The OSI Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) was established in 2005 to support legal strategies to advance public health goals worldwide. LAHI works with the Soros Foundations Network and with OSI’s HIV/AIDS, harm reduction, palliative care, Roma health, and sexual health programs to promote accountability in health policy and the health and human rights of society’s most marginalized persons.

Human rights are essential to public health: OSI’s long experience implementing public health programs has shown that legal advocacy is a critical tool for advancing public health. Human rights abuses against drug users, prisoners, sex workers, women, and other groups increase their risk of disease and impede their access to health services. Effective health interventions such as needle exchange programs, methadone substitution therapy, and comprehensive HIV-prevention for sex workers remain banned or undermined by police practice in many countries, suggesting an urgent need for law reform. For many people, health systems represent places of punishment, coercion and discrimination, with the availability of effective legal remedies for such abuse remaining the exception, not the rule. As developing and transitional countries reform their health systems with increasing support from the international community, laws guaranteeing transparency and freedom of information are essential to ensure the full participation of civil society in monitoring health policy.

Law is a powerful tool for health advocacy: Law and legal professionals can play a critical role in advancing public health goals. In the field of reproductive health, legal advocates have been at the front line of efforts to fight restrictions on abortion and other essential health services for women. In the mental health field, litigation and legislative efforts have resulted in the closure of institutions for the intellectually disabled and the establishment of voluntary and community-based mental health services. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, human rights organizations have played a critical role in defending the rights of vulnerable populations such as gay men, sex workers, injecting drug users, and prisoners and thereby reducing their risk of HIV infection. There is enormous potential to expand law-based health advocacy into new areas such as harm reduction, sexual health, Roma health, and access to palliative care.

Putting health on the human rights agenda: Just as public health professionals need the law, legal advocates can also benefit from expanding their mandate to include public health. The right to the highest attainable standard of health is recognized in numerous international treaties and is widely seen as integral to the realization of other human rights. Health policy is a measure of a governments’ commitment to basic principles of democracy, human rights, and open society. When patients and marginalized groups lack access to a legal remedy for discrimination in the health system; when corruption results in the disappearance of health budgets; and when civil society is prevented from actively participating in the formulation of health policy, not only public health but the rule of law suffers.

Contact Information

Law and Health Initiative
Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street
New York, NY 10019
Tel: +1-212-548-0353
Email: lawandhealth@sorosny.org.