Health and human rights
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Health and human rights · Jan 2011
The health and human rights of survivors of gun violence: charting a research and policy agenda.
The health and human rights implications of violently acquired impairments (VAI), specifically gun-related injuries and trauma resulting in disability, represent an overlooked public policy concern. For several decades, detailed attention has been committed to better understanding of the international arms trade and its consequences. A discursive shift in the last decade from "small arms control" as the core objective (a "hardware" focus on the weapons themselves) to "armed violence prevention" (a focus on impacts, wider drivers, and solutions) still requires a rigorous set of objectives that respond to the rights and needs of survivors of such violence. ⋯ Efforts to address armed violence typically pivot around two goals: reduction and prevention. But what of those already injured? This article argues that a third goal is overdue for attention: response to those injured, impaired, and disabled from gun violence. This would allow a clear pathway for progress (conceptual, political, policy, and practice) to be defined related to gun violence under the ambit of three overarching goals: reducing existing gun violence; responding to those already injured, traumatized, and impaired by such violence; and preventing future violence from occurring.
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Health and human rights · Jan 2011
International law, national policymaking, and the health of trafficked people in the UK.
Human trafficking has been recognized both by the international community and many individual states around the world as a serious violation of human rights. Trafficking is associated with extreme violence and a range of physical, mental, and sexual health consequences. Despite the extreme nature of the harm caused by human trafficking, harm is not a concept that is integrated in the definition of trafficking or in policies to address the health of trafficked people. This paper examines the United Kingdom's response to human trafficking as a case study to explore national policy responses to the health needs of trafficked people and assess the willingness of UK authorities to implement international and regional law in securing trafficked people's health rights. ⋯ International and regional instruments that provide specific or mandated instruction about states' health care obligations can be effective in furthering the health rights of vulnerable migrant groups. The UK government has demonstrated limited appetite for exceeding its minimum obligations to provide for the health of trafficked people, however, and key principles for promoting the health rights of trafficked people are yet to be fulfilled.
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Health and human rights · Jan 2011
Identification of human trafficking victims in health care settings.
An estimated 18,000 individuals are trafficked into the United States each year from all over the world, and are forced into hard labor or commercial sex work. Despite their invisibility, some victims are known to have received medical care while under traffickers' control. Our project aimed to characterize trafficking victims' encounters in US health care settings. ⋯ This exploration of survivors' experiences in health care settings supports anecdotal reports that US health care providers may unwittingly encounter human trafficking victims. Increasing awareness of human trafficking, and modifying practice to facilitate disclosure, could improve victim identification.