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Compiled by the Education and Information Resources Working Group of the
AAAS Coalition on Science and Human Rights
This select annotated bibliography provides a guide to the literature on the relationship between science and human rights. The following citations are grouped under a variety of headings that encompass disciplinary fields of science and topics where science and human rights intersect. Whenever an article listed is available online without restrictions, the URL link is provided. The bibliography is meant as a starting point for scientists, human rights practitioners, educators, and interested students to begin to explore the larger literature on science and human rights. The last section in this bibliography provides links to online databases and other web resources containing further human rights documents and literature.
Contents
Science and Human Rights: General
Claude, Richard Pierre. (2002). Science in the Service of Human Rights. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press.
An exceptional analysis of the relations between science and human rights. The book is divided into 3 sections: international standards and the role of science in these standards; issues (ethics and technology); and politics (scientists as human rights activists; NGOs, grassroots and transnational governance.
Corillon, Carol. (1989) "The Role of Science and Scientists in Human Rights." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 506(1): 129-140.
Corillon examines four issues: the scientist as human rights activist, the scientist as human rights victim, the scientist as human rights abuser, and the application of science to human rights work.
Murphy, Therese. (2009). New Technologies and Human Rights. New York: Oxford University Press.
Drawing on an international team of legal scholars, the book reviews and develops the role of human rights in the regulation of new technologies. Particular attention is given to three controversies at the intersection between human rights. First, are human rights contributing to a brave new world of choice, where human dignity is fundamentally compromised? Second, are new technologies a threat to human rights? Finally, can human rights contribute to better regulation of these technologies?
Rubenstein, Leonard and Mona Younis. (28 November 2008) "Scientists and Human Rights." Science 322: 1303.
The authors reflect on the role of scientists in ensuring a government's adherence to human rights. They note the contributions scientists have made in making human rights a reality for people everywhere including defending the freedom of scientific inquiry and applying their knowledge and skills in helping to reveal the truths about violations of human rights.
Seltzer, R. (1996). "Scientists can make a difference in defending colleagues' human rights." Chemical & Engineering News 74(22): 36.
Scientists have long wrestled with the issues of what they can - and should - do to help colleagues around the world whose human rights are being violated. This article discusses the efforts of the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) sponsored jointly by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
Tangley, L. (1984). "Scientists Campaign for Human Rights." Bioscience 34(9): 544-545.
Scientists have long been singled out for harassment by repressive governments around the world, and have a special responsibility to help their colleagues in trouble. In recent years more and more scientific societies have become involved. At the 1984 AAAS meeting, 50 activist scientists met to discuss their experiences and new strategies.
Biological Sciences
Carvalho, J. J. (2007) "The Scientist as Statesman: Biologists and Third World Health." Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science 42(2): 289-300.
What is the role of the biomedical scientist amid the world's growing poverty crisis and the related human rights inequalities and the spread of diseases in underprivileged areas, The author provides examples of where the scientist can interface with human rights organizations, medical doctors, political and civic leaders, and the science-religion dialogue. He argues that the emerging role of the biomedical scientist is one of public service in addition to and beyond the realm of the experimental investigator.
Di Lonardo AM, Darlu P, Baur M, Orrego C, King MC. (1984) "Human genetics and human rights. Identifying the families of kidnapped children." American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 5:339-47.
Between 1975 and 1983 in Argentina, at least 145 children were kidnapped with their parents or born in captivity to imprisoned women and then separated from their mothers. The parents of these children generally remain among the missing persons. However, laboratory analysis of genetic markers in human blood enables the calculation of an "index of grandpaternity." This approach has been applied successfully in Argentina, with an index of grandpaternity for one family of 99.9%, based on HLA typing only.
Gunderson, M. (2007) "Human Rights, Dignity, and the Science of Genetic Engineering." Social Philosophy Today 22: 43-57.
In the past decade several international declarations have called for banning reproductive non-therapeutic and germ-line engineering. For example, Article 11 of UNESCO's Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights states that practices that are contrary to human dignity such as cloning of human beings should not be permitted. Article 13 of the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine simply forbids germ-line engineering except for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. The author argues that there are forms of germ-line and non-therapeutic engineering that are compatible with human rights.
King, Mary-Claire. (1991). "An application of DNA sequencing to a human rights problem." Mol Genet Med 1:117-31.
Marks, Stephen, P. (2002). "Tying Prometheus down: The international law of human genetic manipulation." Chicago Journal of International Law 3(1): 115-136.
Marks discusses the assumptions underlying the specific instruments of international law that address genetic manipulation, and focuses on the human rights implications of these technologies. While international law cannot resolve the tension between hope for and fear of advances in biotechnology and genetics, it is already deeply engaged in the issue through international trade and property law.
