Category: Volume 18 Number 1

Sandra Fahy In early 2014, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry published a report identifying widespread rights violations amounting to crimes against humanity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).1 While the report identified the system of prison camps and cross-border migration as critical to generating horrendous atrocities, it only briefly linked imprisonment and migration as contributing to poor health. Yet the system of prison camps throughout North Korea…

Continue reading “Rights-Based TB Programs for Migrants and Prisoners Needed in North Korea”

Kerry McBroom Abstract One thousand people die every day in India as a result of TB, a preventable and treatable disease, even though the Constitution of India, government schemes, and international law guarantee available, accessible, acceptable, quality health care. Failure to address the spread of TB and to provide quality treatment to all affected populations constitutes a public health and human rights emergency that demands action and accountability. As part…

Continue reading “Litigation as TB Rights Advocacy: A New Delhi Case Study”

Camila Gianella, César Ugarte-Gil, Godofredo Caro, Rula Aylas, César Castro, and Claudia Lema Abstract This article analyzes the factors associated with vulnerability of the Ashaninka, the most populous indigenous Peruvian Amazonian people, to tuberculosis (TB). By applying a human rights-based analytical framework that assesses public policy against human rights standards and principles, and by offering a step-by-step framework for a full assessment of compliance, it provides evidence of the relationship…

Continue reading “TB in Vulnerable Populations: The Case of an Indigenous Community in the Peruvian Amazon”

Gitau Mburu, Enrique Restoy, Evaline Kibuchi, Paula Holland, and Anthony D. Harries  Abstract  Adherence to treatment is a key element for global TB control. Public health laws can be used to enforce isolation, adherence, and completion of TB treatment. However, the practical application of public health laws can potentially range from voluntary measures to involuntary detention approaches. This paper explores the potential risks and impacts of using detention approaches to…

Continue reading “Detention of People Lost to Follow-Up on TB Treatment in Kenya: The Need for Human Rights-Based Alternatives”

Leslie London, Helen Cox, and Fons Coomans Abstract  The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress (REBSP) is a little-known but potentially valuable right that can contribute to rights-based approaches to addressing multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). We argue that better understanding of the REBSP may help to advance legal and civil society action for health rights. While the REBSP does not provide an individual entitlement to have a new drug…

Continue reading “Multidrug-Resistant TB: Implementing the Right to Health through the Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress”

Leslie London, Helen Cox, and Fons Coomans Abstract  The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress (REBSP) is a little-known but potentially valuable right that can contribute to rights-based approaches to addressing multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). We argue that better understanding of the REBSP may help to advance legal and civil society action for health rights. While the REBSP does not provide an individual entitlement to have a new drug…

Continue reading “Multidrug-Resistant TB: Implementing the Right to Health through the Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress”

Mike Frick, Ian Henry, and Erica Lessem Abstract The incorporation of human rights-based approaches into TB programs is gaining traction, but little work has explored the application of human rights norms and principles to TB research (a domain traditionally left to bioethics). TB research is gravely underfunded, and the scarcity of resources for TB drug development has contributed to the stubborn persistence of the TB epidemic and helped to create…

Continue reading “Falling Short of the Rights to Health and Scientific Progress: Inadequate TB Drug Research and Access”