Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 265-279 | PDF Nicolas Howard* and Emily Schneider* Abstract Despite Israel’s responsibility under international law to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics in its occupied territories, Israeli officials have refused to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Through a critical discourse analysis of Israeli officials’ statements regarding Israel’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, this paper explores how Israel evades…
“It’s Not Whatever, Because This Is Where the Problem Starts”: Racialized Strategies of Elimination as Determinants of Health in Palestine
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 237-254 | PDF Benjamin Bouquet,* Rania Muhareb,* and Rhona Smith Abstract In this paper, we examine the social construction of race as a determinant of health inequities in Palestine. Race myths about Palestinians conform to the “logic of elimination” integral to settler colonialism, predicated on the dispossession and removal of the Indigenous people from the land. Racialized legal categorizations of Palestinians are deployed in strategies…
The Right to Science as a Guidepost for Fair Access to COVID-19 Vaccines: Investigating the Interpretive Role of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 191-204 | PDF Katrina Perehudoff and Jennifer Sellin Abstract Facing the unmet need for new, affordable medicines for public health crises, how should states’ duty to ensure that everyone shares in the benefits of science be understood in relation to pandemic vaccine supply, and how has the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights monitored the implementation of this right? In this paper,…
EDITORIAL Interrogating the Role of Human Rights in Remedying Global Inequities in Access to COVID-19 Vaccines
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 121-124 | PDF Lisa Forman, Carlos Correa, and Katrina Perehudoff Introduction Access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines is central to controlling the global COVID-19 pandemic. It is also an essential element of advancing universal health coverage under the Sustainable Development Goals, and it is essential to realizing a range of human rights related to health. Yet disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines in low…
VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE Impact of Human Rights Council Reports on Mental Health
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 85-99 | PDF Carmel Williams and Audrey Chapman Introduction In June 2017, Dainius Pūras, the former United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the right to physical and mental health, presented a landmark report to the Human Rights Council calling for a paradigm shift in mental health to models centering on rights-based care and support.[1] The report called on states and all stakeholders…
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Gender-Based Violence Is a Human Rights Violation: Are Donors Responding Adequately? What a Decade of Donor Interventions in Colombia, Kenya, and Uganda Reveals
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 29-45 | PDF Clarisa Bencomo, Emily Battistini, and Terry McGovern Abstract Gender-based violence (GBV) is a violation of human rights and must be addressed as such. This paper examines whether donor practices align with a rights-based approach, using data from our comprehensive study of foreign funding flows related to GBV in Colombia, Kenya, and Uganda from 2010 to 2020. By analyzing data from 1,180 grants—and…
STUDENT ESSAY Niger’s Approach to Child Marriage: A Violation of Children’s Right to Health?
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 101-109 | PDF Caroline Crawford Child marriage is a global challenge in need of greater attention. According to reports by UNICEF, 650 million girls and women alive today were married as children.[1] The global rate of child marriage still remains high, with data suggesting that over 12 million girls under 18 years are married every year.[2] With close links to high rates of adolescent pregnancy,…
Menstruation, Myopia, and Marginalization: Advancing Menstrual Policies to “Keep Girls in School” at the Risk of Exacerbating Inequalities
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 13-28 | PDF Nay Alhelou, Purvaja S. Kavattur, Mary M. Olson, Lillian Rountree, and Inga T. Winkler Abstract As countries across the world adopt policies addressing menstruation, it is imperative to identify who benefits from such policies and to understand the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. We examine such policies through the lens of human rights, as a framework that demands addressing marginalization, ensuring substantive…
Involuntary Civil Commitment for Substance Use Disorders in Puerto Rico: Neglected Rights Violations and Implications for Legal Reform
Volume 24/2, December 2022, pp. 59-70 | PDF Caroline M. Parker, Oscar E. Miranda-Miller, and Carmen Albizu-García Abstract Laws facilitating the involuntary civil commitment (ICC) of people with substance use disorders vary considerably internationally and across the United States. Puerto Rico, a colonial territory of the United States since 1898, currently harbors the most punitive ICC legislation in the country. It is the only place in the United States where…
Developing Data Governance Agreements with Indigenous Communities in Canada: Toward Equitable Tuberculosis Programming, Research, and Reconciliation
Volume 24/1, June 2022, pp. 21-33 | PDF Robin P. Love, Billie-Jo Hardy, Courtney Heffernan, Amber Heyd, Melissa Cardinal-Grant, Lori Sparling, Bonnie Healy, Janet Smylie, and Richard Long Abstract Indigenous rights to self-determination and data sovereignty support Indigenous-led data governance, which, when adequately resourced, can act as a catalyst for Indigenous-led strategic planning and decision-making in public health research and programming. Respecting Indigenous data sovereignty and governance requires time, resources,…