The "Make Believe" exhibit is totally amazing. I urge all PHR supporters, and their friends and family, to visit the Atlantic Works Gallery in East Boston on September 17 for their "Third Thursday event" so you can see what all the buzz is about."Make Believe" opened this past Saturday with a wine and cheese reception. More than a hundred people—artists, activists, doctors, public health professionals, teachers, couples on dates, even Sam Yoon (candidate for Mayor of Boston) milled about the gallery. Everyone was there to check out the works of artists Elizabeth Hathaway and Joan Ryan, and photographs from Sudan and Chad taken during PHR investigations by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Wadleigh and PHR's own Lin Piwowarczyk—an amazing activist/artist/doc who came to the opening to discuss her work.The art is intense and moving. The best thing about "Make Believe": the artists are? generously donating 30% of the profits from any works sold to PHR, while helping us raise awarenss of sexual violence in Darfur, detainee abuse by US forces and human rights in Afghanistan—all themes of art work in the show.The Gallery, located at 80 Border Street in East Boston, is open every Friday and Saturday from 2 pm-6pm if you want to visit then (the show ends September 30th).? The special "Third Thursday" reception starts at 6 pm on September 17; PHR staff will be there, and we'd love to see you!

Medical care is a human right, and the US health care system falls far short. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations with strong US engagement, specifically lists adequate medical care as a human right (Article 25).Tomorrow, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress to press our Senators and Representatives to advance meaningful health care reform. Therefore, it is essential that we remind our legislators now that crucial human rights are at stake.So today, tell your US Representative and Senators that healthcare reform must address human rights.Any reform process must urgently address:

• the plight of the uninsured
• personal bankruptcy due to the cost of illness
• ethnic disparities in delivery of care
• lack of access to quality health care
• denial of care to undocumented workers

All of the above are flaws of the current system and all are morally untenable human rights violations.Tell Congress to ensure that health care reform lives up to principles derived from the internationally recognized right to health.Physicians for Human Rights does not take a position on the specific details of existing reform proposals. That said, we strongly believe that any effective plan must respect the internationally recognized right to the highest attainable standard of health.

Congress is considering legislation that could worsen the current brain drain of doctors and nurses from poor countries, such as Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda, say global health advocates. Bills introduced in Congress would increase the number of doctors and nurses from abroad relocating to the United States to provide health care. A coalition of organizations and individuals committed to improving health in low-income countries has written to President Obama and Congressional leaders opposing these bills, saying they could negatively impact global health.

The coalition supports health reform that will enable everyone in the US to receive the health care they need, but objects to meeting America’s health care needs at the expense of developing countries, many of which have no doctors or nurses to spare. Instead, the letter advocates for legislation and funding to increase training opportunities for US residents seeking to enter the health professions.

>> Read the letter

In the past few weeks, 30,000 refugees have fled across Burma's northern border into China's Yunnan province.Take action today to urge the US and UK to address this health and human rights crisis.As rotating President of the UN Security Council in August and September, respectively, the US and the UK have? an unparalleled opportunity to take action on human rights in Burma.The US Campaign for Burma has an e-lert urging US UN Rep. Susan Rice and UK UN Rep. John Sawers to establish a UN Security Council Commission of Inquiry into Burma: visit the link today and sign on.Check out PHR's 2004 report on AIDS on the Thai Burma border, No Status: Migration, Trafficking, and Exploitation of Women in Thailand. The health and human rights conditions in Burma and at all her borders continues to deteriorate: take action today.

A team of PHR doctors authored the new white paper, "Aiding Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the May 2004 Inspector General's Report."[download id="17"]The report details how the CIA relied on medical expertise to rationalize and carry out abusive and unlawful interrogations. It also refers to aggregate collection of data on detainees' reaction to interrogation methods. PHR is concerned that this data collection and analysis may amount to human experimentation and calls for more investigation on this point. If confirmed, the development of a research protocol to assess and refine the use of the waterboard or other techniques would likely constitute a new, previously unknown category of ethical violations committed by CIA physicians and psychologists.In a statement today, Scott Allen, MD, PHR's Medical Advsisor and lead author of the report, said:

Medical doctors and psychologists colluded with the CIA to keep observational records about waterboarding, which approaches unethical and unlawful human experimentation. Interrogators would place a cloth over a detainee's face to block breathing and induce feelings of fear, helplessness, and a loss of control. A doctor would stand by to monitor and calibrate this physically and psychologically harmful act, which amounts to torture. It is profoundly unsettling to learn of the central role of health professionals in laying a foundation for US government lawyers to rationalize the CIA's illegal torture program.

