Page 26 - Human Rights

2.Introduction Human Rights in Nursing and Midwifery

2.1 Introduction

Nurses and midwives share with other health professions a commitment to the wellbeing of
patients and to a professional practice based on codes of ethics.

However, they increasingly face impediments and challenges to fulfilling this role.

These challenges range from those in daily practice where the increasing complexity of health

care raises significant ethical issues through to nursing in areas of natural disaster and poverty and

in regions of conflict and tension, where there are persistent risks of nursing staff and their
patients being victimized – as a result of their witnessing abuses or treating individuals regarded

by the authorities as opponents or subversives, or being regarded as subversive themselves.

They can suffer harm as a result of “being in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Nurses also risk being pressured to collaborate or collude in abuses occurring in their presence or

with their knowledge.

This paper reviews some of the risks of human rights violations faced by nurses and midwives or

seen by them during their work.

It also examines their role in the provision of care to people whose rights have been violated;
argues for a continuing and stronger role by the nursing profession in the defense of patients

under threat, the rights of women and girls, the protection of nurses and nursing associations at

risk.

The paper calls for the promotion of ethics and human rights standards and suggests that there is
a need for a constant monitoring by professional associations and human rights groups of

pressures on nurses to engage in unethical behavior.

Amnesty International believes that nurses and midwives have much to contribute to the

protection and promotion of human rights through ethical professional practice, through the

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