[The following represents solely my own views and does not necessarily represent the views of the institution.] As we approach the year-end, a time when the importance of peace is celebrated around the world, in too many places there is war: Gaza, Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, Yemen, Congo, and more. Many receive little global attention, and all have unacceptable numbers of civilian casualties.
The Universal Declaration at 75 – Looking Back and Forward
On December 10th, 2023, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the seminal and aspirational foundation for post World War II human rights principles, will turn 75. At the time of its signing, the Declaration encapsulated the contradictions of a world order in which the signatory states proclaimed “the inherent dignity and…the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” while many still maintained colonies whose peoples were…
Continue reading “The Universal Declaration at 75 – Looking Back and Forward”
FXB Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Overturning Roe v. Wade
June 24, 2022 — The U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade today, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists. The decision means that abortion rights – namely access to safe and essential reproductive health services – will likely be rolled back in nearly half of the states imminently, with more restrictions likely to follow. In response to the decision,…
Continue reading “FXB Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Overturning Roe v. Wade”
Project N95, Harvard FXB Center Launch Masks for Communities to Distribute 1m Units of Respiratory Protection
Working with 23 community groups in 10 states Project N95 and Harvard FXB Center will distribute 1m masks to communities in need. Watch our video here National not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) group Project N95, has partnered with the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University to distribute 1 million respirators in local communities at no cost. Working with 23 community groups in 10 states (see list below), the…
FXB Director of Research Prof. Jacqueline Bhabha Provides Insight on Conflict in Ukraine
“In the past two weeks, 2 million Ukrainian citizens and residents have fled the relentless military violence unleashed on their country by Russian President Putin. Images of innocent civilians forced to flee life-threatening attacks on their homes and communities are all too familiar. In less than a decade we have already witnessed massive forced migration from Syria, Myanmar, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Tigray. Again and again, global publics have been…
FXB Instructor Calls for Protections for Massachusetts’ Immigrant Community
FXB Health and Human Rights Research Fellow Dr. Margaret Sullivan recently submitted written testimony in support of Massachusetts Legislature bills S.1579 and H.2418. The bills are known as the Safe Communities Act and aim protect basic rights and ensure every resident can seek health care, protection and emergency assistance without fear of deportation or detention. Sullivan, an instructor and family nurse practitioner at a community health center, shared her immigrant…
Continue reading “FXB Instructor Calls for Protections for Massachusetts’ Immigrant Community”
FXB Center, University of Athens Launch Joint Program on Migration
The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, in collaboration with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and with the support of the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies in Greece and the United States, is launching a new program on migration and refugee studies in Greece. This partnership was announced today during a virtual event. This partnership begins with a new three-week intensive, interdisciplinary, summer…
Continue reading “FXB Center, University of Athens Launch Joint Program on Migration”
FXB Center Doctoral Student Cohort Member Submits Testimony in Support of Ending Solitary Confinement
Today, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights doctoral cohort member Jasmine D. Graves submitted written testimony in support of Massachusetts Legislature bills S.1578 and H.2504, which would provide criminal justice reform protections to all prisoners in segregated confinement in Massachusetts. Graves, a public health researcher and social impact strategist, shared her expertise and research on harms of segregated and restrictive housing in correctional settings. Read her submitted testimony: Dear…
FXB Center Joins Public Health & Human Rights for Mass and Cass Coalition; Calls on Boston Mayor Elect to Implement Health-Centered Approach
Today, as part of the new Public Health & Human Rights for Mass and Cass Coalition, the FXB Center called on Boston Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu to implement a health-centered approach to the intersecting crises at Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue. The area, more commonly known as “Mass. and Cass,” is home to unhoused individuals in need of public health supports and housing. The coalition recommends a six-point plan: Protect…
New Essay Draws Important Parallels Between Public Health and Atrocity Prevention, Systems Designed to Protect From Harm
FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Senior Fellow and Harvard T.H. Chan Professor Jennifer Leaning recently compared approaches to prevention and early warning in public health to those for mass atrocity. Her essay, “Prevention in Public Health and Atrocity: A Comparative Approach to Early Warning for Early Action,” appears in the latest issue of Politorbis, an official publication of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. As Leaning posits, “An understanding of…
At the Intersection of Human Migration and Climate Change: New Article Puts Out Call to Action
In a new article published in Current Environmental Health Reports this week, faculty and fellows from the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University examine the complexities at the intersection of human migration and climate change. As powerfully argued by Drs. Satchit Balsari, Caleb Dresser and Jennifer Leaning in “Climate Change, Migration and Civil Strife,” migration must be anticipated as a certainty, and thereby planned for and supported.…
New Article – Every Body Counts: Measuring Mortality From the COVID-19 Pandemic
A new article, published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine, examines how relying solely on death certificate data can result in an underestimate of COVID-19 mortality rates, making it difficult to assess the true toll of the pandemic. The article’s authors, FXB Center Fellow Mathew Kiang, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Professors Rafael Irizarry and Caroline Buckee, and FXB Center Fellow Dr. Satchit Balsari, propose ways to…
Continue reading “New Article – Every Body Counts: Measuring Mortality From the COVID-19 Pandemic”
Study Finds Rate of COVID-19 in Massachusetts Jails and Prisons Is Three Times the General Rate in the State
A recent epidemiological study finds that the rate of COVID-19 for incarcerated individuals in Massachusetts is almost three times that of the state’s general population and five times that of the U.S. general population. As shown in Figure B (caption below), the study also finds that higher rates of decarceration are linked to lower rates of COVID-19. Dr. Monik C. Jiménez, Tori L. Cowger, Dr. Lisa E. Simon, Maya Behn,…
FXB Center Remembers Elaine Wolfensohn
The FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University is sad to announce the passing of Elaine Wolfensohn, who represented her husband Jim Wolfensohn on the FXB Center’s Advisory Committee. For over forty years, Mrs. Wolfensohn was involved in the field of education and arts education while raising her family. Her work in Australia and the United States included teaching in private schools, creating teen tutoring programs in…
Study Finds CDC Population Weighting Distorts Racial/Ethnic Inequities in U.S. COVID-19 Deaths
A new research letter in JAMA Network Open argues that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underestimates the excess burden of COVID-19 deaths among Black, Latinx, and Asian communities by comparing the percentage of U.S. COVID-19 deaths by race/ethnicity with a weighted distribution of U.S. racial/ethnic populations rather than with corresponding U.S. Census data—a distortion that has the potential to affect resource allocation. FXB Center for Health…
COVID-19 Health Justice Advisory Committee Joint Statement Issues Juneteenth Statement
The following statement was issued by the Poor People’s Campaign COVID-19 Health Justice Advisory Committee on June 19, 2020. FXB Center Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Executive Director Natalia Linos and Director of Communications Veronica Lewin serve on the committee. Learn more about the committee here. Watch committee members read the statement here. “The United States is facing an important moment in its history. We have entered the sixth month…
FXB Center Leadership Calls for Protections for McDonald’s Employees
In solidarity with workers, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights Director Dr. Mary T. Bassett and Executive Director Natalia Linos co-signed an open letter urging McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski to adequately protect the safety of employees and consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the letter, the experts point to “a pattern of severe shortcomings by McDonald’s,” including failure to provide adequate PPE and to inform workers when they are…
Continue reading “FXB Center Leadership Calls for Protections for McDonald’s Employees”
Responding to the Domestic Violence Crisis of COVID-19
By Roshni Chakraborty Worldwide, countries have imposed lockdowns and issued stay-at-home orders to mitigate the community transmission of COVID-19. For many, however, staying at home poses a greater threat to their health than leaving. Activists and governments around the world have reported an alarming spike in domestic violence since social distancing measures were adopted. The United Nations has called for a domestic violence “ceasefire,” raising its concerns about a “horrifying…
Continue reading “Responding to the Domestic Violence Crisis of COVID-19”
Dr. Mary T. Bassett’s Statement on COVID-19 for the Poor People’s Campaign
At the request of the Poor People’s Campaign, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, released the following statement on the health equity impact of COVID-19: The United States was woefully unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, and now has the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the world. This was preventable. Knowing the inadequacies of our country’s health care and social…
Continue reading “Dr. Mary T. Bassett’s Statement on COVID-19 for the Poor People’s Campaign”
COVID-19: Observations from Spain
