[psych-hr] Call for essays on health and human rights

CALL FOR SHORT ESSAYS:  HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Human Rights Dialogue, the quarterly publication of the Carnegie Council
on Ethics and International Affairs' Human Rights Initiative, is seeking
short essay contributions for its Spring/Summer 2001 issue on health and
human rights, a special collaborative project with the François-Xavier
Bagnaud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public
Health. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "everyone
has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing
and medical care*" (Article 25).  Yet linking health and human rights is
relatively new.  Even as recently as a decade ago, it was uncommon to make
connections between health issues and human rights. Some efforts to link
health and human rights have lowered the barriers between conceptions of
human rights perceived as operating at the elite level and in the Global
North, and the legitimacy of rights among the general population.
Closing this gap between a completely "top-down" process and the embracing
of international human rights at the grassroots level has been a central
concern of Dialogue. This issue of Dialogue will examine critically to
what extent health and human rights can be considered a success story in
these terms, and where the discipline may still encounter obstacles in the
struggle to legitimate human rights, particularly in the experiences of
health care professionals themselves.

Human Rights Dialogue seeks essays that feature the perspectives and
experiences of local health care practitioners, including doctors, nurses,
midwives and public health specialists, policy-makers and human rights
activists specifically concerned with health issues and advocacy on behalf
of those in need of medical care, both in the U.S. and abroad.  The
following concerns serve as guidelines for essay submissions:

· In what ways are health care practitioners making use of human rights
norms, concepts, and language?
· How has the incorporation of human rights norms changed the field of
health over the last 10-15 years?
· What are some of the ways that the efforts to link health and human
rights have proved to be effective in promoting the legitimacy of human
rights?
· How has the issue of neutrality of health workers been affected by the
adaptation of the human rights framework?
· What have been the relations between Western-based health and human
rights organizations local groups concerned with health and human rights?
· What is the intersection between local cultural norms and the use of
universal human rights norms in the right to health?

Possible areas of focus under the rubric of health and human rights
include:  HIV/AIDS, TB and other communicable diseases; health care
delivery to refugees and civilian populations affected by armed conflict;
mental health; health care issues in post-communist countries;
environmentally-related illnesses; aging; poverty; forced sterilization
and euthanasia; medical testing on humans; and the recognition of health
as a human right.

Submissions should be 1000-1300 words and written in English. It should be
understood that articles in excess of the stated word length will have to
be shortened, due to space constraints. We seek essays written in an
engaging, informal, and testimonial style.  We do NOT seek articles that
are academic in tone or include footnotes.  Contributors are encouraged to
use interviews in their essays.  Please see
<http://www.cceia.org/themes/hrd.html> for previous issues of Human Rights
Dialogue.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 9.  Publication in Dialogue
is competitive.  Authors of selected essays should be prepared to respond
to edits and queries on their submissions.  An honorarium of $100 is
awarded to authors whose work is selected for publication.

We encourage those planning to submit to contact us about their plans for
their articles as soon as possible.  Interested parties should direct
their inquiries to:  Jess Messer, jmesser@cceia.org or tel. 212-838-4120
or fax:  212-752-2432.

ABOUT THE CARNEGIE COUNCIL AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE

The Carnegie Council, based in New York City, is a nonpartisan,
nonsectarian organization dedicated to research and education at the
intersection of ethics and international affairs.  The goal of the
Carnegie Council's Human Rights Initiative is to examine the barriers that
prevent a broad cross-section of people from embracing and benefiting from
human rights, and explore ways to overcome such barriers.

Human Rights Dialogue was introduced in 1993 in conjunction with the
Carnegie Council's Human Rights Initiative.  A quarterly publication,
Dialogue grapples with fundamental human rights dilemmas by featuring the
voices of local actors and those who are directly impacted by human rights
violations throughout the world.  True to its name, Dialogue is a forum
for academics, policy makers, practitioners, and others concerned with
human rights. Within its pages, they exchange experiences and innovative
approaches that address on-going debates.  Dialogue's 5000 readers include
influential actors and organizations throughout the world.  Thousands more
access the publication through our website.

Please contact us or consult our website, www.cceia.org for more
information.