Owens, Kelly N., Michelle Harvey-Blankenship, and Mary-Claire King. (2002). "Genomic sequencing in the service of human rights." International Journal of Epidemiology 31(1): 53-58.
Tools of genomic analysis have been used to assist the identification of victims of human rights violations. The authors describe two applications, the identification of a young adult Argentinian born in captivity 22 years ago when his mother was abducted and disappeared in Buenos Aires in 1978, and the identification of remains found in mass graves in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Engineering
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. (1983) "AIAA Position Paper on Human Rights."
Hoole, S. Ratnajeevn H. (2002) "Viewpoint: Human Rights in the Engineering Curriculum." International Journal of Engineering Education 18(6):618-626.
Hoole argues that it is important to teach human rights to all engineering students. But teaching human rights in countries where it is most needed, such as war torn Sri Lanka, is difficult due to the sensitivity of the subject.
Luegenbiehl, Heinz C. (2003) "Themes for an international code of engineering ethics."
Paper presented at the 2003 ASEE/WFEO International Colloquium.
Lynch, Daniel R. (2004). "A Human Rights Challenge to the Engineering Profession Ethical Dimensions and Leadership Opportunities in Professional Formation."
Paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exhibition.
Forensic Sciences
Skolnick, A. A. (1992). "Game's Afoot in Many Lands for Forensic Scientists Investigating Most-Extreme Human Rights Abuses." JAMA 268(5): 579.
Although plagued by death squads and political killings, Guatemala was the site of a training course, held in the summer of 1992, in the use of forensic science for the investigation of human rights abuses. The course established a team of forensic anthropologists in Guatemala who worked to identify victims of death squads.
Skolnick, A. A. (1995). "Forensic scientists helping Haiti heal." JAMA 274(15): 1181.
The AAAS Science and Human Rights Program created a team of forensic scientists to assist the Haitian Truth and Justice Commission to investigate atrocities that occurred during Haiti's military coup in 1994. Discusses inaccurate memories of witnesses and the exhumation of human remains along the Roboteau beach.
Skolnick, A. A. (2001). "Bearing Witness for the Dead: A Pathologist's Quest for Justice." Medhunters winter 2001: 14-17.
Describes the human rights work of Dr. Robert Kirschner.
Snow, Clyde C., Eric Stover, and Kari Hannibal. (1989). "Scientists as Detectives: Investigating Human Rights." Technology Review 92(2): 42.
Forensic scientists such as pathologists, archaeologists and geneticists helped to identify the "disappeared," victims of Argentina's military dictatorship killed between 1976 and 1983.
Tedeschi, Luke G. (1984) "Methodology in the forensic sciences: Documentation of human rights abuses." American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology 5(4):301-303.
Medical Sciences
Chapman, Audrey, R. (2009). "Globalization, Human Rights, and the Social Determinants of Health." Bioethics 23(2): 97-111.
This article reviews the potential contributions and limitations of human rights to achieving greater equity in shaping the social determinants of health.
Fink, Sheri L. (2000). "Physician groups and the war in Kosovo: Ethics, neutrality, and interventionism." JAMA 283(9): 1200.
Promotion of human rights has become an intimate concern of many physician groups, and conflicts may emerge between loyalty to human rights and loyalty to medical principles. The efforts of Physicians for Human Rights in Kosovo are examined.
Flanagin, Annette. (2000). "Human rights in the biomedical literature: The social responsibility of medical journals." JAMA 284(5): 618-619.
The editors of "JAMA" recognize that "The Journal" has a social responsibility to improve the total human condition and to promote the integrity of science. As a result, "JAMA's" editors will continue to publish an annual theme issue devoted to the subjects of human rights, violence and inhumanity.
Geiger, H. J. and R. M. Cook-Deegan (1993). "The role of physicians in conflicts and humanitarian crises: Case studies from the field missions of Physicians for Human Rights, 1988 to 1993." JAMA 270(5): 616-620.
The skills of physicians, medical and forensic scientists, and other health workers are uniquely valuable in human rights investigations and documentation, producing evidence of abuse more credible and less vulnerable to challenge than traditional methods of case reporting. Only in recent decades, however, have physicians organized specifically to meet this responsibility.
Grodin, M. A. and G. J. Annas (1996). "Legacies of Nuremberg: Medical ethics and human rights." JAMA 276(20): 1682-1683.
The 50th anniversary of the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Germany provides an important opportunity to reflect on its legacy to both medical ethics and human rights.
Leaning, Jennifer. (2001) "Health and human rights." British Medical Journal 322(7300): 1435-1436.
The British Medical Association considers it important to educate its constituency in human rights issues. Ignorance of human rights permits physicians to be drawn into unacceptable practices, such as participation in the death penalty or design of inhumane weapons systems. Moreover, as millions of people suffer injury as a matter of routine oppression, the medical profession cannot just sit by.
