The Global Institute for Health and Human Rights (GIHHR) was founded by physicians and human rights activists Arash and Kamiar Alaei in 2012. Since its approval by the University at Albany in early 2013, the institute has aimed to facilitate a deeper understanding of the intersection between the areas of health and human rights, with a concentration on reproductive health, maternal and child care, HIV/AIDS prevention, education and harm reduction. The GIHHR has been instrumental in helping to reconstruct the concept of health as a human right, and to help bridge the gap between these two fields. In order to accomplish this goal, the institute works with a number of organizations at both the national and international level in the areas of research, advocacy, policy, education and implementation. By, continuing to use these different methods and working on numerous projects with a variety in size and scope, the GIHHR can branch out and continue to expand and improve its programs.