Human Rights, Social Justice, and Public Health

The field of public health has historically been concerned with on-the-ground issues such as the safety of drinking water or how specific diseases spread in populations, and the solutions to these    kinds of public health problems can consist       of straightforward improvements in infrastructure or organized vaccination campaigns. However, there are also public health problems that are directly tied to human rights abuses and social injustice, and Findings magazine examines this aspect of public health in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue.

The search for effective solutions to the problems of environmental pollution in Guatemala, the lack of accessible medical care in Haiti, or the horrific epidemic of rape in Congo cannot be carried out in isolation from the social and political problems in those countries, and this issue of Findings tells the stories of UM School of Public Health alumni, faculty, and researchers who are working in a wide variety of ways to improve the lives of people in those and other countries around the world.

The cover article details the heroic efforts of Dr. Denis Mukwege, the Congolese physician and surgeon who has devoted several years to treating the many thousands of women who have been raped as a weapon of war during the protracted conflict in Congo. Mukwege was awarded the Wallenberg Medal of Honor by the University of Michigan in 2010 in recognition of his work.