Steven Reisner, PhD, PHR's Psychological Ethics Advisor and report co-author, said:

The required presence of health professionals did not make interrogation methods safer, but sanitized their use, escalated abuse, and placed doctors and psychologists in the untenable position of calibrating harm rather than serving as protectors and healers.?The fact that psychologists went beyond monitoring, and actually designed and implemented these abuses—while simultaneously serving as 'safety monitors'—reveals the ethical bankruptcy of the entire program.

The Inspector General's report documents some practices—previously unknown or unconfirmed—that were used to bring about excruciating pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end. These practices included:

• Mock executions;
• Brandishing guns and power drills;
• Threats to sexually assault family members and murder children;
• "Walling"—repeatedly slamming an unresponsive detainee's head against a cell wall; and
• Confinement in a box.

Co-author and PHR Senior Medical Advisor Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, said:

These unlawful, unethical, and ineffective interrogation tactics cause significant bodily and mental harm. The CIA Inspector General's report confirms that torture escalates in severity and torturers frequently go beyond approved techniques.

Co-author Allen Keller, MD, Director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, said:

That health professionals who swear to oaths of healing so abused the sacred trust society places in us by instigating, legitimizing and participating in torture, is an abomination. Health professionals who aided torture must be held accountable by professional associations, by state licensing boards, and by society.? Accountability is essential to maintain trust in our professions and to end torture, which scars bodies and minds, leaving survivors to endure debilitating injuries, humiliating memories and haunting nightmares.

PHR has called for full investigation and remedies, including accountability for war crimes, and reparation, such as compensation, medical care and psycho-social services. PHR also calls for health professionals who have violated ethical standards or the law to be held accountable through criminal prosecution, loss of license and loss of professional society membership where appropriate.

Women's health and human rights are finally being promoted and protected by PEPFAR—thanks to the efforts of activists like you.In the 2010 annual PEPFAR Country Operational Plan (COP) guidance to the field, the Obama administration urged country teams to promote greater coordination between HIV/AIDS programs and family planning and reproductive health. This is a radical departure from the Bush administration's rule that country teams could not use PEPFAR money for family planning activities—despite scientific evidence that shows integration of health services for women saves lives.It's now up to PEPFAR country teams and implementing NGOs to respond with strategies and programs to maximize family planning/reproductive health, maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS linkages.? The guidance is flexible—flexibility which is needed by country teams to create the programs that will work in their unique country context. This new PEPFAR guidance, combined with Obama's repeal of the global gag rule in January, should open the door to full integration of family planning, maternal and child health and HIV/AIDS programming—and open a whole new set of funds for holistic women's health interventions via PEPFAR.Check out the differences in language (below the cut) between the Bush Administration's COP guidance in 2009 and the Obama Administration's new 2010 language. PEPFAR used to prohibit linkages and integration for women's health and HIV programs; it now embraces them. One more win for women—thanks to your advocacy.

Bush administration FY09 COP language

• PMTCT: Provision of ARV prophylaxis and other ANC services (not to include family planning, which cannot be supported with PEPFAR resources) for HIV-infected pregnant women should be funded under PMTCT.
• Family Planning: PEPFAR funds may not be used to support family planning activities. The USG supports voluntary family planning programs largely through USAID's population and reproductive health program, while PEPFAR's mission is prevention, treatment, and care of HIV/AIDS. In any wraparounds between HIV/AIDS and family planning activities, PEPFAR funds may only be utilized to support HIV/AIDS activities.

Obama administration FY10 COP language

Maximizing Impact through Linkages and Integration with Other Programs: Supporting linkages with other health and development programs is essential to achieve not only PEPFAR-specific goals but also to address the broader health and development challenges that face our partner countries. Linking PEPFAR programs to other development initiatives provides a platform to support a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS affected communities and to ultimately improve their quality of life….Key areas for linking with health and development include: support to health systems strengthening, human resources for health, maternal and child health, family planning, malaria and TB, gender equality, food and nutrition, education and economic strengthening.

• Family Planning: PEPFAR is a strong supporter of linkages between HIV/AIDS and voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs. The need for family planning for HIV-positive women who desire to space or limit births is an important component of the preventive care package of services for people living with HIV/AIDS and for women accessing PMTCT services.

