We are a group of academic authors from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) who are in direct contact with students and professionals in the medical doctor’s career, as well as specialties and subspecialties. We have learned firsthand about cases of abuse of power, harassment, and gender violence by physicians towards physicians. Therefore, we are very interested in the deeper analysis of an issue in the search for strategies to curb these acts that have been legitimized and normalized with the excuse of the hierarchical tradition of medical education or the path to follow to achieve professional goals.

The case we present is a conglomerate case based on a series of questions presented to us as part of an investigation entitled “Gender violence during medical training in Mexico”. UNAM, as an institution of higher education, must contribute to generating a change in mentality and education to achieve a more egalitarian, fair, and equitable treatment so that women and men are treated with the same respect and dignity and have the same rights to work and have a life project. Without this implying being left without work or being relegated to less essential and even trivial functions that require little or no creativity, human talent is wasted, which, in the long term, causes losses for any health institution and society.

Denmark’s approach to European law was distinct from most other member states in that it remained a largely administrative rather than judicial process. This chapter explores how Danish civil servants, rather than politicians or courts, managed Denmark’s interaction with European law, proactively shaping its application whilst also containing its implications. Denmark’s well-known reluctance toward European integration writ large is mirrored in its interactions with EU law, seeking to maximise economic benefits while limiting the in-roads on national sovereignty by supranational institutions. Danish courts were initially hesitant to engage with the ECJ, avoiding preliminary references. Despite this cautious approach, Danish governments pragmatically defended the ECJ’s authority in European institutions, recognising that a strong legal system could serve Danish interests as a small member state. The chapter concludes that while Denmark did not actively resist European law, it strategically managed its impact through administrative means rather than direct judicial or political engagement.

Lived experience narratives are often used to provide depth of understanding to an area of study in medicine, using ‘real world’ exemplars that explicate theory and models of practice. In our case, the narratives in this part help us understand how the social context of the authors and the people they discuss shape collective experience, and drive the way institutions and individuals respond to sexual harassment within their profession.

This chapter draws from work and social-cognitive psychology, which is concerned with understanding people at work, and specifically the social and individual cognitive dimensions to these serious misconducts. It offers a distinct perspective on sexual harm, by focusing on three interconnected elements: the individual, the specific types of behaviours, and the environment. Understanding these distinct elements and how they combine, alongside insight into different inhibitors is critical not only understanding why these events occur, but also why they persist. This lens highlights the role of power and its abuse by elites, and why others may be reluctant to challenge and raise their concerns. It also reveals why a professional, undertaking morally praiseworthy activities may paradoxically be more at risk from the distorting cognitive processes of moral licensing. Psychology offers new perspectives into these phenomena and more critically into upstream preventative responses, to show why remediative sanctions may not be so simple here.

In the 1950s, as one columnist recently pointed out, “the wealthiest people in the U.S. were not corporate executives … Rather, they were entertainers.”2 In 1958, for example, when Arthur B. Homer, the president of Bethlehem Steel, was making $623,336, Frank Sinatra made nearly $4 million.3 Given this reality, when entertainers got together to talk amongst themselves in mid-century America, “the U.S. tax laws [were] deeply involved.”4 It should not be surprising, therefore, that when it came to tax dodging during this period, entertainers were on the cutting edge.

Medicine is a profession built on the pillars of compassion and healing. Paradoxically, the medical community is plagued by a pervasive culture of bullying, harassment, and abuse. Women in medicine face particular challenges, often experiencing gendered forms of harassment that further marginalize them. The fear of retaliation, stigma, and career repercussions deters many from reporting such incidents, perpetuating a culture of silence.

This toxic environment not only harms individuals but also compromises patient care. Early exposure to such behaviors during medical training can have lasting negative effects on professional and personal identity and well-being. To address this pressing issue, it is imperative to foster a supportive and inclusive culture within medical institutions, where individuals feel empowered to speak up and seek help without fear. When organising care, providers need to be aware of the complexity of treating doctors who may themselves be therapists. The complexities of the relationships between doctors and their doctor patients need to be considered, especially when stigma and shame influence care.

Attempts to register and control the populations of the east left a documentary record that was often extremely local. Provincial subjects proved astute readers and compilers of local documentation, which they rearranged in order to make claims of right. These claims can be mined for their underlying legal ideologies. Provincial subjects imagined law not as an abstract system, but as a running list of privileges and disabilities. Rights emerged from having the most correct or most persuasive hermeneutic for making sense of collections of documents in dialogue with officials, through the process of generating legal paperwork. Archives were not merely repositories of external facts about the world: they were collections of arguments that could be made. Law emerged from the collaborative process of claiming such rights.

The framework of human rights has permeated international discourse and has evolved into standards that are replicated at international, regional, and domestic levels. This chapter utilises the human rights framework to explore the value it may offer in addressing the issue of abuse between medical practitioners. Beginning with a brief description of the overarching instruments from which the modern understanding of human rights stem, the chapter progresses to look at the specific human rights instruments at an international, regional, and domestic level. This analysis concludes the human rights framework offers little to an individual in terms of timely redress, however, the value of this approach lies in collective advocacy. Utilising a common language, global criteria, and data, human rights act as a point of agitation which can assist in exposing archaic notions around appropriate workplace behaviours and transforming rights into enshrined legislative materials with the full protection of the law. The human rights framework should be pursued alongside a more responsive methodology, such as though legal options and mechanisms, until such a time as neither are required.