[Need for health and human rights training: survey in six French-speaking African countries]

The purpose of this study was to assess the need of healthcare and non-healthcare professionals for training in the field of health and human rights as a basis for developing relevant education programs. In 2007 a self-administered survey questionnaire was sent to 360 health professionals and human rights activists in Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Mali, Burkina-Faso, and Ivory Coast. The response rate was 67% (242/360). The most common training needs involved planning tools (87%), types of human rights violations in health systems (85%), risk factors for human rights violations (80%), and human rights monitoring tools (74%). The preferred training approaches were mixed and participative methods (60%) and practical applications as a means of validation (65%). There was a high degree of homogeneity between the needs expressed by the healthcare and non-healthcare professionals. The findings of this survey indicate that healthcare and non-healthcare professionals wish to obtain the knowledge and skills necessary to prevent and/or identify human rights issues in healthcare systems and to provide adequate responses. Training programs dealing with human rights in healthcare systems should reflect these needs.