The Center for Public Health and Human Rights has hosted or participated in several presentations, events and conferences, including:
With your help, Thursday, December 1 could be the greatest opportunity in a generation to bring about genuine democracy and human rights in Burma.
On that day, Hillary Clinton will become the first American Secretary of State to visit Burma in 50 years -- a move meant to reward Burma’s military regime (which craves international recognition) for recent elections but also assess how much has actually changed.
But the military and pro-democracy forces inside Burma both know that change can’t happen when 1,600 of the country's most promising leaders, including Buddhist monks, are held as political prisoners. It’s a living nightmare -- political prisoners are held in dog cages and experience torture, beatings, and even years of solitary confinement without a single day outside their cells.
U Pyinya Zawta is a Buddhist monk from Burma who knows exactly how hard these conditions are to survive -- he was imprisoned for 10 years for his political activities. Now, as a refugee and Buddhist leader in New York, he has started a petition on Change.org to push Secretary Clinton to get real results from her visit. Sign Buddhist monk and former political prisoner U Pyinya Zawta’s petition asking Secretary Clinton to call for the unconditional release of 1,600 political prisoners and an end to attacks against ethnic minorities during her historic visit to Burma this Thursday.
Burma's military leaders have responded to international pressure before, releasing key political prisoners. If Secretary Clinton pushes for the release of all political prisoners and other key measures for a more genuine democracy, the Burmese government will really listen.
And to her credit, Secretary Clinton has been open to calls to action by the public: Just this summer, over 22,000 people signed a petition on Change.org that resulted in Secretary Clinton calling for the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia -- which she then did during an official visit.
As the first visit from an American Secretary of State to Burma in over 50 years, December 1 will be the biggest opportunity in many of our lifetimes to create sweeping change in Burma. Please sign U Pyinya Zawta's petition here asking Secretary Clinton to call for the release of all political prisoners in Burma during her historic visit next week, and then send it to everyone you know!
November 18, 2011 4:30pm - 6pm
To view the video of this event, please click here.
Either Peace and Justice for All or a Return to Armed Struggle and Violence
With Special Guest Jit Man Basnet, Human Rights LAwyer and General Secretary for Lawyers' Forum for Human Rights (LAHFUR)
Listen
Thursday, September 8 at 12:15pm
Room W2015
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health With the successes of antiretroviral therapy in Africa, HIV/AIDS is moving from being a death sentence to a manageable disease. Recognizing the massive successes of rapidly scaling up access to effective treatments in Africa, living longer with HIV will place new and important challenges upon the health systems and AIDS service organizations. In particular, ageing with HIV will mandate that AIDS service organizations prepare for the overlap of non-communicable diseases among people infected with HIV. This will require an understanding of the most likely diseases that can be treated as well as training for health staff. Conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and neurological disease will require carefully tailored interventions to prevent, treat, and retain among patients. This presentation will discuss possible interventions that can be rapidly scaled up if they receive sufficient recognition of their importance. Health in Post-Conflict and Fragile States: Challenges for the Next Decade
June 9-10, 2011
US Institute of Peace
2301 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037 The conference reviewed the last decade in health programming in post-conflict and fragile states, as well as address key questions about the intersection of health in "fragile states" and development, national security policy, and consider a way forward. Hosted by Leonard Rubenstien (CPHHR). Speakers included The Honorable Walter T. Gwenigale, MD, Minister of Health & Social Welfare of the Republic of Liberia;Jonathan D. Quick, MD, MPH, President & CEO, Management Sciences for Health; Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; and Donald K. Steinberg, Deputy Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development. Further information Webcast Film screening and discussion: Doctors of the Dark Side
May 10, 2011
4:00 pm
Sheldon Hall Discussion with the documentary’s producer, Martha Davis and Leonard Rubenstein, Senior Scientist, Center for Public Health and Human Rights
