Category: Papers in Press

Damon Barrett Introduction The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) stands alone among the core UN human rights treaties in setting out a human right to protection from drugs. Article 33 provides that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislative, administrative, social and educational measures, to protect children from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances as defined in the relevant international treaties,…

Continue reading “The Child’s Right to Protection From Drugs: Understanding History to Move Forward”

Rick Lines, Richard Elliott, Julie Hannah, Rebecca Schleifer, Tenu Avafia, and Damon Barrett This special section of Health and Human Rights Journal examines some of the many ways in which international and domestic drug control laws engage human rights and create an environment of enhanced human rights risk. In this edition, the authors address specific human rights issues such as the right to the highest attainable standard of health (including…

Continue reading “The Case for International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Control”

Sarah Mares Abstract This paper describes secondary analysis of previously unreported data collected during the 2014 Australian Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. The aim was to examine the mental health of asylum-seeking parents and children during prolonged immigration detention and to consider the human rights implications of the findings. The average period of detention was seven months. Data includes 166 Kessler 10 Scales (K10) and 70…

Continue reading “The Mental Health of Children and Parents Detained on Christmas Island: Secondary Analysis of an Australian Human Rights Commission Data Set”

Paul Hunt Abstract This article tracks the shifting place of the international right to health, and human rights-based approaches to health, in the scholarly literature and United Nations (UN). From 1993 to 1994, the focus began to move from the right to health toward human rights-based approaches to health, including human rights guidance adopted by UN agencies in relation to specific health issues. There is a compelling case for a…

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Julia Smith Abstract Despite a history of championing HIV/AIDS as a human rights issue, and a rhetorical commitment to health as a human right, European states and institutions have shifted from a rights-based response to a risk management approach to HIV/AIDS since the economic recession of 2008. An interdisciplinary perspective is applied to analyze health policy changes at the national, regional, and global levels by drawing on data from key…

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Gen Sander and Rick Lines  Abstract  HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and TB in prisons and other places of detention are serious public health concerns, with prevalence and incidence considerably higher than in the general community because of the overrepresentation of risky behavior, substandard conditions, overcrowding, people who inject drugs, and the wholly inadequate prevention, care, and treatment of these conditions, including the denial of harm reduction services. This is…

Continue reading “HIV, Hepatitis C, TB, Harm Reduction, and Persons Deprived of Liberty: What Standards Does International Human Rights Law Establish?”

Gen Sander and Rick Lines  Abstract  HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and TB in prisons and other places of detention are serious public health concerns, with prevalence and incidence considerably higher than in the general community because of the overrepresentation of risky behavior, substandard conditions, overcrowding, people who inject drugs, and the wholly inadequate prevention, care, and treatment of these conditions, including the denial of harm reduction services. This is…

Continue reading “HIV, Hepatitis C, TB, Harm Reduction, and Persons Deprived of Liberty: What Standards Does International Human Rights Law Establish?”

Rajat Khosla*, Christina Zampas*, Joshua P. Vogel,  Meghan A. Bohren, Mindy Roseman, and Joanna N. Erdman Abstract International human rights bodies have played a critical role in codifying, setting standards, and monitoring human rights violations in the context of sexual and reproductive health and rights. In recent years, these institutions have developed and applied human rights standards in the more particular context of maternal mortality and morbidity, and have increasingly…

Continue reading “International Human Rights and the Mistreatment of Women during Childbirth”