About
OpenForum is a blog supported by the community of Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, and is a space dedicated to writing and dialogue that advance health as an issue of fundamental human rights and social justice. OpenForum seeks to provide a symposium for academics, practitioners, and activists from public health, human rights, and related fields to explore how rights-based approaches to health can be implemented in practice. In so doing, it contributes to fostering a global movement for health and human rights.
Health and Human Rights is an open-access, online publication of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. Health and Human Rights endeavors to increase access to human rights knowledge in the health field by linking an expanded community of readers and contributors. Submissions information for the journal is available here. In addition to publishing perspectives essays and original full-length articles on critical concepts and human rights in practice on its website and in print, the journal supports OpenForum as a space for immediate, action-oriented dialogue among human rights practitioners. At OpenForum, readers will find unique commentaries by professionals writing from the field, as well as provocative summaries, opinions, and reviews of news articles, other blogs, and journal articles.
OpenForum is currently seeking additional regular contributors whose work involves advancing health as a fundamental right. Interested persons may send a resume, a brief statement describing their personal approach to health and human rights including topics they wish to write about, and a 300-word writing sample to the journal team at hhrjournal@hsph.harvard.edu.
OpenForum: A safe space, a constructive space
Guidelines for commenter and contributors
OpenForum welcomes diversity of opinion, and thoughtful, provocative dialogue between parties holding different viewpoints on issues related to health and human rights. We believe conscientious, respectful disagreement is a fundamental mechanism for expanding the movement; the bridges we create when we connect to and understand persons with whom we disagree constitute a form of solidarity.
When voicing differences of opinion, we expect that all commenters and contributors will engage in dialogue in a manner consonant with our community guidelines, summarized below:
OpenForum is a safe space
Expressions of prejudice are prohibited, including racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and transphobia. OpenForum is a community in which the inherent dignity of all persons is acknowledged and valued.
OpenForum respects and constructs
Blog posts are expected to focus on constructive ideas and concepts. We are called – and we call on you – to view all members of the OpenForum community as partners in a journey. When responding to others, please:
- differ with ideas, not with persons (no ad hominem comments will be tolerated, and such posts will be removed);
- respect the expertise and shared commitment to health and human rights of authors whose views may differ from yours; and
- shape your contribution constructively, that is, in a manner that builds ideas, change, and encourages conversation.