Doctors of the Dark Side is the first feature length documentary on participation by physicians and psychologists in the torture of detainees in the custody of the United States. Experts from medicine, military intelligence, psychology and the law discuss how military doctors have been used in new and disturbing ways in the name of national security: to conceal medical evidence of torture, assist the punitive regimens of the intelligence command, advise interrogators how to break a detainee, and provide legal cover. The film exposes the failure of oversight agencies and professional organizations to hold the complicit doctors accountable and protect doctors who refuse orders to assist torture. The film was produced and directed by psychologist-turned-filmmaker, Martha Davis, who spent four years researching the controversy, and was written by Mark Jonathan Harris, winner of three Academy Awards™ and shot by Emmy™ award-winning cinematographer, Lisa Rinzler. Research Symposium by the Women's Health Research Group
Leading the Nation in Women Veteran’s Health: The Important Role of Research
Monday, May 23, 2011
12:00 – 4:00pm
Feinstone Hall, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Herrera is a physician, public health professional, decorated major in the US Army Reserves, wife, and mother. Over the course of her impressive career, she served as the Baltimore City Deputy Commissioner of Health, and completed two stateside deployments and one deployment to Iraq. She is an alumnus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health and a graduate of SUNY Downstate Medical School and the family medicine residency training program at the University of Maryland. In her current position at the Veterans Health Administration, Dr. Herrera is responsible for enhancing the overall provision of health care to our nation’s women veterans. She will be joined in this symposium with guest presenters Dr. Michele Decker (CPHHR Faculty Award winner) and Anjalee Kohli (CPHHR Student Award winner). Film screening and discussion: Doctors of the Dark Side
May 10, 2011
4:00 pm
Sheldon Hall Discussion with the documentary’s producer, Martha Davis and Leonard Rubenstein, Senior Scientist, Center for Public Health and Human Rights
Doctors of the Dark Side is the first feature length documentary on participation by physicians and psychologists in the torture of detainees in the custody of the United States. Experts from medicine, military intelligence, psychology and the law discuss how military doctors have been used in new and disturbing ways in the name of national security: to conceal medical evidence of torture, assist the punitive regimens of the intelligence command, advise interrogators how to break a detainee, and provide legal cover. The film exposes the failure of oversight agencies and professional organizations to hold the complicit doctors accountable and protect doctors who refuse orders to assist torture. The film was produced and directed by psychologist-turned-filmmaker, Martha Davis, who spent four years researching the controversy, and was written by Mark Jonathan Harris, winner of three Academy Awards™ and shot by Emmy™ award-winning cinematographer, Lisa Rinzler. Research Symposium by the Women's Health Research Group
Leading the Nation in Women Veteran’s Health: The Important Role of Research
Monday, May 23, 2011
12:00 – 4:00pm
Feinstone Hall, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Herrera is a physician, public health professional, decorated major in the US Army Reserves, wife, and mother. Over the course of her impressive career, she served as the Baltimore City Deputy Commissioner of Health, and completed two stateside deployments and one deployment to Iraq. She is an alumnus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health and a graduate of SUNY Downstate Medical School and the family medicine residency training program at the University of Maryland. In her current position at the Veterans Health Administration, Dr. Herrera is responsible for enhancing the overall provision of health care to our nation’s women veterans. She will be joined in this symposium with guest presenters Dr. Michele Decker (CPHHR Faculty Award winner) and Anjalee Kohli (CPHHR Student Award winner). Research and Policy Symposium 
The next wave: HIV, human rights, and men who have sex with men
Monday, May 2, 2011
4:30 p.m.
Sheldon Hall
Video Keynote speaker: Gregorio Millett, Senior Behavioral Scientist in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, CDC and liaison to the Office of National AIDS Policy, the White House
Faculty presentations by Drs. Beyrer, Singh, Baral, and Holtgrave
Hosted by the Center for Public Health and Human Rigths in collaboration with Health, Behavior, and Society Gender-Based Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Research Findings and Programmatic Implications
December 09 2010 at 12:00 p.m.
Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C. Dr. Nancy Glass, affiliated faculty member of CPHHR and professor at JHU School of Nursing joined Dr. Lynn Lawry of the U.S. Department of Defense and Heidi Lehmann of the International Rescue Committee to discuss the prevalence and scope of sexual and intimate-partner violence in the DRC, and particularly eastern Congo, the calls for action and the need to understand the dimensions of the perpetration of such violence and to ensure that programs address the complex realities on the ground. Watch the video or presentations (Lawry, Lehmann, Glass) Renewal Out of Ruin: Saving Lives and Building Capacity in Failed States
Guest Lecture by U.S. Assistant Secretary Eric Shwartz from the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 4:30pm
Sheldon Hall, JHSPH
On November 30, Eric P. Schwartz, Assistant Secretary of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, visited the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to address U.S. policy and human rights in efforts to rebuild failed states. In his talk "Renewal Out of Ruin: Saving Lives and Building Capacity in Fragile and Failed States," Assistant Secretary Schwartz explored what actions concerned outsiders—donor governments, international organizations and other non-governmental organizations—can take to save lives in circumstances in which governments demonstrate little inclination to meet the basic needs of their populations, and do not have processes of accountability or transparent management that permit easy partnerships with international organizations. Sec. Schwartz highlighted the MOM Project (mobile obstetric medics) in Burma as a example of an effective strategy.
Watch the video
Transcripts from A/S Schwartz's speech Read
New Frontiers in Human Rights and Health Policy
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 12:30 pm
School of Advanced International Studies
Leonard Rubenstein Health and Human Rights Speaker Series: HIV Activism to End Blood Donor Transmission of HIV in China
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 12:15pm
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Sommer Hall Presented by Wan Yan Hai
Sponsored by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights
Co-sponsored by the Health and Human Rights Student Group The Emergence of a Medical Approach to Torture
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 12:15pm
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, W3008 Presented by Leonard Rubenstein
Sponsored by the Berman Institute of Bioethics
Co-sponsored by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights and the Dept. of Epidemiology Respondent Driven Sampling Methods
Workshop for Fogarty and CPHHR faculty, staff, and colleagues
August 16-18, 2010
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Led by Henry Fisher Raymond of the San Fransisco Health Department and supported by the Fogarty Program and the CPHHR, the three-day series of workshops included design, implementation, and analysis of respondent driven sampling methods to reach hidden populations. Participants can access the workshop materials at the Center's RDS webpage. International AIDS Conference
July 18 - 23, 2010
Vienna, Austria
See our IAS 2010 webpage for presentations, posters, and interviews with CPHHR faculty and students Sexuality, human rights, and the law in Africa
Hosted by the Department of Anthropology (JHU) and co-sponsored by the CPHHR
April 23, 2010, Time 2 - 4:30pm (flyer)
Shriver Hall, Johns Hopkins University (Homewood Campus)
Round table discussion with guests:
Zackie Achmat - Activist, film-maker, and co-founder of Treatment Action Campaign and the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (South Africa)
Chris Beyrer - Director, Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Professor of Epidemiology and Health, Behavior, and Society
Elizabeth Povinelli - Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies, Co-director of the Centre for the Study of Law and Culture (Columbia Univ.)
Ryan Thoreson - International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Department of Anthropology (Oxford Univ) Criminalization/Decriminalization: Human Rights and the impact of punitive policies on HIV/AIDS
May 6, 2010, 4:30 – 6:00pm
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Mandeep Dhaliwal (UNDP), Jonathan Cohen (OSI), Chris Beyrer (CPHHR), and Susan Sherman (CPHHR) will meet to discuss the implications of policy and criminalization of behaviors- homosexuality, drug use, sex work - on the health and risks for HIV among populations. Introduction by Dr. David Celentano Cross-Border Disease Surveillance: Promoting Cooperation or Sowing Tension?
