Current Projects

The Program on International Health and Human Rights (PIHHR) is at the forefront of developing the field of health and human rights research, and is a leader in developing health and human rights tools for analysis, programmatic intervention, monitoring and evaluation. PIHHR works to strengthen the practical implementation of human rights for public health programming in a variety of ways – from the design and application of specific analytic and programmatic tools to conducting trainings in various areas of health and human rights. The Program is widely recognized as a leader in developing and testing practical approaches – products such as training modules, assessment and evaluation instruments, and analytical guides – that fully integrate human rights into the work of public health, including program design, implementation, and evaluation. Development of such tools is critical to validating the essential links between health and human rights and to improving the delivery of services and health outcomes.

HIV and AIDS and Human Rights

• Monitoring and Evaluation of Human Rights in the HIV Response
  UNAIDS
  Human rights have been the cornerstone of many responses to HIV since the start of the epidemic but their contribution to these responses has been poorly understood to date. PIHHR collaborates with the UNAIDS Evaluation Department (UNAIDS) on the monitoring and evaluation of human rights issues relevant to the global response to HIV with the overall aims of improving national-level reporting in this area and increasing understanding of how human rights contribute to efforts in the field of HIV. As part of this project, revisions were recently carried out to the National Composite Policy Index (NCPI), which guides some national-level monitoring of the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. Next steps of this work include analyzing the 2008 country reports on the NCPI and assessing, from a human rights perspective, the quality and implementation of national-level HIV policies and programs.
  
  

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Child and Adolescent Health and Human Rights

• Child Rights-Based Planning and Programming
  World Health Organization, Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development
  The aim of Millennium Development Goal 4 is to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015; this will require improved efficiency and effective use of available resources. Working towards these aims, WHO’s Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development (WHO/CAH) is collaborating with the Program on a series of projects with the overall aim of establishing a systematic framework for undertaking child rights-based planning and programming within the department.

The current projects encompass a wide range of activities that seek to demonstrate the role that human rights can play in different elements of WHO/CAH’s work. This includes promoting the systematic consideration of human rights into national-level situation analyses as well as into programming tools, guidelines and other documents produced by the department. Efforts include the production of documents as well as field-testing of suggested tools to ensure their effectiveness for use by the department and others working in this area. Complementary to this, and as part of broader efforts by WHO/CAH and UNICEF to understand the role of law in efforts to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals, a working paper is being produced on how legislation can be used to promote the child’s right to survival.

• Addressing Orphanhood in São Paulo, Brazil
  David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
  Mortality rates due to both AIDS and homicide in São Paulo, Brazil are alarmingly high, which has contributed to a large and growing orphan population. PIHHR is collaborating with researchers at the Brazilian Nucleus for AIDS Prevention Studies at the University of São Paulo in an effort to better understand how children’s health status is affected by orphanhood. The extent to which promotion, protection or violation of human rights mediate orphans’ experiences and the options that exist for addressing their health issues are also being studied. The overall aim is to identify areas where further intervention/support to orphans is required. This project is part of a long-term collaboration between the Program and the research team in São Paulo.

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Sexual and Reproductive Health and Human Rights

• “Human Rights-Based Approaches to Programming”: Practical Implementation including a Training Manual, Training Materials and Training of Trainers
  United Nations Population Fund, Culture, Gender and Human Rights Branch of the Technical Support Division
  In support of the UN’s mandate of rights-based work, the Program is collaborating with UNFPA to promote the systematic inclusion of human rights standards and principles in the organization’s country-level programs, policies and advocacy work. The project involves supporting UNFPA staff and their partners in the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of rights-based approaches. A manual and accompanying training materials are being created and ‘training of trainers’ workshops are being carried out in three regions in collaboration with local partners who have experience in rights-based training. The partners are:  Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF); the Center for Arab Women Training and Research (CAWTAR); and International Women’s Rights Action Watch – Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP).
  
  
• Using Human Rights to Improve Maternal and Newborn Health: A Tool for Strengthening Laws, Policies and Standards of Care
  World Health Organization, Department of Reproductive Health and Research
  One of the Millennium Development Goal targets is to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015, but maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain unacceptably and unnecessarily high in many countries. To help address these issues, program staff are collaborating with WHO’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research to develop an innovative instrument to help countries use a human rights framework to identify and address legal, policy and normative barriers to women’s access to and use of quality maternal and newborn health care services. Piloted in Mozambique, Brazil, and Indonesia, the tool is now being adapted for use in the area of adolescent health and sexual and reproductive health.

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Health and Human Rights

• Current Debates on Realizing Health and Human Rights
  Merck Company Foundation
  Human rights obligations are traditionally viewed as the domain of national governments, but with the rise of the corporate sector, the applicability of human rights obligations to private sector companies has increasingly become an area for debate. This project explores the roles and responsibilities of the pharmaceutical industry as well as other state and non-state actors with regard to alleviating disease burdens worldwide. By stimulating discussion among key experts in the fields of pharmaceuticals and human rights, the aim of this project is to highlight work that has been carried out in these areas to date with a view to identifying where further research and action are needed. As a first step, the Program is working to produce a working paper highlighting key issues and potential ways of moving these debates forward.
  
  
• Reproductive and Sexual Health of HIV Positive Men and Women
  World Health Organization, Department of Reproductive Health and Research
  The Program is collaborating with the World Health Organization (WHO) on development of policy and programmatic guidance for health systems on ways to ensure that women and men living with HIV have access to sexual and reproductive health services that help them realize their reproductive goals while ensuring the respect protection and fulfillment of their human rights. As part of this effort, Program staff and a close collaborator drafted a working paper for presentation at a meeting in Ethiopia co-hosted by WHO, UNFPA and Engender Health which brought together a range of partners working in this area. For more information click here.
  
  

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For more about past projects click here.

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