The Pacific Survivor Center (PSC) team represents a multidisciplinary group with backgrounds in medicine, medical forensics, public health, international humanitarian assistance, law, and non-profit management.
Mission:
Pacific Survivor Center is committed to advancing health and human rights in the Hawaiʻi-Pacific region. Through direct services, education, research, and advocacy we strive to heal and empower survivors of abuse and exploitation and to end human rights violations in our community.
Beliefs:
PSC believes that:
Survivors of human rights abuses and their families have the right to respectful, competent, comprehensive, culturally sensitive and affordable healthcare and social services in the communities in which they live;
An informed and collaborative network of healthcare, social services, and legal providers will achieve the most economical, efficient and effective results;
All people must be treated with dignity, respect, compassion and understanding.
As outlined in the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization; “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity…. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.” (2006, World Health Organization, Constitution Principles)
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Right to Health extends beyond medical care to a number of underlying determinants of health. These include, among other things, adequate nutrition and housing, healthy working and environmental conditions, health-related education and information, and gender equality. (OHCHR/WHO, 2012)
This human rights lens framed by this concept of the Right to Health as outlined by the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights captures the way in which Pacific Survivor Center approaches the health of our clients. Our work does not end at the hospital or clinic. It continues through to our clients’ realization of their right to health and empowerment as survivors of human rights abuse.
Victims, survivors and their families: We provide services to those in a current state of abuse and exploitation and those in recovery. Whether a case of human trafficking (labor, sex, foreign or domestic), torture, immigrant domestic violence, or other form of gross human rights violation, PSC works to provide appropriate care for our clients’ needs.
Human rights practitioners: Through our facilitation of training, research and information exchange we support a network of professionals committed to sharing best practices and models. Our goal is to improve the provision of care to survivors.
PSC is a non-political and non-denominational organization. We help all people regardless of their political, ethnic, national and religious affiliation, or immigration status.
Sources:
The Right to Health (Fact Sheet 31). (2008). Geneva: OHCHR/WHO
Constitution of WHO: Principles (2005) Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/