Mann, Jonathan M. (1997). "Medicine and public health, ethics and human rights." The Hastings Center Report 27(3): 6-13.
New relationships have been forged among medicine, public health, ethics and human rights, pressing the need for an ethics of public health and revealing the rights-related responsibilities of physicians.
Maxwell, R. S. and D. J. Pounder (1999). "The Medicine and Human Rights specials study module: A Physicians for Human Rights (UK) initiative." Medical Teacher 21(3): 294-298.
Human rights have been much neglected in medical education. An attempt to fill this gap was made by introducing a 'Medicine and Human Rights' special study module into the undergraduate programme at Dundee.
Orbinski, J., C. Beyrer, and S. Singh. (2007). "Violations of human rights: health practitioners as witnesses." The Lancet 370(9588): 698-704.
For humanitarian health-care practitioners bearing witness to violations of human dignity has become synonymous with denunciations, human rights advocacy, or lobbying for political change. With examples from the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the USA, the Rwandan genocide, and physician-led political activism in Nepal, the authors describe cases in which health practitioners act of bearing witness have had imperfect outcomes.
Sidel, V. W. (1996). "The social responsibilities of health professionals: Lessons from their role in Nazi Germany." JAMA 276(20): 1679-1681.
The actions of health professionals in Nazi Germany are being extensively discussed during this 50th anniversary year of the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Germany.
Wasunna, Angela Amondi. (2003). "Dual Loyalty and Human Rights: Proposed Guidelines and Institutional Mechanisms." The Hastings Center Report 33(4): 7.
Health professionals the world over encounter conflicts of dual loyalty, in which their professional obligations to their patients are pitted against the interest of others, like the state. In certain instances, these conflicts are severe enough that if health professionals resolve them appropriately, they contribute directly to human rights violations. Wasunna discusses proposed guidelines by a group of medical ethicists, human rights experts, and health practitioners, to address these problem in the medical profession.
Physical Sciences
"Learning human-rights lessons from physics." (1998) The Lancet 352(9138): 1401.
Editorial on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a time of reflection by organizations involved in the human-rights movement. Reflection is needed in the world of physics. Refers to an article by James Glanz (Science 282:216-218) in which Glanz argued that physicists' interest in human rights was waning.
Glanz, James."Human rights fades as a cause for scientists." (1998) Science 282: 216-218.
Now that China has replaced the former Soviet Union as the major focus of concern, human-rights activists meet with indifference or even hostility.
Schulz, W. G. (2003). "Securing Human Rights." Chemical & Engineering News 81(47): 21-24.
Schulz reports on networks of scientists and scientific societies that come to the aid of imperiled colleagues in securing human rights. He discusses how these networks are formalized at most major scientific societies, such as the American Chemical Society, which monitor and address scientific freedom and human rights worldwide.
Social Sciences
Landman, Todd. (2006). Studying Human Rights. New York: Routledge.
Landman offers a systematic synthesis of social scientific research and analysis to expand knowledge about the promotion and protection of human rights. Human rights practices provide evidentiary base upon which social scientific analysis can take place. Landman draws examples from the extant international law of human rights.
Anthropology
American Anthropological Association. (1999). Declaration on Anthropology and Human Rights.
Engle, Karen. (2001) "From Skepticism to Embrace: Human Rights and the American Anthropological Association 1947-1999." Human Rights Quarterly 23(3):536-559.
Engle explores the debate among anthropologists, ever since the AAAS submitted its Statement on Human Rights to the United Nations in 1947, over the tensions between the limits of tolerance and cultural relativism with the pursuit of more universal norms of social justice.
Goodale, Mark. (2008). Human Rights: An Anthropological Reader. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
A well-organized volume that includes a variety of methodologies and intellectual approaches within anthropology.
Messer, Ellen. (1993). "Anthropology and Human Rights," Annual Review of Anthropology 22: 221-249.
Reviews the engagement of anthropologists with human rights and controversies in anthropology over cultural relativism and their bearing on research and theory.
Economics
Seymour, Dan. (2008). "Human rights and economics: the conceptual basis for their complementarity," Development Policy Review 26: 387-406.
Human rights theory can help provide a normative framework that avoids some of the pitfalls of welfare theory, and can help economists deal with issues of exploitation and power relations. These complementarities have increased in importance as the development discourse incorporates legal and political issues previously considered beyond the scope of economists and development practitioners.
Geography
Bromley, L. (2009). "Eye in the Sky: Monitoring Human Rights Abuses Using Geospatial Technology." Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 10(1): 160.
Geospatial technologies have been influential in the advancement of commerce, humanitarian relief, and conservation. There are also significant possibilities for their use by human rights NGOs to monitor, intervene in, and prosecute massive human rights violations. Bromley examines the possibilities of developing and documenting applications of geospatial technologies for NGOs.
Richardson, Doug and Lars Bromley. (2008) "Geography and Human Rights." AAG Newsletter 43(8): 1-3.
