Namusobya Salima Published September 23, 2014 Strategic litigation in response to human rights violations is an increasing practice around the world.[1] Health rights litigation is undertaken to give effect to the right to the highest attainable standard of health and associated rights, such as the right to equality and non-discrimination, patients’ rights, and the right to a remedy.[2] While information is crucial to the success of any health litigation case…
Law, Human Rights, and Health Databases: A Roundtable Discussion
By Joseph J. Amon Published September 11, 2014 Three databases have launched in recent years that provide information on law, human rights, and health. LawAtlas, the Global Health and Human Rights database, and the Doctors Who Torture Accountability Project each seek to organize and put online legal information relevant for policy analysis, human rights research, and advocacy. To explore the nature of each project, the motivation behind it, and what…
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The Health of Low-Income Migrant Workers in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries
Maria Kristiansen and Aziz Sheikh Published July 22, 2014 As Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries increase global engagement and aspire to host high-profile international events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the 2020 World Expo in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the plight of migrant workers in the region is receiving intensified media attention.1 Here, we describe the long-standing health-related problems these migrants face; reflect on…
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Litigation for Claiming Health Rights: Insights from Tobacco Control
Upendra Bhojani, Pragati Hebbar, Vishal Rao, Vandana Shah Published July 15, 2014 This year marks the 50th anniversary of the US Surgeon General’s report that first stated smoking was dangerous and associated with serious diseases, the list of which has since only expanded.1 Tobacco use kills around 6 million people each year, with almost 80% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.2 Therefore, reducing tobacco use can be…
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In Their Court: Litigation Against the United Nations as a Last Resort for Haitian Cholera Victims
By Adam Houston Published June 18, 2014 In 2014, the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) — the latest and longest-lived of a series of UN peacekeeping missions to the country since 1993 — will mark its tenth anniversary. Unfortunately, MINUSTAH’s most lasting legacy in Haiti may prove to be the ongoing threat of cholera. Previously unknown in Haiti for at least a century, the disease was introduced to the…
The post-2015 development agenda: Adherence to human rights alone is inadequate
Letter to the Editor Published May 14, 2014 Dear Editor, “The post-2015 development agenda, human rights, evidence, and open-access publishing” (editorial, Volume 15, Issue 2) highlighted the importance of including human rights on the post-2015 development agenda.1 However, the editorial and calls by the UN’s High Commissioners for Human Rights and the UN Task Team’s “thematic think pieces” for a human rights-based approach to the post-2015 development agenda are narrow…
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The new accountability for doctors who torture
Steven H. Miles Published January 22, 2014 Physicians are integral to the modern infliction of torture. They help regimes devise and implement means of torture that minimize scars that serve as evidence. They help keep prisoners alive who are not supposed to die by calibrating the severity of torture to their medical conditions and treating injuries caused by torture before their patients are returned to torture centers. They falsify medical…
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Cost of indulgence: Rise in violence and suicides among LGBT youth in Russia
Oleg Kucheryavenko, Kirill Guskov, Michael Walker Published December 18, 2013 In June 2013, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a measure that we argue stigmatizes gay people. The legislation introduces fines of up to 5,000 rubles (US $155) for individuals and 200,000 (US $6,186) for officials who disseminate information about homosexuality among minors on the grounds that “gay propaganda” leads to “distorted views of sexuality” and the “formation of non-traditional…
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Letter to the Editor
Published November 5, 2013 Dear Editor, We are writing to support the claim made by Mpinga et al. in their article Traditional/alternative medicines and the right to health: Key elements for a Convention on Global Health. In their discussion of the strengths and challenges associated with the use of “non-conventional medicines” (NCMs), the authors describe such therapies as being not only “cultural products, vectors of knowledge, but also a form…
Access to HIV prevention in Rwandan prisons
Agnes Binagwaho Published August 29, 2013 Background In every society, vulnerable persons can be disproportionately marginalized, unable to reap the benefits of services that are theoretically provided to the general public. Just as marginalization begets vulnerability, so vulnerability begets poor health. In most instances, the responsibility to develop a package of policies and social services specifically target vulnerable populations. In Rwanda, post-1994 genocide policymaking called for a complete overhaul to…
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