The conference created space for doctors, nurses and other health workers to interact with activists from feminist, human rights, humanist and other movements. It provided an opportunity for interaction with organisations and individuals outside India who are involved in the pursuit of similar goals. Participants included representatives from Physicians for Human Rights (USA, UK, Israel, Palestine, South Africa), the British Medical Association, International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations, as well as treatment centres for survivors of torture in Bangladesh, Nepal, Denmark and so on. Over 225 persons participated in the conference.
In various sessions of the conference over three days, ninety-three papers were presented. Of these, seventy-three written papers were made available in advance while the rest (twenty), were made available as abstracts. The conference focused on four sets (or sub-themes) of human rights issues in health: (1) Violence against women, (2) Caste and Communal violence, (3) Violence by state agencies, and (4) Violence and development, and violence within and by the health system. A wide range of topics were discussed under these four sub-themes such as, the impact of riots on children, the response of doctors to communal conflict, the violence experienced by sex workers and dalits, violence in female wards of prisons, the mental health concerns of families affected by terrorism, role of the examining doctor in sexual assault cases, violence against women in Tajikistan, corporate violence in Bhopal, the role of nurses in preventing violence and caring for survivors, the role of health services in disaster management and so on.
The inaugural session of the conference was chaired by Justice B. N. Srikrishna, Honourable Judge, Mumbai High Court and was inaugurated by Justice V. S. Malimath, member, the National Human Rights Commission. Ms. Binoo Sen, Member Secretary, the National Commission for Women, Ms. Ann Sommerville, from the British Medical Association, Dr. Adriaan van Es, Secretary General, International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations and Mr. Jaap Walkate, Chairperson, UN Fund for Victims of Torture delivered key note addresses at the inaugural session of the conference.
The participants of the conference strongly supported the idea of campaigning and networking on the health and human rights issues. It was also decided that a clearinghouse for the documentation on health and human rights issues should be established in India.
The conference papers are available at CEHAT. A book containing selected papers of the conference will be published soon.
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