[Should medical schools train students in human rights? An exploratory study among medical students in 46 countries]. / Faut-il former les etudiants en médecine aux droits de l'homme? l'Opinion d'etudiants en médecine de quarante-six pays.

The interest of medical students from 46 countries for human rights issues and training was investigated in a cross sectional study. Training in human rights is demanded by 85,4% of respondents. Nearly 55% consider that such training should be compulsory. Nearly 85% of students consider as specific tasks of a medical practitioner "to prevent actively professional practices that violate basic human rights in the health systems" or "to develop and promote attitudes respectful of human rights in care". Our study suggests that human rights training could be integrated into basic medical curriculum.

[Health and human rights: perceptions of health professionals and human rights defenders]. / Santé et droits humains: perceptions de leurs défenseurs et des professionnels de santé.

A self-administered questionnaire served as the basis for a study carried out between February and June 2003 covering a panel of 125 experts from 33 countries spread over 5 continents. The objective of this study was to identify the human rights problems perceived as having a very negative health impact from approximately fifty proposals. This study also aimed at identifying the variables which could explain the differences in the perceptions observed. At the global level, the threats to physical integrity and attacks on human life, economic problems of a health or social nature, questions of political or democratic origin, as well as a wide spectrum of other problems are perceived as having very harmful effects on health with an average adhesion rate of severity (TMAG) ranging from 90-75%. For the same categories of problems at the national level, the TMAG varies from 67-40%: The observed consensus around the severity of human rights problems is tempered by the differences in perceptions according to profession, sex, and the level of the country's and continent's development. Other than the fact that these results corroborate the shared international concerns with regard to the state of the world's human rights, they suggest that the experts' opinions constitute a complementary source of information necessary for work on the international mechanisms for the surveillance of the implementation of international treaties; while at the same time, they indicate priorities for action in the field of public health and human rights.