Floria Chi '12, Sara Viola '12

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a national organization made up of health professionals committed to advancing human rights and improving global health by advocating for improved health access, as well as, justice and dignity for all. A few of the many issues we tackle are the human rights issues surrounding the HIV pandemic, advocacy for child rights, improving inhumane conditions at prisons and detention centers, providing medical care for torture survivors and asylum seekers, and the removal of landmines, a project for which PHR shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

The Columbia Chapter of PHR strives to promote awareness of these and other problems by organizing talks and facilitating student involvement in volunteer projects aimed at alleviating human rights abuse.

We also hope to create connections between human rights-minded students and faculty. Last year’s events included campus events focused on torture, HIV/AIDS and sex workers’ rights. PHR also collaborated with other student groups to create a forum for student activism for World AIDS Day.

In the coming year PHR will offer students a large number of opportunities to contribute to meaningful advances in human rights. We plan to organize more speakers on various issues as well as continue to expand our projects. These include panel discussion about careers for health professionals in human rights and how students can get involved now, lecturers who will discuss their work promoting human rights, the opportunity to contribute to ongoing research and advocacy projects with PHR and through collaborations with other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), as well as shadowing opportunities with health professionals working to protect human rights. Of course, input and involvement is welcome and we encourage any and all health sciences students interested in these issues to get involved in the coming year.