Hosted by the US Institute of Peace. Harley Feldbaum (SAIS), William Long (USIP), Leonard S. Rubenstein (CPHHR) discussed cross-border cooperation in disease surveillance and the broader questions about the relationship between health and national security. March 30, 2010 - 2:00pm
U.S. Institute of Peace
Washington, D.C. 20036 The Role of the Health Sector in Addressing Gender-Based Violence
Center faculty Nancy Glass and Len Rubenstein join Kathleen Kuehnast (USIP) and Heidi Lehmann (IRC) to discuss the role that health clinics and personnel can play in addressing gender-based violence, including in areas where violence against women has become a pervasive element of war. Women can be a source not just of medical care, but safety, support and education (including education of men) and a liaison to the justice system. U.S. Institute of Peace
Washington, DC
February 8, 2010, 10:00am-12:00pm Sharing Experiences and Lessons:
A Meeting on UNDP Work on Sexual Diversity
Dr. Stefan Baral introduced the session, "Strengthening and promoting the evidence base: and other international experts in sexual diversity and HIV," and shared his expertise in studying the HIV epidemic among MSM in Africa. UNDP Headquarters – New York City
December 8-9, 2009 World AIDS Day Panel:
The Resurgence of HIV/AIDS Among Men Who Have Sex with Men: Human Rights Challenges and Public Health Interventions
Speakers include: Drs. Chris Beyrer, Frangiscos Sifakis, and Karin Tobin Schoolwide event: Sheldon Hall, JHSPH
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 12:00 PM Senior Administration Officials Discuss Obama Administration's Efforts on HIV/AIDS
Speakers include: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius; Ambassador Eric Goosby, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator; Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement; and Jeffrey S. Crowley, White House Office of National AIDS Policy Eisenhower Executive Office Building, South Court Auditorium
Monday, November 30, 2009 at 2:30 PM
Press release Building the Evidence Base for Public Health and Human Rights
Tuesday, October 20, 2009, at 4 p.m.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Speakers from the CPHHR included:
Chris Beyrer, Leonard S. Rubenstein, and Luke Mullany
View flyer Living in Closed Country: Remembering Burma's Saffron Revolution
Thursday, September 10 at 5:00pm,
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Screening of the 2009 Sundance award winning documentary, Burma VJ (view trailer)
Speakers included U Agga Nya, U Gawsita, and U Pyi Nya Zaw Ta, three Burmese monks in exile following the 2007 Saffron Revolution. Burma VJ nomitated for Best Documentary Academy Awards Read
In-depth Discussion with U Agga Nya Na, U Gawsita, and U Pyi Nya Zaw Ta
In-depth discussion of their experiences in the 2007 Saffron Revolution, the factors that led to the culmination of the monks’ peaceful protests and subsequent government crackdown, and the challenges faced by those still living in Burma today.
Friday, September 11, noon
Bloomberg School of Public Health Read Christine Grillo's interviews with U Agga Nya Na, U Gawsita, and U Pyi Nya Zaw Ta CPHHR Fifth Anniversary Event: Right to Health and Crimes Against Humanity
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Featured Speaker: Mary Robinson (President, Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative; Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Former President of Ireland)
Other speakers: Leonard Rubenstein, Dr. Voravit Suwanvanichkij, and Dr. Chris Beyrer
View poster The Global Arc of Justice: Sexual Orientation Law Around the World
March 11-14, 2009
UCLA Los Angeles, CA Dr. Stefan Baral will present alongside Carlos Caceres, Scott Long, Dean Peacock, and Jorge Saavedra in the plenary session Human Rights & Global Health: LGBT Equality & the Fight Against HIV/AIDS on Thursday, March 12 at 12:45
View presentation
PHR Report Press Conference
New York Press Conference:
Tuesday, January 13, 1:15 p.m.
United Nations Church Center
777 UN Plaza
New York City, NY
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Dr. Chris Beyrer?launched their report, Health in Ruins: A Man-made Disaster in Zimbabwe,?on human rights violations and the collapse of the public health system in Zimbabwe and their association with the cholera epidemic. The report details what happens when a government presides over the dramatic reversal of its population?s access to food, clean water, basic sanitation, and health care. It also accuses the Mugabe regime of abrogating the most basic state functions in protecting the health of the population.
SPEAKERS: Susannah Sirkin (PHR), Chris Beyrer (CPHHR), Richard Sollom (PHR) and Mary Robinson (Realizing Rights: and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).