Dr. Sergio Aguayo, journalist and fellow at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, recently penned a column about how countries should respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the column, Dr. Aguayo writes about his experience in Spain during the beginning of the country’s response, and calls on the Mexican government to implement appropriate measures to curb the spread of the virus. Read the Viviendo España column here…
New Research on Socially Assigned Race and Health Inequity, and on Mass Incarceration and Preterm Birth
The 2019-20 Doctoral Student Cohort of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University continues to produce research on important social issues. Is Socially Assigned Race a Useful Category for Monitoring Racial Inequity in Health? A new International Journal for Equity in Health review examines the usefulness of socially assigned race, or the perception of one’s race by others, in monitoring and evaluating racial/ethnic inequities. Authored by…
Press Release: New Report Evaluates Innovative Approach to Child Protection in India
January 13, 2020 For Immediate Release A new FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University report underscores the need for innovative community strategies to prevent serious violations of children’s rights. The report, “Before, Not After: An Evaluation of CINI’s Preventative Approach to Child Protection in India,” authored by Elizabeth Donger and Jacqueline Bhabha, documents and evaluates the harm prevention work carried out by the children’s rights nonprofit…
New Study Highlights Critical Gaps in the United States’ Special Education System
A new Harvard Educational Review article, “Racial Differences in Special Education Identification and Placement,” examines how the United States’ special education system is failing to serve communities of color equitably from start to finish, from identification to classroom placement. The article, authored by Todd Grindal, Laura Schifter, Gabriel Schwartz, and Thomas Hehir, analyzes the anonymous data of approximately 4.5 million public school students living in three states around the country.…
Continue reading “New Study Highlights Critical Gaps in the United States’ Special Education System”
Trauma as a Border Control Strategy
By Jacqueline Bhabha and Mary T. Bassett The United States continues to pull ahead in a xenophobic race to the bottom, making fear and trauma central to its border control toolkit. The list is long: Executive orders purporting to ban Muslims, slashing refugee admission quotas, reversing well-established legal precedent protecting the right to asylum of rape and domestic violence survivors, the willful fueling of deportation fear among law-abiding residents, and…
London, 1971: The First World Roma Congress
For the past seven years, the Harvard FXB Center for Health & Human Rights has marked International Roma Day. In a guest blog, writer and activist Grattan Puxon (pictured above) explains the history of this important day. An excerpt of the blog is below. To read the full blog post, click here. An Account of the First World Roma Congress Held in London in 1971 By Grattan Puxon | Harvard…
Continue reading “London, 1971: The First World Roma Congress”
New Harvard FXB Report “Before Not After”: An Evidence-Based Assessment on Preventing Harm to Children
Most interventions designed to protect children from serious harm begin after that harm has occurred. Preventing the harm in the first place would be a far preferable strategy. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – the most widely ratified international human rights treaty in history – recognized this thirty years ago. It requires states to take measures to prevent violence, abuse, injury, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation to children…
We Celebrate Working Together For a More Equitable World
Best wishes for peace, health, and justice in 2019. From all of us at Harvard FXB.
Changes to Public Charge Regulations: A Threat to Immigrant and Public Health
Panelists: Andrew Cohen, JD; Leah Zallman, MPH, MD; Lara Jirmanus, MPH, MD. On December 5, Harvard FXB sponsored a panel on proposed changes in regulations around public charge and immigration. Dr. Lara Jirmanus, Andrew Cohen, and Dr. Leah Zallman presented; Professor Nancy Krieger moderated the panel and the lively question and answer session afterwards. Below is a summary of the highlights along with further information about making public comments and…
Continue reading “Changes to Public Charge Regulations: A Threat to Immigrant and Public Health”
Commenting on Regulations, an Example: Proposed Change to Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility
By Susan Lloyd McGarry Many in the public health community have concerns about the possible effects of proposed changes in regulations related to how US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security (US CIS, DHS) determines “public charge” as grounds to deny immigration visas and permanent residence. Harvard FXB sponsored an event in which experts discussed those concerns (read highlights of the event here). December 10 (coincidentally the seventieth…
Rapid Needs Assessment of the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar
In March 2018, researchers from Harvard FXB and BRAC (the Bangladeshi-based international nongovernmental organization) conducted a rapid assessment household survey among 800 Rohingya and host families in Ukhia and Teknaf in the District of Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh, on the border of Myanmar. Preliminary results are available here. The study underscored the alarmingly low levels of vaccination among the Rohingya in Myanmar, the high mortality rate among young men…
