PrintLeonard S. Rubenstein
Chair, Health and Peacebuilding Working Group
Leonard Rubstein is president and former executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that mobilizes the health professions to advance human rights. He proposes to research and develop a “coherent approach to health in conflict.” He will integrate emerging elements of human rights law and humanitarian law and practice that have not previously been applied to the protection of health in conflict.
Rubenstein has spent the past 30 years engaged in investigation, analysis and advocacy in the field of health and human rights domestically and internationally, in areas including human rights and health systems in the developing world; the protection of health in armed conflict, including accountability mechanisms; health in post-conflict reconstruction; gender, racial and ethnic inequality in health; human rights and health dimensions of national security policy; and the roles and responsibilities of health professionals in advancing health and human rights.
Rubenstein is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He serves on the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association and the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations. He has been a consultant to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Congressional Minority Caucasus’ Healthcare Hero Award, the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area’s Louis B. Sohn Award, the Physicians Forum Edward K. Barsky Award, the National Mental Health Association’s Mission Award, and the Political Asylum Representation Project’s Outstanding Achievement Award.
He has a B.A. from Wesleyan University, M.A. and J.D. from Harvard University and an LL.M from Georgetown University Law Center.
Publications:
- "Dual Loyalty among Military Health Professionals: Human Rights and Ethics in Times of Armed Conflict," (co-author) Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (Vol. 15, No. 4, 2006).
- "Coercive US Interrogation Policies: A Challenge to Medical Ethics," (co-author) Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 294, No. 12, 2005).
- "How International Human Rights Organizations can Advance Economic, Social and Cultural rights," Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 26, No. 4, 2004).
- "Dual Loyalty and Human Rights in Health Professional Practice: Proposed Guidelines and Institutional Mechanisms," (co-author) Physicians for Human Rights (March 2003).
Resources & Tools
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Globalization of infectious disease transmission has led to international and regional initiatives to improve surveillance and response. The World Health Organization’s revised International Health Regulations provide a more robust legal framework for outbreak investigations. New regional networks are strengthening collaborative approaches to prevention of pandemics even in parts of the world where political tensions usually run high. Issue Areas: Health and Peacebuilding
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The challenges of effectively addressing sexual and gender-based violence in war torn communities are daunting. This Peace Brief describes the pivotal role the health sector can play, obstacles to its exercising these needed functions, and steps that can be taken to contribute to developing support for survivors as part of an integrated approach. Issue Areas: Gender and Peacebuilding, Health and Peacebuilding
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An initiative by the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan to expand health services throughout the country, including rural communities, and supported by donors including USAID, has vastly expanded access to primary health care services, significantly reduced child mortality, and increased the capacity of the Afghan government to provide an essential service to its people. |
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Initiatives to seek to build peace through health extend over decades, and have found an institutional home with the World Health Organization’s program called Health as a Bridge to Peace. They are premised on the idea that cooperation among health professionals and health interventions in conflict zones can contribute not only to improved outcomes for populations who suffer from the impact of war, but also to building a lasting peace. |
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A new USIP report examines how improving health systems in post-conflict countries can help promote peace and prevent renewed violence in those nations. In "Post-Conflict Health Reconstruction: New Foundations for a U.S. Policy," USIP fellow Leonard Rubenstein looks at health indicators in various hotspots around the world, and why addressing dire health situations can help advance peace and resolve conflicts, as well as boost the U.S's image abroad. Countries: United States
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USIP has supported over 300 products, projects, and activities related to human rights and peacebuilding. From grants to fellowships, from training to education, from working groups to publications, the Institute strives to encourage more practice and scholarly work on the issue of human rights, and seeks to deepen understanding of the role human rights play in conflict and in peace. Issue Areas: Human Rights
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Events
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June 29, 2010
A panel of experts will discuss the success of polio vaccine programs in the midst of conflict and the policy implications for future health interventions. Issue Areas: Health and Peacebuilding
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May 25, 2010
This program provided an overview of what we know about the mental health and psychosocial impacts of armed conflict. The panel discussed implications for programming, policy, evaluation, and human rights, and how that current knowledge can be put into practice. Issue Areas: Health and Peacebuilding
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May 4, 2010
This panel discussion reviewed the experience of country directors of a medical NGO that is working in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Issues discussed included the militarization of aid, maintaing neutrality in a conflict zone, and balancing advocacy for programs with the safetly of assets and personnel on the ground. |
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March 30, 2010
The Working Group on Health and Peacebuilding hosted a panel to consider cross-border cooperation in disease surveillance, and the broader questions about the relationship between health and national security. |
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February 17, 2010
This meeting will address the obstacles to integrating the health sector into preventing and responding to gender-based violence in conflict, and how they can be overcome. Issue Areas: Gender and Peacebuilding, Health and Peacebuilding
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January 8, 2010
A panel of experts considered the goals and objectives of health programs in Afghanistan, what expectations can be for health programs in achieving those goals, and the roles of civilian agencies and the military in carrying out health programs. The panelists addressed current controversies about health programs in areas of armed conflict, including the military’s role in health programs for civilian populations as well as the role of USAID in supporting military objectives. |
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December 11, 2009
Can health interventions in regions of conflict advance the health needs of civilians while simultaneously fostering greater cooperation and contributing to a stable peace? This panel reviewed these questions in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where a considerable number of efforts to foster cooperation in health have been undertaken. |
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November 10, 2009
Presenters will address topics including US policy on post conflict reconstruction, the intersection of post conflict health and Foreign Assistance reform, and an expert from the field will discuss the challenges of post conflict health system functioning and funding. |