Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a nonprofit human rights organization. It was founded in 1986 by a small group of doctors who believed the unique scientific expertise and authority of health professionals could bring human rights violations to light and provide justice for victims. One of PHR's first missions was to testify on behalf of doctors and human rights activists in Chile, who were working against the military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Since then, PHR has conducted pioneering research and field investigations in more than 40 countries.
PHR focuses on a set of core human rights violations:
- Atrocities against civilians during armed conflict
- Violence against women, especially rape as a weapon of war
- Torture and abuse of detainees
- Lack of access to health care due to racial, ethnic and gender discrimination
PHR works to prove the health consequences of human rights violations. It also uses its research for advocacy focused on demanding accountability for crimes and recommending critical policy changes.
Read more about Physicians For Human Rights: History, How PHR Works, Mass Atrocities, Rape in War, Persecution of Health Workers, National Student Program, Founders and Famous PHR Associates
Famous quotes containing the words physicians, human and/or rights:
“If the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they would never had duped the world, which cannot resist so original an appearance.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Drill and uniforms impose an architecture on the crowd. An army’s beautiful. But that’s not all; it panders to lower instincts than the aesthetic. The spectacle of human beings reduced to automatism satisfies the lust for power. Looking at mechanized slaves, one fancies oneself a master.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Dat little man in black dar, he say women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wan’t a woman! Whar did your Christ come from? Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothin’ to do wid Him.”
—Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)