NGO Collaboration Seeks Greater Accountability in the SDGs

By Health and Human Rights communications assistant Gabrielle Tyson The Post-2015 Development Agenda is under way and while many of the new Sustainable Development Goals will likely remain the same as for the MDGs, there is a need for a more effective and robust mechanism to review States’ progress in achieving these goals.  The Center for Reproductive Rights, Amnesty International, The Center for Economic and Social Rights, and Human Rights Watch…

Focusing on Prevention: The Social and Economic Rights of Children Vulnerable to Sex Trafficking

Angela Duger Health and Human Rights 17/1 Published June 11, 2015 Abstract The commercial sexual exploitation of children (“CSEC”) is an egregious human rights and public health violation that occurs every day across the US. Although there has been positive change in the US to bring attention to CSEC and to reform laws and policies to assist CSEC victims, there has been scant attention and resources dedicated to prevention efforts.…

Reproductive Rights or Reproductive Justice? Lessons from Argentina

Lynn M. Morgan Health and Human Rights 17/1 Published June 11, 2015 Abstract Argentine sexual and reproductive rights activists insist on using the language and framework of “human rights,” even when many reproductive rights activists in the United States and elsewhere now prefer the framework of “reproductive justice.” Reflecting on conversations with Argentine feminist anthropologists, social scientists, and reproductive rights activists, this paper analyzes why the Argentine movement to legalize…

Improving international accountability—a tool for protecting health as a basic human right

Agnès Binagwaho, Richard Freeman, Kirstin Scott, Anne Badrichani, Sardis Harward, Monique Mulindahabi, Corine Karema Published April 14, 2015 The procurement of high-quality medicines to combat major causes of avoidable suffering in sub-Saharan Africa—such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis—is instrumental to a nation’s health system.  Such products are indispensable for national systems to provide the highest attainable standard of health, a fundamental human right. The growth of international aid over the…

Book Brief: The Right to Health at the Public/Private Divide

The Right to Health at the Public/Private Divide Colleen M. Flood and Aeyal Gross Cambridge University Press, 2014 ISBN 9781107038301 492 pages $120 By Health and Human Rights communications assistant Gabrielle Tyson Published April 7, 2015  The Right to Health at the Public/Private Divide broaches a subject central to the current American and global political debate: the right to health care. Flood and Gross put together a comparative study of 16…

Interview: Brook Baker on Intellectual Property Rights, Free Trade, and Access to Medicines

  By Katrina Geddes When I first meet Northeastern University law professor Brook Baker, it’s a bitterly cold day in Boston. It’s a relief to escape into the warmth of Baker’s office, tucked away inside Northeastern’s Cargill Hall, where I am to meet with the prominent professor who focuses on intellectual property, access to medicines, and increasing the legal, economic, and policy response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Baker’s office is…

Data-Driven Human Rights: Using Dual Loyalty Trainings to Promote the Care of Vulnerable Patients in Jail

Sarah Glowa-Kollisch, Jasmine Graves, Nathaniel Dickey, Ross MacDonald, Zachary Rosner, Anthony Waters, Homer Venters Health and Human Rights 17/1 Published June 11, 2015 Abstract Dual loyalty is an omnipresent feature of correctional health. As part of a human rights quality improvement committee, and utilizing the unique advantage of a fully integrated electronic health record system, we undertook an assessment of dual loyalty in the New York City jail system. The…

HIV Stigma in Health Care Settings: A Need for Greater Partnership of Doctors and Lawyers in Ending AIDS

By Theresa Cheng The global health community has been debating when we will reach the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 1 As of 2012, 96% of governments had stepped up to the challenges of managing the epidemic within their own borders by redoubling country investments and integrating HIV planning with national health agendas.2 However, it is increasingly apparent that ending AIDS cannot be achieved without national plans that address gender…

Evaluating Human Rights Advocacy on Criminal Justice and Sex Work

Joseph J. Amon, Margaret Wurth, Megan McLemore Health and Human Rights 17/1 Published June 11, 2015 Abstract Between October 2011 and September 2013, we conducted research on the use, by police and/or prosecutors, of condom possession as evidence of intent to engage in prostitution-related offenses. We studied the practice in five large, geographically diverse cities in the US. To facilitate our advocacy on this issue, conducted concurrent to and following…

Paul Hunt’s TED Talk: Do Human Rights Work?

Paul Hunt, the first Special Rapporteur on the right to health, and guest editor of the forthcoming December 2015 issue of Health and Human Rights Journal, takes his TED audience on a journey to question the validity of his young son’s observation that his dad’s work “doesn’t work.” At the heart of Hunt’s talk is the call to gather more evidence to refute claims that a human rights based approach…