Investigations

About PHR Research

Credible information is one of the most powerful tools that a human rights organization can use to create change.

Drawing on rigorous medical, scientific, and public health methods has been a foundation of PHR's investigations since its earliest days. The collection of physical evidence, review and analysis of medical records, and direct clinical observation and examination add great weight to PHR's research and investigation products. Increasingly, PHR has also gathered population-based data using epidemiological methods and expertise in public health. Using survey methodologies, PHR teams have quantified the health consequences of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. 

In the 1990s PHR's pioneering studies of the health consequences of landmines on entire populations provided a strong medical and public health basis for the highly successful International Campaign to Ban Landmines. More recent studies, such as those conducted with local partners to understand gender discrimination and stigma in the context of the AIDS pandemic, have yielded information that can be used to prevent human rights abuses and reform laws, policies, and practices on behalf of people whose rights are systematically denied or neglected.

PHR's investigations have also contributed to conviction of war criminals for crimes against humanity and genocide, to the closure of over-crowded and dangerous prisons, and to the allocation and direction of millions of dollars of foreign aid to vulnerable populations.  Peer-reviewed publication of PHR's research in medical and scientific journals has created a new awareness among health professionals of their roles and responsibilities to promote and protect human rights.

Over the years, PHR has marshaled the experience and expertise of an array of professionals to conduct its investigations and research:  forensic archaeologists, anthropologists and pathologists, refugee health specialists, pediatricians, psychiatrists and psychologists, survey epidemiologists, toxicologists and occupational health specialists, internists, orthopedic surgeons, nurses, social workers, emergency medicine and ob-gyn physicians, AIDS specialists, and a range of public health professionals

PHR is increasingly engaged in work relating to the right to health and the promotion of health-related rights.  Adopting a human rights approach to health issues means that PHR investigates and raises awareness about the ways in which social structures and relations drive patterns and distributions of disease among populations, including HIV/AIDS.  PHR documents violations of the right to health as well as advocates for governments to create and sustain institutions and programs that are in keeping with human rights principles.

Due to PHR's size and resources, we are not able to cover a great many issues or geographic locations at any given time. Instead, we plan our investigations strategically where we have appropriate expertise and capacity and believe we have the likelihood of making a unique contribution to human rights.