Human rights and medical practice, including reference to the joint Oslo statements of September 1993 and March 1994

• Published in: Journal of public health (Oxford, England) England), 1995-09, Vol.17 (3), p.335-342
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1741-3842; 1741-3850
• DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubmed.a043128

This paper reviews the current relationships between human rights and medical practice. It defines human rights broadly, to include the right to peace, life and health, and access to adequate health services, whatever the circumstances. The paper reviews the current world growth in the numbers of refugees and internally displaced people, as well as the serious public health consequences-elevated crude death rates; childhood and perinatal mortality; mortality from communicable disease, dehydration and malnutrition; together with war-related trauma and psychosocial disorders. Specific human rights abuses associated with conflicts include the effects of cruel and inhumane weapons such as chemical weapons and landmines, torture, deliberate injury and rape, extra-judicial executions and disappearances, and the effects on children and their development of family disintegration and subsequent orphaning and adoption. In addition, violations of medical neutrality occur, with hospitals and patients being bombed, shelled or invaded, and their equipment and supplies looted. Patients, medical personnel and relief workers have been abducted, tortured and murdered, and the delivery of humanitarian supplies of medicines, food and other materials have been blocked.