Building Institutional Capacity and Sustainability
for Health & Human  Rights

Through a rights-based approach to health, Uplift International has begun to implement a model, interdisciplinary program in Indonesia that improves both population health and human rights simultaneously.  This program relies on linkages between professionals in Health and Law.  Partnerships between these professional communities and universities, government, NGOs, and consumer groups are critical to moving the Health and Human Rights agenda forward. In order to implement its programming, Uplift International has formed partnerships with the University of Washington School of Law and the Marc Lindenberg Center for Humanitarian Action, International Development and Global Citizenship, Seattle University School of Law, the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), and the University of Indonesia Schools of Law and Medicine and Al Azhar School of Law.

Uplift International also works with the Indonesian Ministries of Health and Education, local NGOs and consumer groups to build the institutional capacity necessary to educate medical students, doctors, law students, lawyers and other health and legal professionals throughout Indonesia.  These institutions and programs are designed to be sustainable so that Uplift International’s services are not required indefinitely. 

Leveraging the health component, we are developing a complementary program in the legal sector.  Currently, most victims of violence do not have easy access to information about their legal rights.  Most cannot afford a lawyer.  This pilot project will create free legal clinics for the victims of violence. At the same time, the legal clinics will expose local law students to practical aspects of advocacy in the current judicial system.  Law students in Indonesia are rarely given opportunities to engage in advocacy for vulnerable populations and this opportunity would provide a mechanism to improve their legal skills and become sensitized to the social justice issues associated with victims of violence.