"One cannot, one must not, approach medicine today without looking for its ethical component: read this important volume and you will understand why."

--Elie Wiesel

"Human rights violations persist in many forms. I hope that these terrible examples will remind us that silence from political leaders, is what oppressors most desire and what the oppressed most fear."

--Jimmy Carter

"Without human rights people and their communities cannot be fully healthy. This remarkable volume explores the responsibilities of health professionals for promoting and protecting human rights, thereby promoting and protecting the health of their patients and communities."

--Victor Sidel, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

"This is a rich and varied collection ranging from cogent exegeses on ethnic cleansing and female genital mutilation to scholarly dissertations on human rights and public health. The essays are powerful statements supported by impressive scholarships enhanced by the authors' personal experience...Students, researchers, and scholars in the field have much to choose from in this work, which is augmented by an excellent index and detailed bibliography."

--William E. Seldelman, The Lancet, July 1999

Taylor and Fracis/Routledge Web Site, Febraury, 2001

Modern human rights, born in the aftermath of the second world war and crystallized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, reflect a broader, societal, approach to the complex problem of well-being. While health is mentioned only once in the document, human rights are about the societal preconditions for physical, mental and social well-being. Health care professionals are generally unaware of the key concepts, meaning and content of modern human rights. But they are learning that promoting and protecting human rights may be essential for promoting and protecting health.

Health and Human Rights: A Reader, including contributions by doctors, lawyers and government representatives, is the first comprehensive anthology of essays in this new field to address the balance between public health and human rights awareness.

The essays in this collection cover issues including ethnic cleansing, world population policies, women's reproductive choices, the Nuremburg Code and AIDS and HIV policies and treatments. It is an essential introduction to the developing field of health and human rights.