Physician Directory
Jeff Goldhagen, M.D. advocates for children’s rights worldwide; presents to Chilean president and professionals via videotape
By: Lorrie DeFrank
Published: Friday, September 11, 2009
Jeffrey L. Goldhagen, M.D.
Over the past decade, Jeffrey L. Goldhagen, M.D., professor and chief of the division of community pediatrics, department of pediatrics, has had the opportunity to work with international colleagues to promote the translation of the principles of human rights into child health practice. The first week of September, while in South Africa working on a children’s rights initiative with the University of Cape Town Children’s Institute, he was invited to present via videotape to a Chilean congress of more than 2,000 professionals convened by President Michelle Bachelet to celebrate the passage of perhaps the first legislation in the world establishing optimal child development and early brain maturation as a right for all children in Chile. President Bachelet, the first woman in Chile elected to this position, is a pediatrician.
In 2006, Goldhagen and pediatric colleagues in the U.S. and Canada founded the Society for Equity in Child Health (SECH) – a North American organization to advance the principles and practice of children’s rights, social justice and equity. Currently, members of SECH are collaborating with international colleagues and organizations to establish the Global Alliance for Child Rights and Health Equity to advance the agenda of integrating child rights into child health practice. Both organizations will be working with the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville’s Center for Health Equity and Quality Research to support research and evaluation of their national and international efforts.
