Does Information and Communication Technology Add Value to Citizen-Led Accountability Initiatives in Health? Experiences from India and Guatemala

Marta Schaaf, Shruti Chhabra, Walter Flores, Francesa Feruglio, Jashodhara Dasgupta, and Ana Lorena Ruano Abstract Information and Communication Technology (ICT) may facilitate the collection and dissemination of citizen-generated data to enhance governmental accountability for the fulfillment of the right to health. The aim of this multiple case study research was to distill considerations related to the implementation of ICT and health accountability projects, describe the added operational value of ICT…

PERSPECTIVE Contribution of the Health Ombud to Accountability: The Life Esidimeni Tragedy in South Africa

Ebenezer Durojaye and Daphine Kabagambe Agaba  Introduction Between October 2015 and June 2016, 1,711 people were relocated from mental health facilities operated by long-term provider Life Esidimeni in the South African province of Gauteng to alternative facilities managed by multiple nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The result of the change in providers, and the manner in which the transfers were managed, became a tragedy that culminated in the death of 144 mental…

Transsexuals’ Right to Health? A Cuban Case Study

Emily J. Kirk and Robert Huish  Abstract In 2008, Cuba’s minister of public health signed Resolution 126, an act that assured complete coverage for Cubans seeking sexual reassignment surgeries (also known as gender confirmation surgeries), the first of any country in Latin America to do so. Ten years later, Cuba is celebrated as having one of the most open and inclusive LGBTQ public health and education programs in the Americas.…

Challenging Neoliberalism: ILO, Human Rights, and Public Health Frameworks on Decent Work

Gillian MacNaughton and Diane Frey Abstract In the 2008 report Closing the gap in a generation, the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) described “fair employment and decent work” as components of daily living conditions that have “powerful effects on health.” The CSDH therefore proposed far-reaching structural changes to bring about decent work and health for all. Crucially, however, it failed to acknowledge two relevant international legal frameworks,…

Social Solidarity, Human Rights, and Collective Action: Considerations in the Implementation of the National Health Insurance in South Africa

Renate Douwes, Maria Stuttaford, and Leslie London Abstract Participation is recognized as an important contribution to implementing the right to health. It features as a key element of the global movement to achieve universal health coverage. The mobilization of groups into collective action is central in this. In South Africa, universal health coverage has become a feature of health policies, with the country’s new National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme in…

Strategic Litigation to Advance Public Health

Tamar Ezer and Priti Patel Abstract The HIV movement has relied on strategic litigation as an important tool to develop and enforce legal protections critical to health. This experience contains lessons on the potential of strategic litigation to advance public health more generally. Beyond impacting laws and policies, strategic litigation can change practice, breathing life into existing legal rules never implemented. While cases may target a particular law, policy, or…

Letter to the Editor: Malnutrition, Poverty, and Climate Change are also Human Rights Issues in Child Labor

Adele Jones Athena Ramos’s paper “Child Labor in Global Tobacco Production: A Human Rights Approach to an Enduring Dilemma” highlights the critical issue of human rights for working children, especially those working in hazardous tobacco farming, where agriculture is intricately connected to global business interests.[1] The author includes an extensive review of the literature on child labor in tobacco farming and the human rights that are ignored in, as she…