Describes the American Association of Geographers' contributions to the AAAS Coalition on Science and Human Rights, to the AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project, and the development of AAG's Geography and Human Rights Clearinghouse.
Methodology
Asher, Jana, David Banks and Fritz J. Schueren, editors. (2007). Statistical Methods for Human Rights. Springer.
Statistics is central to the modern perspective on human rights. It allows researchers to measure the effect of health care policies, the penetration of educational opportunity, and progress towards gender equality. Non-governmental organizations need statistics to build cases, conduct surveys, and target their efforts. This book describes the statistics that underlie the social science research in human rights and is intended as an introduction to applied human rights research.
Ball, Patrick. (1996). Who Did What to Whom? Planning and Implementing a Large Scale Human Rights Data Project. Washington, DC: AAAS.
Ball describes how to design and develop information systems for human rights projects. He presents the criteria involved in data collection, data processing, database design, analytic reports, and the kinds of personnel and technology necessary.
Ball, Patrick, Herbert F. Spirer, and Louise Spirer, editors. (2000). Making the Case: Investigating Large Scale Human Rights Violations Using Information Systems and Data Analysis. Washington, DC: AAAS.
The contributors to this volume explain how information systems and data analysis were developed to assist human rights commissions in El Salvador, Haiti, and South Africa. There is particular focus on technical assistance provided to the Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification.
Grossman, W. M. (2003). "Fear and grokking on the war crimes trail." New Scientist 177: 48.
Presents an interview with Patrick Ball, then deputy director of the AAAS Science and Human Rights Program. Ball spent 12 years in designing software that turns information on human rights abuses into databases that can be used worldwide.
Sriram, Chandra Lekha, John C. King, Julie A. Mertus, Olga Martin-Ortega, and Johanna Herman, editors. (2009). Surviving Field Research: Working in Violent and Difficult Situations. Routledge.
This is a guide for researchers on the practical and ethical challenges of conducting qualitative field research into human rights abuses while working under difficult circumstances.
Political Science
Landman, Todd. (2006). Studying Human Rights. New York: Routledge.
There is now a recognized need for systematic social scientific research and analysis to expand knowledge about the promotion and protection of human rights. Human rights practices provide evidentiary base upon which social scientific analysis can take place. This book draws from the extant international law of human rights.
Mitchell, Neil J and James M. McCormick. (1988). "Economic and Political Explanations of Human Rights Violations." World Politics 40: 476-498.
In international comparisons of countries authors find that countries that are economically better off are more likely to adhere to human rights standards.
Psychology
Doise, Willem; Dario Spini, and Alain Clemence. (1999). "Human rights studied as social representations in a cross-national context," European Journal of Social Psychology 29: 1-29.
A questionnaire study using the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was conducted in 35 countries. The existence of a shared meaning system concerning the 30 articles in different countries was demonstrated. Individual attitudes toward the whole set of rights were proven to be highly consistent.
Ward, Tony. (2008). "Human rights and Forensic Psychology," Legal and Criminological Psychology 13: 209-218.
Explores the core values associated with human rights and suggest that one of their primary functions is to protect the internal and external conditions of individuals' agency and their pursuit of better lives. This is relevant for therapeutic jurisprudence, and the rights of detained persons.
Sociology
Blau, Judith. (2007)."What Would Sartre Say? What Would Arendt Reply?" [presidential address, Southern Sociological Society] Social Forces 85: 1063-1078.
Outlines how a philosophical framework of human rights can be translated into a social science of human rights. Jean-Paul Sartre and Hannah Arendt offer contrasting, but complementary conceptions.
Moncada, Alberto and Judith Blau. (2006) "Human Rights and the Role of Social Scientists," Societies without Borders 1: 113-122.
The authors sketch out some of the fundamentals of human rights and show how social scientists can engage human rights in their work. In particular they discuss inherent equalities, responsibilities in democratic societies, and rights as individuals and group members. This paper discusses the 'human rights revolution.'
Somers, Margaret and Christopher Roberts. (2008). "Toward a New Sociology of Rights: A Genealogy of 'Buried Bodies' of Citizenship and Human Rights." Annual Review of Law and Social Science 4: 385-425.
Authors discuss nascent but uncoordinated social science attention to rights and develop criteria for a new sociology of rights. At the nexus of human rights and citizenship rights we identify the public good of a "right to have rights," which expresses the institutional, social, and moral preconditions for human recognition and inclusion.
Turner, Bryan S. (2006). "Global Sociology and the Nature of Rights," Societies without Borders 1: 41-52.
Citizenship is a western concept, whereas human rights are universal. Discusses how human rights are also human responsibilities.
Right to Benefits of Science (Article 15)
Chapman, Audrey R. (2009)."Towards an Understanding of the Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress and Its Applications." Journal of Human Rights 8(1): 1-36.
