Public Health and Human Rights

About

he importance of public health is growing and this theme has a potential to become one most pressing issues in the future. For example, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs are: combat against poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women) all influence health and, according to the WHO, health influences all the MDGs. Connected to this is The issue of global health governance, which deals with the question how to regulate efficiently a panoply of actors in global health, such as international organisations, States, NGOs (including philanthropic foundations), private-public partnerships, pharmaceutical companies, individuals and others. Recently, a concept of global health law has been developed for the improvement of health worldwide (L. Gostin), which comprises legal instruments developed by the WHO and other organisations (ILO, UNESCO, WTO), human rights documents that protect the right to health (UDHR, ICESCR, CEDAW, CRC and others) and standards that deal with social justice and the prohibition of discrimination. In this framework the protection of human rights occupies a vital place.

This one-day seminar will address current challenges and suggest possible solutions at the intersection of public health and human rights. It will include global, regional, comparative and national perspectives on the above issues. The nature of the seminar will be multidisciplinary and its three panels will include experts in areas of public health, human rights, global health governance, health security, mental health, right to health and other disciplines.

The seminar will open with a key-note lecture by Stefano Semplici, Professor of Social Ethics at «Tor Vergata» University.

Course leader

Dr. Andraž Zidar Andraž Zidar holds a PhD in international law form the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva), a master's degree in human rights and democratization (University of Padua) and a university degree in law (Un

Target group

Target: the seminar is open to all the people with a strong interest in the study of the link between Human Rights and Public Health. It is especially conceived for professionals who work in fields where this link is particularly strong: employees of national Health Ministries in the European Union and beyond, representatives of Pharmaceutical Companies, functionaries and officials of International Organizations and members of NGOs working in the public health sector.

The seminar is also addressed to professional doctors having an interest in the Human Rights policies about public health and to scholars with a background in public health, philosophy and ethics, medical law and social sciences.

Course aim

This one-day seminar will address current challenges and suggest possible solutions at the intersection of public health and human rights. It will include global, regional, comparative and national perspectives on the above issues. The nature of the seminar will be multidisciplinary and its three panels will include experts in areas of public health, human rights, global health governance, health security, mental health, right to health and other disciplines.

The seminar will open with a key-note lecture by Mr. Anand Grover, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health and a prominent advocate and activist on HIV/AIDS and human rights.