Continue reading “Rapid Needs Assessment of the Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar”
Leading with Science: One Year After Hurricane Maria
On the first year anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, several of the senior authors of the May 2018 New England Journal of Medicine paper “Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria” discussed the motivation and rationale for the study, the significance of their findings, the impact of their research, and their decision to release all their data and code online. The September 21 panel, Beyond…
Continue reading “Leading with Science: One Year After Hurricane Maria”
Letter from the Director, Dr. Jennifer Leaning
Dear colleagues, In the two years since our last report, the major issues that drive our work have become more prominent and more exiguous. As of 2018, one of every 110 people on earth is either an asylum seeker, refugee, or internally displaced. The calamitous wars in Syria and Yemen, the ferocity of the Myanmar regime against its Rohingya citizens, extreme environmental volatility brought about by climate change, increasing political…
Continue reading “Letter from the Director, Dr. Jennifer Leaning”
Study Estimates Prolonged Increase in Puerto Rican Death Rate After Hurricane Maria
Times Higher Education named this paper as the most discussed academic paper in 2018 through its Altmetric 100 (and the most discussed ever in the Altmetric 100’s six-year history). According to an interdisciplinary study released today online at the New England Journal of Medicine, the mortality rate in Puerto Rico may have risen by 62% [95 % Confidence Interval (CI), 11% to 114%] in 2017, after Hurricane Maria. The…
Roma Rights and the Next Generation: Alone and Together
By Susan Lloyd McGarry This spring semester Harvard FXB has sponsored or convened three events that brought students and Roma scholars together and suggested some possible future directions in the struggle for Roma rights and in Harvard FXB’s Roma research.. Alone Together: Strength and Solidarity Between the Roma and African American Communities—Harvard FXB’s Sixth Annual International Roma Day Event On April 4, a few days before International Roma Day on…
Continue reading “Roma Rights and the Next Generation: Alone and Together”
Do You Know Where You Are Going? (the 2016 eviction from the Calais Jungle)
a reprise from the migrant diaries: Calais, France—Friday October 21, 2016 The eviction is definitely happening Monday. Refugees and volunteers have a meeting this afternoon at the Khyber Restaurant and Annie, one of the long-term volunteers, goes through the facts: The eviction will start on Monday at 8 am. People will be asked to go to a warehouse and queue in one of four lines: vulnerables, unaccompanied children, families, or…
Continue reading “Do You Know Where You Are Going? (the 2016 eviction from the Calais Jungle)”
International Moves Can Provide Pathway to Rational, Just and Inclusive Migration Policy, Says Bhabha
Harvard FXB research director Jacqueline Bhabha recently gave the Rethinking Open Society lecture at the Central European University in Budapest earlier this spring. Below is the first paragraph from CEU’s coverage of her talk: “It is hard to think of a time when public engagement with migration policy globally has been as evident or as polarized as it is now,” said Harvard Professor Jaqueline Bhabha, as she opened her Rethinking…
The Question is the Answer: Who Created Flamenco?
A personal and political story by Victoria Eugenia Ríos-Terheun My mother, originally from the Bay Area and an American, and my father, a Flamenco guitarist and Gitano (Spanish Romani), moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Morón de la Frontera, Spain to the San Francisco Bay Area shortly before I was born in 1979. They came with my older brother and sister in pursuit of opportunities for my dad’s…
Continue reading “The Question is the Answer: Who Created Flamenco?”
March 20th marks the second anniversary of the first bilateral “migration management” agreement of the European migration crisis. The agreement was forged between the European Union (EU) and Turkey to stem the flow of refugee and migrant arrivals in Europe. Turkey promised to halt the daily departures of thousands fleeing their homes and heading to the EU; in exchange the Union agreed to increase the resettlement of Syrian refugees stranded…
There is No Ceasefire and People Continue to be Killed in East Ghouta
By Jennifer Leaning Following the meeting of the UN Security Council and the unanimous passage of a ceasefire resolution on February 24, in East Ghouta, at least 344 people have been wounded and 71 have been killed every day – totaling 4,829 wounded and 1,005 dead*. Still trapped in E. Ghouta are an estimated 400,000 people. Under pressure from the Russian and Syrian governments, the language of the ceasefire resolution…
Continue reading “There is No Ceasefire and People Continue to be Killed in East Ghouta”
Stop the Killing of Civilians in Syria
Attacks on Medical Facilities Are One Aspect of the Crisis for Civilians, FXB Graphic, based on data from Physicians for Human Rights report and webpage, “Anatomy of a Crisis, A Map of Attacks on Health Care in Syria” By Jennifer Leaning On February 24, 2018, the UN Security Council unanimously approved SCR 2401, calling for an immediate stop to the attacks on civilian populations in Syria and a 30-day ceasefire…