Chapman reviews the right to the benefits of scientific progress in international human rights law and its historical background. She considers the human rights principles relevant to a human rights approach to the benefits of science and what it means to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research. Chapman also explores the obligations to respect, to protect, and to fulfill in relationship to the conservation, development, and diffusion of science.
Claude, Richard P. (2002). "Scientists' Rights and the Human Rights to the Benefits of Science," in Chapman and Russell, editors, Core Obligations: Building a Framework for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Intersentia, pp. 249-278.
Claude examines aspects of the history of Article 15 and reflects on what a minimum core content of the right to the benefits of scientific progress might entail. He also argues for developing a "violations approach" that documents violations of economic, social, and cultural rights in order to build a framework to assess the parameters of science-related rights.
Schabas, William A. (2007). "Study of the Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific and Technological Progress and its Applications," in Donder and Volodin, editors, Human Rights in Education, Science and Culture: Legal Developments and Challenges, UNESCO/Ashgate, pp 273-308.
Schabas describes the drafting process for Article 27 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and for Article 15 of the International Covenant. He argues that the right to the benefits of scientific progress necessarily interacts with other rights, such as the right to health and food, but that defining this right had been neglected until debates over intellectual property rights began to recognize its importance.
Wyndham, Jessica. (December 10, 2008). How can we uphold the right to science?" SciDev.net.
Wyndham argues, among other things, that scientists and scientific associations should play a leading role in defining the right to the benefits of scientific progress by considering how this right applies to their work, research, training, and teaching.
Right to Food
Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. (May 12, 1995). "General Comment No. 12, The right to adequate food," U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1999/5.
Haugen, Hans Morten (2005). "The Right to Food, the Right to Benefit from Science and the TRIPS Agreement," in W. B. Eide and U. Kracht, editors, Food and Human Rights in Development. Intersentia, pp. 425-460.
Haugen examines the impact of the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organization upon the capabilities of states to implement their obligations to ensure the fundamental right to food and the freedom from hunger.
Kent, George, editor. (2008). Global Obligations for the Right to Food. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
While governments have primary obligations for assuring the realization of the right to food for people under their jurisdiction, we are all responsible in some measure. This book explores the various actions that should be undertaken by governments, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals.
Kunneman, Rolf and Sandra Epal-Ratjen. (2004). The Right to Food: A Resource Manual for NGOs. AAAS, 120 pp.
A resource manual for NGOs commissioned from FIAN International (FoodFirst Information and Action Network) by AAAS and HURIDOCS with funding from the Ford Foundation and the UK Department of International Development.
Right to Health
Claude, Richard Pierre and Wissel B. Issel. (1998). "Health, Medicine and Science in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Health and Human Rights 3(2): 127-142.
The authors describe the debates and diverse perspectives of United Nations representatives responsible for formulating Article 25 (relating to health and medical care) and 27 (relating to science) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These articles supply important normative guidelines for human rights and public health policy. UN representatives agreed that scientists deserve freedom in their work, but modified Article 27 by adding that the general public should share in the benefits of science.
Farmer, Paul. (1999). "Pathologies of power: rethinking health and human rights," American Journal of Public Health 89(10): 1486-1496.
Farmer argues that “careful study reveals that state power has been responsible for most human rights violations and that most violations are embedded in "structural violence"--social and economic inequities that determine who will be at risk for assaults and who will be shielded. He advances an agenda for research and action grounded in the struggle for social and economic rights, an agenda suited to public health and medicine.
Faunce, Thomas A. (2007). "Nanotechnology in Global Medicine and Human Biosecurity: Private Interests, Policy Dilemmas, and the Calibration of Public Health Law." The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 35(4): 629-642.
Faunce analyzes the normative challenges posed by nanotechnology, such as: the risk of DNA damage from engineered nanoparticles in medicines that were "fast track" approved and aggressively marketed directly to consumers, the high cost of technically "innovative" nanomedicines that offer only marginal public health improvements, and the risk of ubiquitous intrusions in private life through far more efficient nanotechnology surveillance equipment for emergent infectious disease and bioterrorist threats.
Gruskin, S., E. Mills, and D. Tarantola. (2007). "History, principles, and practice of health and human rights." The Lancet, 370(9585): 449-455.
Individuals and populations suffer violations of their rights that affect health and wellbeing. Health professionals have a part to play in reduction and prevention of these violations and ensuring that health-related policies and practices promote rights. Authors discuss the changing views of human rights in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and propose further development of the right to health by increased practice, evidence, and action.
Jacobson, Peter D. and Soheil Soleman. (2002). "Co-opting the health and human rights movement." The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 30(4): 705-715.
