Roundtable discussions, speeches, a networking session and classes on health and human rights were held at various locations in Cambridge, including the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Lamont Library and the American Repertory Theater.

"People who are not capable of being tolerant are not healthy. People who are filled with hate are more sick than anybody else," said Slobodan Lang, a professor of public health from the University of Zagreb, addressing one of the plenary sessions.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, talked about how his organization uses shame and publicity to stigmatize human rights violators.

Mann, who is also the first Bagnoud professor of health and human rights, said the energy of the participants was "incredible, up to the very last meeting on Saturday morning."

As evidence of their commitment, Mann pointed to the high attendance at the various conference sessions on Friday despite the torrential rain.

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"Most people in this country are illiterate about human rights," said Mann, who teaches a course on the subject at the School of Public Health.

Adopted by the United Nations in 1942, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the central document of the modern human rights movement, Mann said. Though it only mentions the word health once, Mann argued that the entire document can be seen as referring to health.

"The mission of public health is to ensure the conditions in which people can be healthy," Mann said. "Our analysis is that people whose rights and dignity are respected are thereby assured of the conditions in which they can be healthy."

"The promotion and protection of health is inextricably linked to the promotion and protection of human rights and the respect of human dignity," he added.

For example, Mann feels the low status of women in most societies has numerous negative effects on their health. Forced prostitution in Burma and female genital mutilation in Africa are but two examples.

"[Women] don't have equal access to care or education, and their dignity is impugned," he said in an interview yesterday. "It's clear that male-dominated societies are a threat to public health.

Mann said that the medical care given by doctors is a "relatively small piece of the health picture."

"In the United States, about one-sixth of the increase in life expectancy since the beginning of this century is due to medical care," said Mann. "The rest is due to the underlying conditions that are actually societal and environmental."

Mann said such societal issues as education, income and jobs were important factors in determining health, as evidenced by the poor generally having shorter lives than the rich.