University of New South Wales - The Initiative for Health and Human Rights

IHHR has two main aims:

To advance the understanding of a mutually reinforcing interaction between health and human rights through research and teaching; and
To develop capacity to research, document and debate health and human rights issues within Australia and in the rest of the world, in particular in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Initiative advances its agenda through Research, Education and Training, Service and Advocacy. It builds on contributions from students, organisations, health practitioners, human rights practitioners, policy makers and civil society, in particular members of communities who are denied access to health and human rights. IHHR will advance health and human rights as both the area of study and a new, composite method of research.

New opportunities and risks are associated with the key issues for the new millennium. Economic pressure, conflicts and natural disasters impact particularly vulnerable populations. Other emerging issues with economic globalisation, aging and widening gaps between health needs are consequences and responses to these needs, these include widespread movements of people through labour and forced migration. Increasingly, the mutually reinforcing interactions between health and human rights are being used to analyse and address these emerging issues. The IHHR develops integrated strategies to examine the intersection between health and human rights from new viewpoints. This works to serve as the foundation for an interdisciplinary and international research network. The results are used to strengthen civil society efforts to apply health and human rights principles and build the evidence base. The work of the IHHR is based on the following assumptions:

Progress in health results from fulfilment of a broad array of human rights;
Breaches of human rights have detrimental consequences on physical and mental health;
Equality, non-discrimination and dignity are key characteristics of human rights, and are central to improving health
Attention to human rights in health and to health in human rights will produce the most effective combined outcomes
Quality research can define structural and social changes necessary to advance both health and human rights.

In September 2005, the three Faculties established the UNSW Initiative for Health and Human Rights (IHHR) as the first ever academic, multidisciplinary initiative on health and human rights. Despite the apparent intuitive connections between Health and Human Rights, the bridging of these 2 fields is relatively new and unchartered. Aware of the unique opportunity to advance health and human rights research and education, NewSouth Global (NSG), the international education, training and consultancy arm of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), funded the establishment of a Chair in Health and Human Rights within the University starting in July 2005. An important feature of the newly created Professorship in Health and Human Rights is the supportive and catalytic role it plays with regards to the three UNSW Faculties of Arts and Social Science, Law and Medicine.

Bringing together knowledge, experience and methods from the fields of Social Sciences, Law and Health.