This seminar is part of the Europe Center's Governance Program series and the Center for International Security and Cooperation's Social Science series. 

Abstract:
Armed conflict causes profound and widespread adverse consequences for health and human rights. It directly causes death as well as physical and mental disabilities among combatants and increasingly among non-combatants. It damages the health-supporting infrastructure of society, including public health services and medical care. It forces people to leave the safety and security of their homes and communities. It diverts human and financial resources away from activities that benefit society. It leads to further violence. And, in these and other ways, armed conflict violates human rights.  This presentation will provide examples of these adverse consequences of armed conflict and what can be done to minimize these consequences and to prevent armed conflict.

Dr.Barry Levy is a physician and epidemiologist who has edited books, written papers, and spoken widely on these issues. He is an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine. Previously, he served as a medical epidemiologist for the CDC, a tenured professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, USAID coordinator for AIDS prevention in Kenya, executive director of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, and in other roles. He is a past president of the American Public Health Association and a recipient of its Sedgwick Memorial Medal. He has written more than 200 published papers and book chapters, many on the adverse effects of war. He has co-edited 17 books, including, with co-editor Dr. Victor Sidel and many contributing authors, two editions each of the books War and Public Health, Terrorism and Public Health, and Social Injustice and Public Health.    

Abstract
The framework of "LGBT rights" can be critiqued as challenging tradition or as culturally specific, yet at the same time, it can be essential to one's sense of identity and justice.  Where can the discourse of "public health" help overcome barriers for LGBT people, both within the right to health and beyond? What are the limits to using public health to talk about human rights, LGBT or otherwise?  What are the dangers of conflating these distinct areas of concern?  We will explore these questions and focus on how academics and activists can most effectively navigate challenges to benefit both public health and LGBT rights.

Jessica Stern is the Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. As the first researcher on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights at Human Rights Watch, she conducted fact-finding investigations and advocacy around sexual orientation and gender identity in countries including Iran, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. As a Ralph Bunche Fellow at Amnesty International, she documented police brutality for what became its landmark report on police brutality in LGBT communities in the U.S., “Stonewalled.” She was a founding collective member and co-coordinator of Bluestockings, then New York’s only women’s bookstore. She has campaigned extensively for women’s rights, LGBT rights, and economic justice with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Control Ciudadano, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and the Urban Justice Center. She holds a masters degree in human rights from the London School of Economics. She is frequently quoted in the Mail & Guardian, Al Jazeera English, the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, The Guardian and The BBC.

Hon.Agnes Binagwaho has served as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health in Rwanda since October 2008. She specialized in emergency pediatrics, neonatology, and the treatment of HIV/AIDS; and she chairs the Rwandan Pediatric Society. From 1986 to 2002, she practiced medicine in public hospitals in Rwanda and several other countries before joining Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission as Executive Secretary. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Public Library of Science, and the Harvard University Health and Human Rights Journal. Dr. Binagwaho co‐chaired the Millennium Development Goal Project Task Force on HIV/AIDS and Access to Essential Medicines for the Secretary‐General of the United Nations under the leadership of Professor Jeffrey Sachs. She was the global co‐chair of the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and HIV/AIDS. In addition to her medical degree and Master in Peadiatry, she received an Honorary Doctor of Sciences from Dartmouth College. Dr. Binagwaho serves as a visiting lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School.