July 16, 2015
Around the world, human rights violations compromise public health. Sexual violence, unlawful discrimination, land dispossession, police harassment, forced medical interventions, and denial of essential services threaten health and wellbeing. This is especially true for people who are socially marginalized and disempowered. Programmes that improve these communities’ access to justice can play critical roles in deterring such abuses. The new resource ‘Justice Programs for Public Health: A Good Practice Guide’ unpacks key lessons and challenges that Open Society Foundations (OSF), which recently published the resource, have identified through their work in this regard.
This guide is a comprehensive tool both for justice organizations interested in addressing pressing public health needs, and public health groups that recognize justice is as critical to public health as medicine. It is also a resource for funders of health or justice programs. The guide details and explains the approaches noted above, offers examples of successful activities and actions, and defines the chief health and human rights concerns of six populations that have been the focus of Open Society Foundations (sex workers, Roma, people who live with HIV, use drugs, need palliative care, and have intellectual or psychosocial disabilities), though its lessons apply broadly.
The guide will also be available in Russian at the end of 2015.
Download Justice Programs for Public Health: A Good Practice Guide, Open Society Foundations, July 2015