The authors argue that the health and human rights rhetoric is susceptible to being co-opted by industry opponents of public health initiatives. For example, they argue that opponents have co-opted the human rights language in battles over tobacco and gun control policy to the detriment of desirable public health goals. They discuss the limits to embedding human rights in law and argue that a more effective strategy might be to organize public health social movements.
Mann, Jonathan M. "Health and human rights." (1996). British Medical Journal 312(7036): 924-925.
Editorial discusses the current health and human rights movement. The world of health and human rights has moved away from simplistic assumptions about a necessary conflict between public health goals and human rights norms.
Marks, Stephen P. (2002). "The evolving field of health and human rights: Issues and methods." The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 30(4): 739-754.
This commentary surveys the papers in this issue both to take stock of the health and human rights movement and to engage the authors in a dialogue on the interconnectedness and mutually reinforcing character of health and human rights in research on AIDS and other diseases, the international economy, the role of law, and measuring human rights performance.
Singh, J. A., M. Govendar, and E. Mills. (2007). "Do human rights matter to health?" The Lancet 370(9586): 521-527.
Legal instruments and litigation as a way to enforce the rights to life and to health is a relatively new strategy that is increasingly common. We show how legal measures have been used to attain health and human rights with case examples from India and South Africa that resulted in large public-health benefits.
Tarantola, Daniel. (2008). "A Perspective on the History of Health and Human Rights: from the Cold War to the Gold War," Journal of Public Health Policy 29: 42-53.
This article examines the emergence of human rights and the rise of health on the international development agenda as the Cold War was ending. It highlights the convergence of health and human rights in academic and public discourse since the end of the Cold War in a context of political and economic shifts linked to the ongoing economic globalization.
Right to Housing
Barber, Rebecca J. (2008). "Protecting the Right to Housing in the Aftermath of Natural Disaster: Standards in International Human Rights Law," International Journal of Refugee Law 20: 432-468.
Barber considers the applicability of human rights law (specifically economic, social and cultural rights) in the aftermath of a natural disaster. She discusses the right to housing and the obligations of countries to fulfill this right in the course of responding to a disaster, drawing on examples from the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004), the Pakistan earthquake (2005) and the South Asian floods (2007).
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (Dec. 12, 1991). "General Comment No. 4, The right to adequate housing," U.N. Doc. E/1992/23 annex III at 114.
Right to Water
Bluemel, Erik B. (2005). "The Implications of Formulating a Human Right to Water," Ecology Law Quarterly 31:957.
The human right to water is not fully defined by current international law or practice, but it has been protected as necessary to secure other human rights, such as the rights to health, well-being and life. State obligations to this right depend upon which human right a right to water is found to support or whether the human right to water is found to be a separate and independent human right from other rights.
Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. (November 26, 2002). "General Comment No. 15, The Right to Water," U.N.Doc E/C.12/2002/11.
Gorsboth, Maike. (2006). "Identifying and Addressing Violations of the Human Right to Water: Applying the Human Rights Approach." Brot fur die Welt.
Provides an introduction that describes the right to water and criteria to identify and address violations of the right to water in specific situations.
Hardberger, Amy. (2005). "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Water: Evaluating Water as a Human Right and the Duties and Obligations It Creates," North Western Journal of International Human Rights 4:331.
Hardberger demonstrates the need to establish water as a human right and thereby raise the right to water to the status of customary law.
Hardberger, Amy. (2006). "Whose Job Is It Anyway?: Government Obligations Created by the Human Right to Water," Texas International Law Journal 41:533.
Harberger analyzes the consequences for governments if the human right to water becomes an accepted norm of international law. She expands the traditional notion that a human right is enforceable by a citizen against her government by investigating intra-governmental responsibilities in different situations.
Scanlon, John, et. al. (2004). "Water as a Human Right?" IUCN environmental policy and law paper, no. 51.
Explores the benefits and content of a right to water. Asks what mechanisms would be required for effective implementation of a right to water and whether the duty to realize the right should be placed solely on governments alone or also be borne by private actors.
Rights of Scientists
Seltzer, R. (1996). "Scientists can make a difference in defending colleagues' human rights." Chemical & Engineering News 74(22): 36.
Scientists have long wrestled with the issues of what they can - and should - do to help colleagues around the world whose human rights are being violated. This article discusses the efforts of the Committee on Human Rights (CHR) sponsored jointly by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
Ethics
Annas, George J. (2004). "American Bioethics and Human Rights: The End of All Our Exploring." The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 32(4): 658-663.
American bioethics can be reborn as an effective force for promoting both health and human rights by recognizing its common historical roots with international human rights in World War II, especially the Nuremberg tribunals and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bioethics, health law, and human rights are all members of a globalized human rights community that takes individual rights, the right to health, and the public's health as core concerns.
Arsanjani, Mahnoush H. (2006). "Negotiating the UN Declaration on Human Cloning," The American Journal of International Law 100(1): 164-179.
