Our mission is bringing the tools of public health research to fulfill the rights of the world’s most disadvantaged people to health and human dignity. We investigate the impact of human rights abrogations on the health of populations and develop rights-based approaches to public health challenges. We endeavor to bring the tools of population-based sciences to bear on complex health and rights interactions. And we brings human rights law to bear on some of the great challenges to human dignity and public health, from exclusion of marginalized people from services to the protection of health workers in war to the prevention of torture. Our work takes place both internationally and within the United States. Research by our faculty and partners has shown that the world’s most serious epidemics and other health challenges cannot be successfully addressed unless there is an end to the human rights violations committed against the world’s most marginalized people—the poor, sex workers, LGBT, migrants, refugees, drug users, prisoners, and people affected by war. Based in the School's Department of Epidemiology and founded by Professor Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH ’91, the Center has assembled an interdisciplinary faculty and global partners to reveal these connections, empower people, and advance policy by government and global institutions to protect health and human rights.