ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the special connection between health and human rights, the record of health professionals in human rights advocacy, and the betrayal that occurs when members of the health professions engage in or support violations of human rights. It addresses the critical role that health professionals must play in attending to and advocating for the healing of the individual, and his or her family, community, society and nation in the aftermath of traumatic human rights violations. Health professionals have a responsibility to protect and promote human rights. Medical and psychological documentation of human rights abuses is more difficult to refute than oral or written testimonies, and is often retrievable even after the witnesses' voices have been silenced. In addressing the needs of victim/survivors, health professionals must see their role in a comprehensive, integrated manner, from the perspective of the totality of the individual's life, as a member of a family, community, society, nation, and the world.