Press Release AAAS Launch of Science and Human Rights Coalition
AAAS Headquarters
Washington, DC
January 14-16, 2009
Dr. Beyrer joined Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and numerous renowned human rights advocates and scientific investigators at the launch of the Science and Human Rights Coalition. The symposium workshops were devoted to brainstorming the future of the coalition and included presentations, training workshops, and planning meetings to prepare the Coalition for its role in making human rights a reality for all.
Go to AAAS website Sixtieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights
New York Academy of Sciences, NY
December 5, 2008, 1:00 to 5:00pm
JHSPH and NYAS joined together to host a symposium to evaluate progress in public health and human rights on the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. Experts in public health and human rights, included Laurie Garrett, Patricia Gatling, Joseph Amon, Gara LaMarche, Robert Lawrence, Leonard Rubenstein, Ruth Wedgewood, and Chris Beyrer came together to discuss the national and global progress, challenges, and future of public health and human rights.?
View a summary of the event AAAS Panel Discussion
Science Serving Human Rights: Making it Happen
Washington, D.C.
October 23, 2008
Chris Beyrer and Philip Fornaci team up to discuss their work to bring together public health and law.?
This collaboration? played a crucial role in the DC Prisoners? Project to assure that prisoners? healthcare rights are not violated during?incarceration.
Read more about this discussion and other important collaborations in Science and Human Rights. amfAR's Global Consultation on MSM and HIV
Washington, D.C.
September 28 - 29, 2008
Experts in international research on HIV (including CPHHR's Drs. Beyrer and Baral)
View amfAR's summary of the event U.S. Congressional Briefing
"Men who have sex with men (MSM) and the Global HIV & AIDS epidemic"
Dr. Chris Beyrer and AIDS Project Los Angeles
Washington, D.C.
September 15, 2008
View Dr. Beyrer's presentation
View all presentations U.S. State Department Roundtable Discussion"Human Rights and Democracy Programs in Asia and Latin America: Working in Difficult Environments"
Dr. Chris Beyrer
Washington, D.C.
September 10, 2008 CDC / ATSDR Health and Human Rights Work Group
"Population-based survey methods to quantify associations between human rights violations and health outcomes among internally displaced persons in eastern Burma"
Dr. Beyrer and Dr. Mullany
Atlanta, GA
July 22, 2008
View slides A Symposium at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
"Public Health and Human Rights: Building the Evidence Base"Atlanta, Ga.
July 9, 2008 Conference on the Malawi HIV Clinical Trials Unit
Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
and University of Malawi College of Medicine.
"HIV Vaccine Prevention"
University of Malawi College of Medicine
June 30, 2008
Center for Strategic and International Studies Event
"The Humanitarian Crisis in Burma Post Cyclone Nargis"
Center Director, Chris Beyrer, joins Tony Danbury, Patrick Marcham, and Ky Luu to discuss the human rights crisis in Burma following the destruction of Cyclone Nargis.
Washington, DC
May 9, 2008
Listen to the discussion Responding to Infectious Diseases in the Border Regions of South and Southeast Asia (BID) Regional Conference
The Center for Public Health and Human Rights, the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, the Global Health Access Program, and the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University convened a regional conference in Bangkok, Thailand. This conference united 190 participants, representing 95 different organizations from nine countries—Australia, Bangladesh, Burma, China, India, Thailand, Singapore, U.S. and Vietnam—in a spirit of scientific inquiry and collaboration to focus on shared goals to improve health, control the spread of disease and reduce unnecessary suffering.
Bangkok, Thailand
A National AIDS Plan for the U.S.
With the Open Society Institute, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School for Public Health hosted a panel discussion on the report, Improving Outcomes: Blueprint for a National AIDS Plan for the U.S. In the U.S., a comprehensive national plan to guide strateg use of dollars to address the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic does not exist. While investments in AIDS-related programs continue to yield powerful results and findings reveal persistent levels of new infection, insufficient access to care, and growing racial disparities largely impacting African Americans. What would a national plan look like? Published by the Open Society Institute's Public Health Watch, Improving Outcomes: Blueprint for a National AIDS Plan for the U.S. offers concrete recommendations for a more strategic approach to HIV programming and policy.
June 19, 2007 | 
