142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

316008
Realizing the Right to Health: Developing Tools to Improve Human Rights Monitoring

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 3:10 PM - 3:30 PM

Ana Ayala, JD, LLM , O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
There is both a need to better define the content of the right to health and for ways of measuring governments’ compliance with obligations set out in relevant human rights instruments at the international and regional levels. This presentation will highlight the role that domestic courts and both regional and international tribunals can play in fostering global compliance with health-related human rights obligations. Faced with the opportunity to influence health outcomes, adjudicating bodies can integrate public health data in adjudicating claims of health rights violations, even where the claimant is an individual. This is particularly relevant to determining the extent to which the government has systematically failed to guarantee or protect the health-related right and when members of vulnerable populations are involved. However, improved access to and collection of public health data is essential. Taking this need into consideration, the presentation will outline mechanisms developed, currently being developed, and that can be developed to better measure the realization of the right to health across the globe.

Learning Areas:

Communication and informatics
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Assess the need for better ways of measuring progress in the realization of the right to health across the world. Explain how domestic courts and regional and international tribunals can help increase compliance with obligations established by relevant human rights instruments for governments for the realization of the right to health. Describe existing mechanisms developed to better measure the realization of the right to health. Identify tools that can be developed to better measure the realization of the right to health across the globe.

Keyword(s): Human Rights, Social Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been at the O’Neill Institute for over four years, leading projects that apply international human rights law to public health—they have entailed a wide range of subject areas, including health rights litigation, infectious diseases, sexual and reproductive health, patient care, and global tobacco control. I have trained public health and medical officials from around the world on a number of legal issues, including human rights.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.