César Chelala

Dr. César Chelala is an international public health consultant and a
winner of several journalism awards.
Articles by this author
![]() |
Views Saturday, May 07, 2016 A Lesson from Auschwitz At the main entrance of the Nazi camp at Auschwitz one could read: “Arbeit macht frei” (Work makes you free). The current trial of Reinhold Hanning, 94, a former SS guard at the camp, brings to mind one of the saddest ironies in that most tragic place. He is being tried in the court city of Detmold... Read more |
![]() |
Views Saturday, March 26, 2016 Declassifying Records Will Shed Light on US Role In Argentina In 1979, with Paul Heath Hoeffel, I wrote “Missing or Dead in Argentina: The Desperate Search for Thousands of Abducted Victims.” For this article, published as a cover story in The New York Times Magazine , we received the 1979 Overseas Press Club of America award for the best article on Human... Read more |
![]() |
Views Saturday, March 12, 2016 US Should Stop Making (and Selling) Cowards' Bombs The continuous use of cluster bombs -many of them manufactured by the US- in several conflicts around the world, shows a disregard for human rights and tarnishes the image of those countries that make, sell, and use them. Because of the high number of civilians who are frequently their victims—... Read more |
![]() |
Views Tuesday, March 01, 2016 In Yemen, a Humanitarian Pause is Urgently Needed As war continues to rage uninterrupted in Yemen, a humanitarian pause is badly needed as the country spirals down to chaos, leaving the majority of the population in urgent need of medical care. Restrictions on access to medical supplies and care are key impediments in improving the situation of... Read more |
![]() |
Views Saturday, February 20, 2016 Environmental Degradation Takes a Heavy Toll on Women and Children’s Health In 1975, at the Mexico City First World Conference on Women, Vandana Shiva, the Indian scholar and environmental activist, introduced the issue of women’s relationship to the environment. At the time, concern was raised about the depletion of forestry resources and women’s role in agriculture, and... Read more |
![]() |
Views Wednesday, February 17, 2016 Is Microcephaly in Children Caused by the Zika Virus or by Pesticides? At the end of October 2015, the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located in the northeast of the country, started reporting a dramatic increase in the number of babies born with microcephaly, a condition characterized by a shrunken head and brain. The cases in Pernambuco were soon followed by similar... Read more |
![]() |
Views Saturday, February 06, 2016 The Public Health Impact of Domestic Violence Intimate partner violence is the most common kind of violence experienced by women worldwide, both in developing and in industrialized countries. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, 35% of all women will experience either intimate partner or non-partner violence. In Russia, more... Read more |
![]() |
Views Tuesday, December 29, 2015 Japan Offers Reparation to Korean 'Comfort Women' The Japanese government recently agreed to pay $8.7 million to dozens of Korean women who were forced to become prostitutes serving Japanese soldiers. The payment is meant as compensation for their suffering. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his “deepest regrets” and “contrition” from deep in... Read more |
![]() |
Views Monday, October 19, 2015 Legacy of a 'Disappeared' Family in Argentina Politics can have a devastating effect on a country and its people, as I saw during a recent trip to Argentina. I stayed at the Buenos Aires apartment of a relative by marriage, university professor Felix Eduardo Herrera, who died there in 2007; the apartment had been empty since then. He had been... Read more |
![]() |
Views Friday, October 09, 2015 The Perverse Rise of Killer Robots The development of “killer robots” is a new and original way of using human intelligence for perverse means. Human directing machines to kill and destroy in a scale not yet imagined is a concept that not even George Orwell could have imagined. In the meantime, the leading world powers continue... Read more |