A call for action to protect civilians and health care in East Ghouta
Eastern Ghouta Under Siege Since 2013 © UNHCR/Assadullah Amin 2017 photo Death and suffering in Eastern Ghouta, Syria: a call for action to protect civilians and health care from FXB Director Jennifer Leaning, members of the Lancet Commission on Syria, and others engaged in this issue. Since Feb 4, 2018, Syrian forces with Russian support have bombarded Eastern Ghouta, an enclave out of government control near Damascus. This military action…
Continue reading “A call for action to protect civilians and health care in East Ghouta”
Roma Slavery is Historical Trauma
The twentieth of February marks the commemoration of five centuries of Roma slavery in Romania, a period which has reverberating impacts even today. Abolished in 1855/6, this episode of massive group trauma is virtually absent from public memory. For whom, then, should this commemoration hold significance? Nationally we continue to experience the fracturing social fault lines of trauma as historically marginalized groups fight for liberation. Globally, the acknowledgment of Roma…
Harvard FXB Responds to White Paper on Data Protection Framework for India
In 2017, the Government of India constituted a special committee of experts chaired by Retired Supreme Court Justice Shri B. N. Srikrishna to study “various issues relating to data protection in India and make specific suggestions on principles to be considered for data protection in India and suggest a draft Data Protection Bill. The objective is to ‘ensure growth of the digital economy while keeping personal data of citizens secure…
Continue reading “Harvard FXB Responds to White Paper on Data Protection Framework for India”
An Icy Wind Blows
from the migrant diaries: Calais, France—Autumn 2017 Sunday November 12, 2017* The light is going and there is an icy wind blowing as we walk up the canal to the bleak grassy corner. Brother Johannes told us yesterday this is where the young Oromo hang out and they are here now. [Ed.–The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.] Some 20 to 30 young…
The Heart of The Matter: Banning Corporal Punishment of Children at Home
‘How can it be that hard to make a law that parents cannot hit their kids? By Johanna von Bahr This question comes from Julia, 13 years, whom I met during a workshop on children’s rights in Stockholm, Sweden. She lives in the country that was the first in the world to prohibit all corporal punishment of children, in the year 1979. Julia’s question is very interesting as it seeks…
Continue reading “The Heart of The Matter: Banning Corporal Punishment of Children at Home”
A Return to the Beginning: Latest HHR Journal Issue
UNAIDS: #Noexcuse march against gender-based violence. The march coincides with International Men’s Day on November 19. Cape Town City centre, South Africa. Photo: UNAIDS/Dwayne Senior The December 2017 issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal has two special sections: Romani People and the Right to Health, and HIV and Human Rights. Speaking at the launch of the issue at the FXB Center on December 13, executive editor Carmel Williams…
Continue reading “A Return to the Beginning: Latest HHR Journal Issue”
the migrant diaries: Mexico 2017-3
It Looks Just Like Haiti by Lynne Jones Tijuana, Mexico* Monday May 1, 2017 Toy making this morning. This is my favourite parent-and-baby group session because everyone always gets completely engaged. And today we have four fathers! At the beginning the infants are rioting around as usual and I am trying to sort out the box of rubbish I bring to demonstrate that your kitchen is full of toys: old…
Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster Class With HarvardX
FXB Director Dr. Jennifer Leaning will be leading a class on Humanitarian response to conflict and disaster. The class will be offered by edX in conjunction with HarvardX and co-taught by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Michael VanRooyen. This course from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and HarvardX seeks to prepare learners to recognize and analyze emerging challenges in the humanitarian field. The course explores the ethical and professional principles that guide humanitarian response…
Continue reading “Humanitarian Response to Conflict and Disaster Class With HarvardX”
Jennifer Leaning on Climate Change and Migration
FXB director Dr. Jennifer Leaning has long been concerned about climate change from a humanitarian and human rights perspective, particularly as it affects forced migration. She will deliver the keynote for an upcoming symposium on Climate Change, Migration, and Health on Thursday, September 28 (free, but registration necessary). Sponsored by the Harvard Global Health Institute, the symposium explores the grave consequences for global health that climate-induced migration poses in the…
Continue reading “Jennifer Leaning on Climate Change and Migration”
Remembering Heather Adams
Heather and her son, Rory. Harvard FXB acknowledges today as the one year anniversary of the passing of Heather Adams. We continue to think of her as a guide in all aspects of our development of a research and policy program on disability with dedicated faculty and staff. Her vision continues to inspire our work. Below is a post written by Jennifer Leaning and Jacqueline Bhabha last year upon Heather’s passing:…