Anthropology faculty member selected for World Health Organization task force

December 17, 2018

Monir Moniruzzaman, Ph.D., assistant professor in Anthropology, in the College of Social Science has been selected as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) task force on Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues.

Moniruzzaman was selected as a member of the Task Force because of his longstanding and challenging research on organ trafficking in Bangladesh, which includes a number of published articles and presentations of his research to the Vatican, US Congress Human Rights Commission, and US Senate Foreign Relation Committee.

Since 1991, an acute shortage of human cells, tissues, and organs has resulted in many people (usually the wealthy) traveling to other countries to participate in illegal activities of buying cells, tissues, and organs from the poor.

“As a member of the Task Force, my role will be to advise and assist the WHO and its Member States in developing sustainable transplant system and achieving national self-sufficiency in order to combat organ trafficking and transplant tourism worldwide,” Moniruzzaman said.

Moniruzzaman’s specific task force includes 31 members from various continents and countries. The task force includes experts in various fields including medicine, surgery, ethics, law, patients’ rights, public administration and health systems.

The task force was created in response to a 2017 vote from Member States to establish a Task Force to advise and support WHO at all levels on delivering its mission and assisting its Member States in establishing and/or strengthening their systems in organ-tissue donation and transplantation at national level or through regional cooperation.

The WHO is an international partnership intended to promote, direct and coordinate international health work through collaboration, working with various groups, countries, United Nations system academia and research institutions to accomplish these goals.