Baker, Robert. (2001) "Bioethics and Human Rights: A Historical Perspective." Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 10(3): 241-252.
Bioethics and human rights were conceived in the aftermath of the Holocaust, when moral outrage reenergized the outmoded concepts of "medical ethics" and "natural rights," renaming them "bioethics," and "human rights" to give them new purpose. Originally, the principles of bioethics were a means for protecting human rights, but through a historical accident, bioethical principles came to be considered as fundamental. Baker urges reconciliation of bioethics and human rights.
Beyrer, Chris and E. K. Nancy (2002). "Human rights, politics, and reviews of research ethics." The Lancet 360(9328): 246.
Authors argue that researchers should determine whether research could or should be done by consulting human rights organisations and, when possible, a trusted colleague, to learn the background political context and human rights conditions of the settings in which they propose to do research.
Cameron, Nigel M. de S., and Anna V. Henderson. (2008) "Brave New World at the General Assembly: The United Nations Declaration on Human Cloning," Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology 9(1):145-238.
The authors discuss how debate on human cloning, held during the United Nations General Assembly between 2000 and 2004, divided the United States and the United Kingdom, but sparked a coalition of developing world states with the Bush Administration.
Faunce, T. A. (2005). "Will international human rights subsume medical ethics? Intersections in the UNESCO Universal Bioethics Declaration," Journal of Medical Ethics 31:173-178.
Author discusses whether the process involved in the drafting of a Universal Bioethics Declaration would facilitate bioethics and, in particular, medical ethics, being subsumed by the normative system of international human rights.
Langlois, Adele. (2008). "The UNESCO Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights: Perspectives from Kenya and South Africa," Health Care Analysis 16:39-51.
In October 2005, UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. As a non-binding instrument, the declaration must be incorporated by UNESCO’s member states into their national laws, regulations or policies in order to take effect. Based on documentary evidence and data from interviews, this paper compares the declaration’s universal principles with national bioethics guidelines and practice in Kenya and South Africa.
Ryan, Maura A. (2008). "Health and Human Rights." Theological Studies 69(1): 144-163.
The AIDS pandemic has focused renewed attention on the relationship between the promotion of health and the protection of human rights. Recent work by Paul Farmer and others challenges bioethics to address urgent questions of global health equity not only on the level of method but in the form of strategic partnerships with the most vulnerable populations. This article highlights both the promise and the limits of a human rights framework for bioethics.
Stover, Eric and Harvey Weinstein (2001). "Health, Human Rights, and Ethics." Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 10(3): 335.
Public health and human rights are complementary--and, at times, conflicting--approaches to protecting and promoting human well-being and dignity. Public health addresses the needs of populations and seeks, through intervention and education, to prevent the spread of disease. Human rights describe the obligations of governments to safeguard their citizenry from harm and to create conditions where each individual can achieve his or her full potential. Human rights norms lie at the core of public health theory and practice, and their enforcement can help to ensure an equitable distribution of health resources.
Thomasma, David, C. (1997). "Bioethics and international human rights." The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 25(4): 295-306.
Noting how the spread of medical technology is creating clashes with traditional values and within cultures, Thomasma addresses the clash between Western rights-based incentives, as used by the UN to guarantee respect for life and dignity, and communitarian traditions. A mean between wholesale cultural relativism and international absolutism is proposed.
Education
Willems, Gwen M. (2006). "A Comparative Approach to Human Rights Education," Education and Society, 24: 87-97.
Willems explores human rights education today in the United States and how, in a time of changing international power dynamics, a comparative approach to complex human rights stories can facilitate meaningful learning. She argues that teaching about human rights in a comparative framework is a powerful educational tool that promotes critical thinking skills and civic competence.
Environment
Caney, Simon. (2008) "Human rights, climate change, and discounting." Environmental Politics 17(4): 536-555.
Derman, Bill and Anne Ferguson. (1995). "Human rights, environment, and development: The dispossession of fishing communities on Lake Malawi." Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal 23: 125-142.
Examines how the linked processes of economic development, political power and environmental change are transgressing the rights of fishing communities on the shores of Lake Malawi in Africa. Nature of political ecology; Political and economic status of Malawi; Eviction of Mdulumanja fishing community.
Johnston, Barbara Rose. (1995). "Human rights and the environment." Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Journal 23: 111-123.
Introduction to issue of Human Ecology that focuses on the interrelated nature of crisis in human and environmental systems and argues that the right to a healthy environment is a fundamental human right.
Kalin, Walter and Claudine Haenni Dale. (2008). "Disaster Risk Mitigation--Why Human Rights Matter," Forced Migration Review 31: 38-39.
Examines deaths due to natural disasters as human rights violations of the state.
Ryan, Maura A. (2006). "The Politics of Risk: A Human Rights Paradigm for Children's Environmental Health Research." Environmental Health Perspectives 114(10): 1613-1616.
