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Why Health Professionals as Human Rights Advocates?

Health professionals have a powerful role to play in the struggle for human rights. Because they have expertise in matters that directly affect human health and welfare, and because they hold positions of authority in their communities, physicians, nurses, psychologists, and those in other health-related fields are uniquely positioned to influence policy and effect change.

• Health professionals possess specialized skills and knowledge pertinent to human rights. They can examine a torture survivor or rape victim and assess life-threatening conditions in refugee camps or prisons. These experts are able to convince policy makers of the link between human rights violations and data on illness and death. The scientific rigor of such assessments enables our experts to speak with unquestioned authority.
• The objectivity and credibility of physicians, scientists, and other health professionals lends weight to their views in the halls of Congress, at international conferences, town meetings, and in the media.
• The ethical obligations of the professions generate a distinct and critical voice for PHR members and supporters, especially the conduct of professionals themselves in situations of armed conflict, and participation in interrogation of prisoners or in executions. PHR members have organized to press professional organizations to take an unequivocal stand on human rights issues, and they have campaigned for reform of these institutions when they have fallen short.
• Evidence collected by forensic scientists can provide irrefutable documentation of war crimes, often leading to successful prosecutions. Medical evaluations of asylum applicants by physicians and psychologists can assure safe haven for survivors of torture and political violence. PHR experts have given expert testimony at international tribunals and before immigration judges.

The disciplines of medicine, science, and public health are practiced throughout the world, creating a global network of health professionals who are increasingly working together to promote and defend human rights and health for all people.

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