By Angela Duger Health and human rights professionals have long considered food and nutrition to be underlying determinants of health, but the focus has largely been on undernutrition. That focus is now changing. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.5 billion people are overweight or obese, and that now, for the first time in history, there are more overweight than underweight adults in the world. Obesity is linked to…
Book Brief: The Human Right to Health
Jonathan Wolff W. W. Norton & Company, 2012 ISBN 978-0393063356 208 pages $23.95 In The Human Right to Health, Jonathan Wolff explores all angles of the philosophical dilemma at the heart of establishing a human right to health: “On the one hand, the reasons for asserting a human right to health seem overwhelming. On the other, a universal human right to health seems impossible to satisfy in the current conditions…
Police crackdowns in China: The health and human rights of sex workers
Chinese authorities hold periodic sweeps to detain sex workers, drug users, and other ‘social undesirables’ en masse in advance of national holidays and major government conferences. Sex workers, including feminist activist Ye Haiyan (also known as Hooligan Sparrow) are increasingly vocal in raising concerns about the effects of these raids, highlighting the hardships faced by the lowest-paid sex workers. The following is an analysis of recent police crackdowns against sex…
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Kony 2012: Encouraging social change or oversimplifying a crisis?
Kony 2012, the much-discussed short film about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, has received more than 100 million views in one week, making it the most viral video of all time. The film, created by Jason Russell and released by American charity Invisible Children, aims to increase awareness of Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), responsible for mass atrocities in Uganda since 1987, including wide-scale abduction of children for sexual…
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New online tool outlines the evolution of human rights
By Jay Lemery, MD The Council on Foreign Relations has just released an educational reference on the history and current state of human rights protection worldwide. Part of the Global Governance Monitor series, the interactive online guide tracks the progression of human rights around the world and offers a historical perspective on the current human rights regime. Through videos, graphic timelines, matrices, and interactive maps, the guide outlines the evolution…
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UNICEF: Rapid urbanization hurting children and pregnant women
UNICEF released The State of the World’s Children 2012 last week, reporting on the serious risks children and pregnant women face in our rapidly urbanizing world. While cities historically offer greater access to infrastructure like schools, clinics, and other basic services, the report notes that urban growth rates are outpacing the infrastructure development needed to provide for city residents. There are problems, too, with data reporting on poor urban communities: …
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Book Brief: The Right to Health in International Law
John Tobin Oxford University Press, 2012 ISBN 978-0199603299 330 pages $140 Tobin offers readers a thorough and necessary discussion of the current meanings and legal obligations that stem from the global responsibility to “respect, protect, and fulfill” one’s right to health. He artfully explains the evolution of the concept of health as a human right in historical, theoretical, and philosophical terms in order to describe its nature and understand its…
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Universal Health Care: A Moral Obligation?
By Ronald Pies, MD As a psychiatric physician for nearly thirty years, I am always surprised when I hear politicians claim that the U.S. health care system is “the best in the world.” To be sure, we are among the most advanced nations when it comes to medical technology, and we are second to none when it comes to the dedication of our doctors, nurses, and allied professionals. But if…
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UN study: India Has World’s Worst Gender Disparity in Child Mortality
A new UN study reveals that a girl aged 1-5 is 75% more likely to die than a boy in India, marking the world’s most extreme gender disparity concerning child mortality. Infant and child mortality has been on the decline in recent years, with a large portion of the world seeing young girls with higher rates of survival than young boys. This can be attributable to the biological advantages that…
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Upcoming Event: Course on Health Rights Litigation
The Health Rights of Women and Children Program at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, is pleased to announce application and scholarship information for the Course on Health Rights Litigation. This one-week intensive course is offered as part of the Global School on the Enforcement of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (Global School). The course offers participants an opportunity to develop specialist-level knowledge in relation to…
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