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What is OSI’s work in the area of human rights in patient care?Although OSI does not have a program on human rights in patient care, patient care issues arise in the work of the International Harm Reduction Development Program, International Palliative Care Initiative, Sexual Health and Rights Project, and Roma Health Project. Moreover, the OSI Mental Health Initiative (MHI) focuses on ensuring the human rights of people with mental disabilities to participate in society and live as equal citizens, working to end their unjustified and inappropriate institutionalization (www.soros.org/initiatives/mhi). The Human Rights and Governance Grants Program (HRGGP) supports the leading mental disability rights NGOs working in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as well as other projects on patients’ rights through human rights monitoring, documentation, and litigation. The Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) has a specific objective to promote human rights in patient care (www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/law). It supports the establishment of human rights guidelines for the delivery of medical services and the training of health workers, as well as legal action to remedy abuses in the health care system. In February 2007, LAHI sponsored a one-week seminar, which brought together experts from legal, public health, and medical perspectives and patient advocates to think creatively about human rights in patient care and how to structure a course dealing with this concern. Topics explored included:
Delegations came from six former Soviet Union countries: Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine.
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