The Impact of Armed Conflict on Health and Human Rights

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.