Global Health & Justice Project
Health and Human Rights Course
Course Description:
Our newly revised "Health and Human Rights" course addresses the leading issues in global health and international human rights through case-based teaching and active student participation. The course approaches global health and justice from a variety of perspectives, including human rights doctrine, global bioethics, public health policy, and international and national law. Classes examine the linkage between health and human rights by analyzing the meaning of the right to health, vis-à-vis other human rights. The right to health as framed by international treaties and covenants will be considered in light of the three main regional legal enforcement mechanisms and through cases exemplifying enforcement of the right to health in each. The course considers a variety of case studies and issues, focusing on vulnerable populations (children, women, PLWA, IV drug abuse, the disabled, the poor) and specific population health threats (HIV/AIDS, Malaria, environmental hazards, access & barriers to drugs and pharmaceuticals). Other topics of study include the public health and human rights aspects of Hurricane Katrina, PTSD in asylum seekers, the role of humanitarian aid, NGOs, medical neutrality, and truth and reconciliation commissions in furthering the right to health and enhancement of human rights.
Course Objectives:
- To give students a thorough introduction to the substance and theory of the fields of public health and human rights law;
- To identify the theoretical and practical tensions between the goals of human rights protection and public health programs, and to suggest strategies to strike a balance between them to effect improved individual and public health outcomes;
- To examine ways in which human rights lawyers and public health officials can work together to achieve the goals of improving public health and promoting human rights protection; and
- To enable law students, public health students, public affairs students and others to work together in evaluating and analyzing a health and human rights issue.
Health and Human Rights (Law H540 / HSERV 590 / PbAf 537 / SIS 590) will be offered Winter 2008: Tuesday & Thursday 1:30-2:50pm
Health and Human Rights Syllabus
