A very happy new year and welcome to the first 2020 issue of the International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare (IJHRH).
2020 will be an important year for our Journal, and we have planned two exciting Special Issues. The first is titled “Sex trafficking and violence against women” with Guest Editor Dr Sarbinaz Bekmuratova. The second Special Issue will be edited by myself and is titled “Health 2020: gaps & trends for human rights”. We have an open call for papers, and further information can be found at www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=ijhrh
The 2020 first issue brings together a good sample of international human rights issues as these impact on health and social care. The first paper “Bridging human rights and social determinants of health: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay” looks at human rights alongside social determinants in relation to identified health issues of concern in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay). The paper’s contribution is identified in its focus on social determinants of health as the literature is scant on learning how to use a universal human rights framework and discourse in this area. In fact, according to Vnkatapuram, Bell and Marmot: “while health and human rights advocates have from the start taken a global perspective, social medicine and social epidemiology have been slower to catch up”.
Subsequently, “Lending a hand: the well-intentioned work of a non-profit organisation on the outskirts of neoliberal Lisbon” examines the issue of mental health of two immigrants supported by a non-profit organisation on the outskirts of Lisbon. This ethnography sets out the discourse of these users who are also residents of Terraços da Ponte, a social housing neighbourhood. It also follows the workers who tried to help them through their non-profit organisation. In order to explore the intersections between these users and state and non-state structures, this investigation relied on intensive fieldwork at a rehabilitated neighbourhood in Lisbon, as well as semi-directive interviews and life stories taken with workers of the institution and the people they were trying to help. This paper shows how vulnerability has been produced in a social housing neighbourhood and how it connects to neoliberal policies employed by NGOs acting on the field.
“‘In these streets’: the saliency of place in an alternative black mental health resource centre” explores the experiences of survivors of the mental health system focussed on the needs of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community in the UK. In total, 25 participants took part in the paper’s qualitative research study, which focussed on Liverpool, UK. Issues of race, place and space were central to the experiences of BAME mental health patients. Participants emphasised the importance of place-based support in their everyday life, with the service provided engendering a sense of belonging conducive to coping with various struggles. Race and racism were also central to these daily struggles. Furthermore, place is salient to understanding the intersecting identities/experience of racism and mental health discrimination, constituting the basis for a concept of placism; associated with exclusions from feeling safe and included in everyday public places (including within the black community) with the exception of the welcoming and unconditionally accepting space of the centre.
The next paper “Have the poor been considered in the Health Sector Evolution Plan? A qualitative study of the Iranian health system” aims to provide an analysis of the status of the poor in Iran. The paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in 2017. The research sample includes policymakers, experts and scholars at the macro-level of the Iranian healthcare system who were well-aware of the financial support for the poor. Overall, 35 semi-structured interviews were carried out. Despite the achievements of the plan, the most important challenge was the lack of targeted state subsidies for the poor. According to the paper, these subsidies should have included free insurance coverage, reducing inpatient payment and allocation of a separate budget for the poor.
“Social networks and their effects on the choice of contraceptive use and method in Bangladesh” examines the effects of social networks on the adoption of contraceptives. Data were collected from 430 couples. The paper concludes that social networks have a significant effect on current contraceptive use and modern method choice in Bangladesh. A social network approach should be included in family planning programme.
“Correlation between human rights promotion and health protection: a cross country analysis” explores the relationship among health outcomes, civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. The study uses cross-sectional data from 161 countries. The authors argue that the economic, social and cultural rights variables impact on health outcomes. The more respect a country has for economic, social and cultural rights, the better the health outcomes for the citizens of that country.
I hope you find this issue useful in your practice and research. Your feedback is always welcome; you can submit your views via our website. We review papers on an ongoing basis and have a target of returning them to the author within 5–8 weeks of receipt. Warm wishes from everyone at the IJHRH.