1. PEPFAR programs can work to expand access to FP/RH services through wraparound programming, i.e., wherever possible linking or ideally co-locating with existing FP/RH programs to ensure the availability of FP/RH information and counseling, with referral for actual services.
2. In areas with high HIV prevalence and strong voluntary family planning systems, PEPFAR programs are encouraged to support efforts to provide confidential HIV counseling and testing within family planning sites. Indeed, there is growing evidence of unmet need for these family planning services, particularly among vulnerable populations, including for women who are HIV-infected.

• Maternal and Child Health: …In keeping with priorities of the Obama Administration's Global Health Initiative, with FY 2010 funding, PEPFAR programs should focus on improving the health of these women and children by expanding integration of services to ensure a comprehensive, gender-sensitive and family-centered approach.

1. One approach country teams should consider supporting is co-location of PMTCT, MCH and family planning/reproductive health services, particularly at the primary health care level. With co-location and better integration, PEPFAR and its partners can improve both geographic access to care and availability of a package of care, including rapid HIV testing, cervical cancer screening (for women who are HIV-positive), maternal antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, and birthing facilities with integrated post-partum care for the mother and child (including family planning, early infant diagnosis, and pediatric treatment and care, such as childhood immunization).
2. Health care shortages, including midwife and nursing shortages, are well documented in most high-HIV burden countries. PEPFAR programs should support the training of health workers to deliver an enhanced package of MCH services, an essential element of improving care. Training curricula may include PMTCT services and critical MCH, family planning and reproductive health services for women living with HIV.
3. PEPFAR programs should coordinate and integrate efforts with USG-funded programs such as MCH and FP/RH programs and with international programs and their partners. Mobilizing local communities where primary health care services are delivered will help address basic issues of access, including gender inequality-based barriers, which inhibit women from seeking and using essential HIV prevention, family planning/reproductive health, and MCH services.

• Gender: PEPFAR employs a two-pronged approach: a)gender mainstreaming or integration into all prevention, care, and treatment programs, and b) programming to address five gender strategic areas:

1. Increasing gender equity in HIV/AIDS activities and services
2. Reducing violence and coercion
3. Addressing male norms and behaviors
4. Increasing women's legal rights and protection, and
5. Increasing women's access to income and productive resources

PEPFAR programs should look for opportunities to partner with and leverage with programs addressing gender norms in high prevalence HIV communities, especially in initiatives focused around education, reduction of gender-based violence, and improving women's equal participation in public and private sector activities and services.

Senator Jim Webb recently opined in the New York Times that we can't afford to ignore Myanmar (the official name of Burma since 1989). The senior Democratic senator from Virginia rightly calls for increased engagement with Burma, but for all the wrong reasons. Without knowing better, one could read the Senator's piece and believe the only problem with Burma is a blemished democratic process that lacks political openness.Such whitewashing belies the stark reality that over the past five decades of continuous military rule, ethnic minorities have abided widespread mass atrocities. Murder, forced displacement, slave labor, conscription of child soldiers, torture and rape comprise the military's arsenal of rights abuses inflicted against these non-combatants.The junta has leveled some 3,200 villages by destroying and looting all that sustains these rural populations. The military regime’s persecution of ethnic minorities has resulted in more than two million Burmese fleeing their country, and the flow of refugees continues. Last month another 5,000 Burmese fled to Thailand, and last week week some 30,000 have fled to Yunnan province, China.Imagine. Burmese are now seeking refuge in China!The Burmese do need outside help, as the Senator admits, but engaging with the current regime on the electoral process will only strengthen the hand of the military and ensure continued repression of ethnic minorities who make up one-third of the populace.

This video was part of the December 2008 Physicians for Human Rights tribute to Senator Kennedy for his leadership on the right to health. We are saddened to learn of his death. Our condolences to his family and loved ones.UPDATE 8/26: PHR CEO Frank Donaghue issued the following statement upon learning of the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy:

In our lifetime, no one has done more to champion health as a universal right than Senator Ted Kennedy. He was a passionate advocate for quality, affordable, accessible healthcare for the many, not just for the few, and a tireless champion of the human rights of all people everywhere. During his career spanning five decades, he passed landmark legislation to secure the right to health for all.In an historic address to the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25, 2008, Senator Kennedy stated that solving the major health care challenges facing the nation was the cause of his life.In this address, Senator Kennedy declared:

We need serious proposals to help solve the major health care challenges facing the nation. We need proposals that hold the promise of providing every American with quality health coverage — making sure that it is a right and not a privilege. In the wealthiest and most prosperous nation in the world, no citizen should have to choose between a visit to the doctor and paying the rent or putting food on the table.

