Abstract
This article explores how human rights education in the health professions can build knowledge, change culture, and empower advocacy. Through a study of educational initiatives in the field, the article analyzes different methods by which health professionals come to see the relevance of human rights norms for their work, to habituate these norms in everyday practice, and to espouse these norms in advocacy for social justice. The article seeks to show the transformative potential of education for human rights in patient care.
Highlights
Human rights education seeks to embed human rights norms into core social institutions
From the recognition that health care systems are core social institutions, human rights were introduced into health professional higher education, that is, the formal curriculum in schools of medicine, nursing and public health
Many human rights violations in patient care stem from professional norms and institutional structures, such as defenses of certain practices on grounds of administrative efficiency, behavioral modification, or medical necessity, which present unique challenges for systemic reform as human rights law must compete with other powerful normative systems that regulate health professional conduct and contexts [2]
Summary
Human rights education seeks to embed human rights norms into core social institutions. There are administrative challenges, such as the difficulty of introducing non-clinical subjects into professional curricula, but there are substantive challenges related to the very concept of human rights in patient care. This concept, human rights in patient care, refers to the application of legally enforceable human rights in the context of patient care, defined as the provision of services by health providers for the benefit of patients inside any health care setting, including hospitals, clinics, outreach facilities, places of detention or private homes [1]. Many human rights violations in patient care stem from professional norms and institutional structures, such as defenses of certain practices on grounds of administrative efficiency, behavioral modification, or medical necessity, which present unique challenges for systemic reform as human rights law must compete with other powerful normative systems that regulate health professional conduct and contexts [2]
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