Central to South Africa's democratic transformation have been attempts to understand how and why human rights abuses were common under apartheid. In testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission evidence has emerged of a wide range of past complicity in human rights abuses by health professionals and their organisations. This has presented a major challenge to the health sector to develop ways to operationalise a commitment to human rights in the future. This paper argues that only after a process of self-reflection, both personal and institutional, which enables a thorough and accurate analysis of why things went so wrong, can the health sector effectively move forward. The authors' perspective draws on the submission to the TRC Health Sector Hearings by the Health and Human Rights Project in 1997, which provides a systemic and case-based analysis of the health sector's role in human rights abuses under apartheid. However, human rights responses have to take account of a changing national and glob...

Learning From Our Apartheid Past: Human rights challenges for health professionals in contemporary South Africa

Objective To determine attitudes with regard to ethics in the practice of psychiatry in South Africa. Design Cross-sectional survey. Method The study utilised clinical vignettes, with gender and race of the patient as potential modifying variables in diagnosis and management. Open-ended questions pertaining to potential abuses were included. Setting and subjects Questionnaires were mailed to all practising psychiatrists in South Africa in 1993 and 1994. Outcome measures Responses to questionnaire. Results A 40% response rate was obtained (N = 73). Patient race and gender did not influence diagnosis or have a marked impact on the prescription of treatment. Pressure from the patient's family on the psychiatrist did alter case management, as did the psychiatrist's age and gender in some instances. Racial discrimination, sexual misconduct and economic abuses were the most frequently cited areas of observed abuse. Conclusion The development of an ethical framework for the practice of psychiatry in South Africa would appear to be of critical importance.

Ethics in the practice of psychiatry in South Africa.

The Nuremberg Medical Trial : Have we learned the lessons?

Setting-Previous health policies inSouth Africa neglected theteaching ofethics andhumanrights to health professionals. InApril 1995, apilot course was runattheUniversity ofCapeTowninwhich the ethical dimensions ofhumanrights issues inSouth Africa wereexplored. Objectives-To compare knowledge andattitudes of participating students with agroup ofcontrol students. Design-Retrospective cohort study

Teaching medical students ontheethical dimensions ofhumanrights: meeting the challenge inSouthAfrica

SETTING: Previous health policies in South Africa neglected the teaching of ethics and human rights to health professionals. In April 1995, a pilot course was run at the University of Cape Town in which the ethical dimensions of human rights issues in South Africa were explored. OBJECTIVES: To compare knowledge and attitudes of participating students with a group of control students. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SUBJECTS: Seventeen fourth-year medical students who participated in the course and 13 control students from the same class, matched for gender. INTERVENTIONS: Students participated in a one-week module on ethics and human rights. Five months after the course had been run, students completed a semi-structured questionnaire exploring their knowledge and attitudes with regards to ethics and human rights issues. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Knowledge scores, attitude scores and various individual indicators of attitude. RESULTS: Clear benefits for overall knowledge score, for four out of five individual knowledge questions and for one of the attitude questions, were demonstrated. Participating students also appeared to be more convinced of the need for teaching on the ethical dimensions of human rights at postgraduate level and that such teaching should also be integrated in the curriculum. The low response rate amongst controls may have selected students who were more socially conscious, thereby leading to an underestimate of the true impact of the course. CONCLUSION: The evaluation indicates clear benefits of the course for undergraduate students, and supports arguments for the inclusion of such courses in the training of health professionals. This is particularly important given the challenges posed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the health professions to address past complicity in human rights abuses through reorientation of medical training in South Africa.

https://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/24/4/257.full.pdf

Teaching medical students on the ethical dimensions of human rights: meeting the challenge in South Africa.

Medical complicity in torture--healing the past.

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Medical complicity in torture--healing the past.