves collaboration between PHRD and the Program on Human Rights and Justice at MIT.
The Right to Health in Comparative Perspective
This book consisting of nine national studies is in the process copy-editing for publication in the Harvard University Press Series on Health and Human Rights. Adriana Benedict and Ramya Naraharisetti assisted Stephen Marks is completing this project.
Civil Society and Power Relations in Cambodia
Stephen Marks oversaw the research in Cambodia on this project and co-authored with Ramya Naraharisetti the chapter, which will appear in Bård Anders Andreassen and Gordon Crawford (eds), Human Rights, Power And Civic Action In Developing Societies: Comparative Analyses (RIPOCA), Routledge Publishers, 2012.
Health and Human Rights: Basic International Documents
The PHRD team is working on the preparation of the 3rd edition of this compilation, which will be available in 2012 in a downloadable electronic edition.
Realizing the Right to Development
Stephen Marks, who served as Chair of the High Level Task Force (HLTF) on the Implementation of the Right to Development of the United Nations Human Rights Council, has been commissioned by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to assist the secretariat in producing this two-volume, 700 page collection of 33 chapters for the 25th anniversary of the Declaration on the Right on Development. Tara Banani assisted in this work. (F/K/A : The Right to Development: Promise and Action)
Encyclopedia of Global Social Issues
Stephen Marks, with assistance from Joshua Glasser, prepared the human rights entry for this work, to be completed in the spring 2012.
Human Evolution and Biology as Challenges to the Moral and Legal Claims of Human Rights
Sarah Raifman assisted Stephen Marks in researching and drafting this chapter for Mensch und Recht, a festschrift *[SM1] in honor of Eibe Riedel, former chair of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR).
Tobacco control
This is an ongoing project with the Human Rights and Tobacco Control Network (HRTCN), in which Chad Benoit, Anna Odone, and Kate Unsworth are highlighting tobacco control as part of the right to health, and thus as part of the purview of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR).
Technology and Health
The aim of this project is to relate current research on health applications of technological innovation to the human right to benefit from scientific progress. This project builds on Stephen Marks’ monograph “Out of Obscurity: The Right to Benefit from Advances in Science and Technology and its Implications for Global Health,” (in Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Law, Science, and Technology: Health And Science: Human Rights And Legal Issues, Academia Sinica, Taipei.). It is in the planning stages, in consultation with Professor Marc Mitchell. Professor Mitchell’s internationally-acclaimed “D-Tree” project has made headlines for empowering healthcare workers to use mobile devices for diagnosis and electronic record keeping. In turn, these innovations strengthen health systems and thus bolster the realization of the right to health in resource-poor settings. As such, this project dovetails with PHRD’s commitment to understanding the human rights implications of access to technology. Vera Sistenich is spearheading this project.
Summer Intensive course on Health and Human Rights
The two-day intensive course will take place on June 11-12, 2012. Together with Professor Jennifer Leaning of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Stephen Marks is co-director of this course. Vera Sistenich assisted him in the preparations for this program.
* [SM1]The term is widely used for collections of essays in the honor of someone.
