Human Rights Law Commons^™

The Right To Health, Sarah Friedmann

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the human rights discourse and practice the right to health has been and continues to be a contentious arena. Primarily located within legal frameworks that focus on civil and political rights, the right to health is more frequently being used to challenge abuses of health by invoking social and economic rights, even though this places the right to health on slippery terrain that is not as internationally accepted as civil and political rights.

Health, Human Rights And The Pharmaceutical Industry, Gerald Montgomery

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The pharmaceutical industry is a crucial touchstone in the discussion of corporate responsibility to promote human rights. This relationship is, however, problematic at best and, at worst work in opposition to each other. At the same time that drug producers are instrumental in promoting a basic level of human welfare, the outlook of major pharmaceutical corporations are mitigated by unfiltered lenses of profit. With hundreds of millions of dollars spent on research and development, patenting, and marketing, they understandably develop strategies for handling reoccurring costs. But should a morally responsible international community redirect these costs to the developing world or …

Law, Human Rights, Realism And The “War On Terror”, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror by Michael Ignatieff. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 212pp.

Global Economic Forces And Individual Labor Rights: An Uneasy Coexistence, Alice De Jonge

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Workers’ Rights as Human Rights edited by James A. Gross. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003. 272pp.

and

International Labor Standards: Globalization, Trade, and Public Policy edited by Robert J. Flanagan and William B. Gould IV. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2003. 275pp.

Politics And International Justice In A World Of States, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

War Crimes and Realpolitik: International Justice from World War I to the 21st Century by Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004. 267 pp.

Armed Conflict, Health And Human Rights, Alex Deraney, Hafsteinn Hafsteinsson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This section highlights resources with information on health concerns that arise from armed conflict. It examines human rights violations as derived from health issues and the humanitarian efforts to alleviate them. The vast majority of available literature approaches conflict-related healthcare shortfalls in terms of intervention. Literature dealing with armed conflict and health as it applies to human rights is much harder to come by, which indicates the need for additional emphasis in this area.

Cosmopolitan Law—And Cruelty— On Trial, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Law against Genocide: Cosmopolitan Trials by David Hirsh. London: Cavendish/Glasshouse, 2003. 183pp.

Internationally Protected Human Rights: Fact Or Fiction?, Paul J. Magnarella

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Theory and Reality in the International Protection of Human Rights by J. Shand Watson. Ardsley, New York: Transnational Publishers, 1999. 340pp.

and

The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights by Robert F. Drinan, S.J. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. 256pp.

Access To Health, Natalie Huls

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Access to health is an often-overlooked aspect of the right to health. Without practical access, the right to health becomes an empty promise. International human rights conventions and declarations do not directly mention access to health, but the above comment on the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights does address the issue.

Children’S Health And Human Rights, Norie Nogami

Human Rights & Human Welfare

One of the first international attempts to improve the health of children was by Ms.Eglantyne Jebb, a founder of Save the Children, during the aftermath of the WWI. She drafted the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, the first international children’s rights document adopted by the League of Nations in 1924. Today, in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) we have a more comprehensive and near universal legal instrument for children’s rights.

Human Rights, Health, And Corporations, Gerald Montgomery

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Unfettered economic policies have had a notable effect on the state of human rights. With the increasing spread of transnational corporations (TNCs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a major role in setting ethical and moral standards for with the quality of life in the developing states where TNCs do business. Many TNCs are trying frantically to implement strategies that would alleviate labor injustices and corrupt practices in order to meet the standards argued for by NGOs.

Nutrition, Health And Human Rights, Monica Fish

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The last half-century has seen the development of a range of international instruments whose chief concern is the declaration and codification of basic human rights norms as agreed upon by the international community. Collectively these documents provide a normative and legal foundation for the human right to adequate food and nutrition, and freedom from malnutrition. A brief sampling of relevant language from these documents follows:

Health Care And Professionals, Monica Fish

Human Rights & Human Welfare

One of the unfortunate truths of the current human rights regime is that it has given rise to an entirely new aid industry. Fortunate as it is that there are willing individuals eager to share their knowledge and expertise with those in need, the group of professional men and women making up the army of humanitarian workers is, perhaps, overextended and under appreciated. One way of helping the next generation of humanitarians to train and prepare for working within a context of human rights is to provide them with the sound analytical research based on research of current human rights …

Health Of Refugees And Internally Displaced Peoples, Leah Persky, Zaravshon Zukhurova

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Refugees and Internally Displaced People’s (IDPs) are extremely vulnerable to human rights abuses, particularly the lack or denial of physical and mental health care. The basic framework of refugee protection has been established and accepted worldwide for more than 50 years. Still, there is still a lack of commitment to respecting the human rights of refugees and providing adequate humanitarian assistance, including health care. Several international conventions and protocols establish the duties of states in terms of treatment of refugees. These include: the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the Geneva Conventions, the Statute of the Office of …