ABSTRACT
CONTENTS 21.1 Introduction................................................................................. 420 21.2 The Social Determinants of Health.............................................. 421
21.2.1 Lack of Access to Food-The Child Health Impacts...... 424 21.2.2 Unsafe, Unaffordable Housing, and
Homelessness-The Child Health Impacts .................... 425 21.3 The Link between Healthcare and Legal Advocacy ...................... 426 21.4 Legal Advocacy: Multiple Models, Multiple Strategies ................. 429 21.5 Medical-Legal Partnership for Children....................................... 430 21.6 Evaluation .................................................................................... 433
21.7 Medical-Legal Partnership: The Global Model ............................ 434 21.8 Conclusion................................................................................... 436 Acknowledgments ................................................................................... 437 References ............................................................................................... 437
21.1 Introduction Physicians are in a unique position to mobilize their colleagues in defense of human rights. As a core part of their work and ethic, physicians aim to fulfill human rights at the individual level by providing medical care; at the community level by advocating for innovative, effective methods of service-provision; and at the govern mental level, where their medical credentials and expertise can reinforce the strength of their work in defense of fundamental human rights. In their interactions with patients, physicians bear witness to a horrific range of human rights abuses, whether they are treating injuries sustained through torture, providing post-rape services, or providing medical care to refugees who have been forcibly displaced by armed conflict. On a more routine basis, physicians are the first to see the health conse quences of arbitrary eviction, denial of immigration status without due process, environmental hazards, and other chronic human rights abuses. Their patients present not only symptoms of illness, but also stories of injustice: illegal working conditions leading to occupational injuries, police brutality leading to broken limbs, sexual violence leading to psychological trauma or HIV infection. For many phys icians, protesting these human rights abuses is not only a moral and ethical imperative, but also part of preventive medicine.