Therefore, on December 8, 2008, in observance of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in recognition of the senator's passionate advocacy for affordable, accessible, quality healthcare for all Americans; and in celebration of his tireless advocacy for the human rights of all people everywhere, we honored Senator Edward M. Kennedy with the Physicians for Human Rights Award for Outstanding Leadership on the Right to Health

A Lifetime of Leadership on the Right to Health

• In 1966, Senator Kennedy created a national health center system.
• In 1972, he became Chairman of the Senate Health Subcommittee, enhancing his ability to champion the cause of quality health care for all Americans.
• Another priority for Senator Kennedy was the Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Program. This program, popularly known as WIC, offers food, nutrition counseling, and access to health services for low-income women, infants, and children.
• He became a champion of the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata, which called on the international community, and all health and development workers, to protect and promote the health of all people of the world.
• Senator Kennedy authored the Refugee Act of 1980, which established a comprehensive U.S. policy to provide humanitarian assistance, admission and resettlement to refugees around the world.
• In 1990, Senator Kennedy introduced, along with Senator Hatch, the groundbreaking Ryan White CARE Act, which provided emergency relief to the thirteen cities hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, and also provided substantial assistance to all states to develop effective and cost-efficient AIDS care programs, aimed particularly at early diagnosis and home care.
• In 1994, as Chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Senator Kennedy worked closely with President Clinton to expand opportunity for working families. His leadership brought about the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• In 1997, as Chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Senator Kennedy worked closely with President Clinton to expand opportunity for working families. His leadership brought about the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• In 2006, Senator Kennedy sponsored and helped pass the Family Opportunity Act, which provided states the opportunity to expand Medicaid coverage to children with special needs, allowing low- and middle-income families with disabled children the ability to purchase coverage under the Medicaid program.
• In 2007, he sponsored the Health Care Safety Net Act of 2007.
• So deep was Senator Kennedy's commitment to the highest attainable standard of health, that on July 9, 2008, while recovering from brain surgery, he made a surprise trip to Capitol Hill. There he cast a critical vote to secure healthcare coverage for senior citizens.

Yesterday Physicians for Human Rights welcomed the release of four doctors in Sri Lanka whom police authorities had detained incommunicado for the past three months. ?After posting a king's ransom of one million rupees ($8,800), each was allowed to return to Vavuniya, where they are confined until their November 9 hearing.The doctors face trumped-up charges of providing international media with "false information" on civilian deaths during the Sri Lankan Army's final assault against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) earlier this year.No matter that the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations have both confirmed a civilian death toll of at least several thousand during the last weeks of the civil war. No matter that the American Association for the Advancement of Sceince (AAAS) has published satellite images convincingly showing bombed IDP camps and field hospitals—egregious violations of the Geneva Conventions.Instead of relying on such objective data confirming the doctors' eyewitness accounts,?Sri Lankan authorities would have us believe they were lying. ?To carry out this charade, the Defense Ministry orchestrated a press conference on July 8 and brought out the doctors who "confessed" to false and exaggerated reports under pressure from the LTTE.Sri Lanka's police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is notorious for extracting coerced confessions, so this outcome should not surprise anyone. ?But?I worry for their safety and well-being because they can easily become "unpersons" just like in Orwell's 1984.

The debate that pits AIDS funding against other global health funding (for maternal mortality, malaria, etc.) rages on. Just last week, a Boston Globe op-ed began by saying AIDS has received tens of billions, but chronic, non-communicable diseases like cancer are becoming more deadly, without a similar monetary commitment from the US—as if there should be some kind of trade off, with one getting less and another getting more.We at PHR wanted to find a more lighthearted way of looking at this divisive and unhelpful debate—with the hope that a simple message can cut down on the rancor and recrimination that has characterized this discussion in the global health community.It is not that AIDS is getting too much money, at the expense of other critical global health programming. The global health funding "pie" is just too small—we need to make it bigger for all.Our interns worked on a 2 minute video that illustrates this perfectly. Check out "More Pie Please," above, and use this link to share the video with friends, colleagues, family, neighbors, anyone you know: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCVSeoYiI98We can't fight each other for health funding; global health needs a bigger piece of the US funding pie. Period.