CPHHR INSIGHTS

The world has lost a giant of peace and a peerless voice for the rights of all people to live in dignity. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was a man who made lasting peace.

The Center for Public Health and Human Rights is delighted to join the worldwide community celebrating the 90 th birthday of His Grace, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Desmond M. Tutu. The Archbishop and his family are celebrating today as we join in honoring the extraordinary legacy of this champion of human rights, inclusion, dignity, and truth. Father has given the human family many gifts, but none perhaps more vital than his work on restorative justice—the idea of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which helped his beloved country, South Africa, come to terms and begin to heal from the wounds of Apartheid. There have now been many truth and reconciliation commissions, and they have shared the common theme that to heal, we must forgive, but to forgive, we must all know and recognize the truths of what we have done to others and what has been done in our names. Dearest Father, we send you all joys on this your 90 th birthday. And as a woman running a center for orphans under your patronage in Masiphumalele, an impoverished township, said to then Dean Mike Klag on a visit, “May you live forever!” You certainly will in our hearts.

Dr. Stachowiak passed away in April of this year at age 50, after a courageous battle with brain cancer.  She was an infectious disease epidemiologist who received her doctoral degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, two master’s degrees in public health and international affairs from Columbia University, and an undergraduate degree from Rochester Institute of Technology.

The recent budget proposals from the Trump administration have generated real concern for the future of global health funding, and for one the key engines of innovation in global health, the biomedical research enterprise. 

Director's Notes: The following post is adapted from my opening comments at the March 10th, 2017 briefing on Mass Incarceration, Drug Policy, and HIV/AIDS, sponsored by the Congressional AIDS Caucus and hosted by the Honorable Rep. Barbara Lee. The Center for Public Health and Human Rights had led the research and development of a special Lancet issue on HIV and related infections among prisoners. In honor of National HIV in Women and Girls Awareness Day, this post focuses on the deep consequences of incarceration on HIV risk in women and girls - and in particular - minority women and girls in the United States. 

Becoming the inaugural Desmond M. Tutu Professor in Public Health and Human Rights is one of the signal honors of my life.  It is one for which there are many people to acknowledge and to thank.  First and foremost of course, is the Archbishop himself, this magnificent man, but let me speak about Father, and the professorship, in a moment.