A human rights paradigm for environmental health research incorporates support for community-based, participatory research and takes seriously the social responsibilities of researchers. A human rights approach may be better able than conventional bioethics to address the unique issues that arise in the context of pediatric environmental health research, particularly the place of environmental justice standards in research.
Sachs, Wolfgang. (2008). "Climate Change and Human Rights," Development 51: 332-337.
Sachs makes the case that cuts in fossil fuel use are imperative not only to protect the atmosphere but also to protect human rights.
United Nations Human Rights Council. (2009).
"Human Rights Council holds panel discussion on climate change and human rights." UN Press Release, 15 June 2009.
Intellectual Property
Chapman, Audrey R. (2000). "Approaching intellectual property as a human right: Obligations related to Article 15(1)(c)," UN Doc. E/C. 12/2000/12, 3 October 2000.
Chapman warns that unless human rights advocates provide an adequate counterweight to economic interests, the intellectual property landscape will be reshaped without adequate consideration of the impact on human rights.
Green, Maria. (2000). "Drafting history of Article 15(1)(c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," UN Doc. E/C. 12/2000/15, 9 October 2000.
Green carefully analyzes the historical language and meanings behind the drafting of Article 15 in the late 1940s and early 1940. She observes that the drafters did not appear to deeply consider the difficult balance between public needs and private rights when it comes to intellectual property.
Loff, Bebe and Mark Heywood. (2002). "Patents on drugs: Manufacturing scarcity or advancing health?" The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 30(4): 621-631.
Authors presents evidence of the impact of patents on health and access to medicine using South Africa, Brazil, and Thailand as case studies. Intellectual property law as now partnered with world trade law is a significant determinant of a medicine's price and therefore of who has access to what drugs. An argument is made to support the precedence of human rights, such as the right to health, over intellectual property rights.
Millum, J. (2008). "Are pharmaceutical patents protected by human rights?" Journal of Medical Ethics 34(11): E25.
The International Bill of Rights enshrines a right to health, which includes a right to access essential medicines. This right frequently appears to conflict with the intellectual property regime that governs pharmaceutical patents. However, there is also a human right that protects creative works, including scientific productions. Millum examines an attempt by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to resolve this issue.
Sheremeta, Lorraine and Bartha Maria Knoppers. (2003). "Beyond the rhetoric: population genetics and benefit-sharing." Health Law Journal 11: 89-117.
Views on intellectual property protection differ substantially between the North and the South. The South tends to view the accumulation of intellectual property on human genetic material as antithetical to their world-view. The industrialized North tends to favour strong intellectual property protection and a broad interpretation of patentable subject matter. However, some "Southern" states, including Brazil, have utilized intellectual property to protect non-human biological materials. This perceived dichotomy may be over-exaggerated as demonstrated by the more nuanced position adopted by the World Health Organization with respect to "Genomics and World Health".
Yu, Peter K. (2007). "Reconceptualizing Intellectual Property Interests in a Human Rights Framework," University of California Davis Law Review 40: 1039-1149.
Yu provides a brief history of the drafting of article 27(2) of the UDHR and article 15(1)(c) of the ICESCR. He recaptures the politically-charged environment under which the two instruments were created and the controversy surrounding the protection of moral and material interests in intellectual creations. He then discusses the various attributes of intellectual property rights that are protected by international or regional human rights instruments and explores approaches that have been used to resolve conflicts between human rights and the non-human rights aspects of intellectual property protection.
Further Resources (online)
AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, Publications
This list of publications documents the work of the program since its inception in 1977. Links to pdfs for more current publications are included.
AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, Resources on Article 15
AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, Environment and Human Rights Resources
Contains resources on human rights, environmental protection (including U.S. laws and agencies as well as international treaties) and the links between them.
AcademicInfo, Human Rights Resources
The human rights section in this education resource includes links to other databases as well as articles.
American Medical Student Association, Health and Human Rights Resource List
British Medical Journal
Free access to articles prior to 1 January 1996. Requires registering to set up login.
Health and Human Rights Journal
Many articles are available online via collaboration with JSTOR.
Human Rights Education Association
The Global Human Rights Education Network
Human Rights Resource Center
Part of the University of Minnesota collection, for educators.
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Human Rights Collection
Subscription required.
The Lancet
Some articles made free of charge. Requires registering to set up login (also free).
National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine: Online Syllabus Archive
No category on "human rights" per se, but articles under topics such as environment, globalization, health, and others may be relevant. Syllabi are linked as PDF documents.
National Service Learning Clearinghouse
The NSLC Library Catalog holds some 385 articles and monographs that describe service learning projects with human rights components and teaching tools.
The New York Times: Times Topics>Subjects>F>Freedom and Human Rights
United Nations Documents
University of Minnesota, Human Rights Library
More than 60,000 documents.
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