Law and Health Initiative Digest

The Law and Health Initiative Digest is a monthly round-up of advocacy and grant-making activities supported by the Law and Health Initiative (LAHI) of the Open Society Institute and Soros foundations.  Each issue contains brief highlights of LAHI activities under each of our five priority areas.

In This Issue

• Health and Legal Services
• Human Rights in Patient Care
• HIV/AIDS and Human Rights
• Capacity Development
• Legal Strategies in Health Monitoring

Health and Legal Services

Launch of Gender Based Violence Recovery Centre in Kenya
On March 29, the Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya's chief referral and medical training institution, will be officially launching its Gender Based Violence Recovery Centre.  The Centre offers comprehensive medical care and psychosocial and legal support for survivors of rape and gender violence.  The Coalition on Violence Against Women - Kenya (COVAW-K), a grantee of the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) and LAHI, is partnering with Kenyatta National Hospital to provide survivors of violence with legal advice and support to better protect their rights.  Project activities include legal services, training for health care providers, and a pro-bono lawyers plan.  For more information, please contact Anne Gathumbi at agathumbi@osiea.org, Tamar Ezer at tezer@sorosmy.org, or Grace Kimani at gkimani@covaw.or.ke.

Human Rights in Patient Care

LAHI Coordinator Attends Founding Conference of European Association of Health Law
More than 100 experts and government officials from across Europe came together for the founding conference of the European Association of Health Law (EAHL), held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh from April 10-11.  EAHL aims to promote health and human rights throughout Europe and to act as an indispensable source of advice and guidance on the development of health laws and policies throughout Europe.  The conference agenda included many issues of interest to LAHI and the OSI Public Health Program, including international law related to health, equality and non-discrimination in the delivery of health care, and confidentiality of medical information.  Representing LAHI at the conference was IRF-LAHI Coordinator Maria Vynnytska, who gave a presentation on LAHI-funded health and human rights courses being implemented in six former Soviet countries, distributed copies of the LAHI Global Strategy, and shared information on LAHI's Practitioners' Guides and website projects.  For more information, please contact Maria at vynnytska@irf.kiev.ua.

Roundtable on Medical Law in Eastern Europe
On March 2-10, IRF-LAHI Coordinator, Maria Vynnytska and LAHI consultant, Judy Overall, participated in a roundtable on medical law in Prague, "The Development of Health Law in the Eastern European Region 2008:  The Beginning of the Dialogue."  Professionals in medical law and patient rights from Armenia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Moldova, and the Russian Federation, and Ukraine participated in the roundtable.  Topics discussed included:  Health Law and the Science of Health Law;  Patients' Rights and Medical Malpractice Litigation;  Right to Access to Health Care; Education and International Mobility of Health Care Workers; and country presentations regarding history, government systems, national economy highlights, religious and social specifics, the health system and its problems and reforms.  A resolution was passed that calls for the organization of an Eastern European Association of Medical Law and for future collaboration among roundtable participating countries and organizations.  For more information, please contact Maria Vynnytska at vynnytska@irf.kiev.ua or Judy Overall at joverall10@aol.com.

Second All-Ukrainian Conference on Medical Law Convenes in Lviv
The second annual conference on medical law in Ukraine convened in Lviv from April 17-18, with support from LAHI and the International Renaissance Foundation.  The interdisciplinary field of medical law is just emerging in Ukraine, uniting experts in patients' rights, health care management and financing, medical insurance, and health legislation.  Experts from across Ukraine as well as from Russia and the Czech Republic came together for two days to discuss these issues and strategize on how to define and strengthen medical law as an independent discipline.  Organizers also presented the first edition of the Ukrainian Medical Law Journal and announced the creation of the National Foundation of Medical Law and Bioethics of Ukraine.  The results of the conference were captured in a Conference Resolution to be distributed among government ministries, parliamentary committees, medical and law schools, and civil society organizations.  IRF-LAHI Coordinator Maria Vynnytska, IRF Public Health Coordinator Masha Savchuk, and LAHI Consultant Judy Overall all attended the conference to promote issues of human rights in patient care and to ensure that LAHI's priorities form part of the emerging field of medical law in Ukraine.  For more information, please contact Maria Vynnytska at vynnytska@irf.kiev.ua.

Special Rapporteur Highlights Access to Palliative Care as an Urgent Right-to-Health Issue
On March 11, Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, addressed the Human Rights Council with an update on his work and continuing challenges.  He highlighted palliative care, including pain relief for the terminally ill, as a human rights issue requiring urgent attention.  He pointed out that this is a problem of both development and regulations gone awry that has been largely neglected.  He urged the Human Rights Council to give it attention, especially in light of the theme for this year's World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (October 11) - "Palliative Care as a Human Right."

HIV/AIDS and Human Rights

Human Rights and HIV/AIDS: Now More Than Ever Wins Gold Award
Produced by the OSI's Law and Health Initiative, translated into nearly a dozen languages and endorsed by hundreds of organizations fighting HIV/AIDS, the second edition of the ten-point declaration Human Rights and HIV/AIDS: Now More Than Ever has won a prestigious gold award for Special Report in the Council on Foundations' Wilmer Shields Rich Awards for Excellence in Communications.  The award recognizes outstanding publications and communications efforts by non-profit organizations and foundations. The declaration focuses on the plight of people who use drugs, sex workers, prisoners, women and girls, men who have sex with men and others at highest risk of HIV, calling for a shift in the global AIDS response toward a greater focus on human rights. To view the declaration and endorse it on behalf of your organization, please visit www.soros.org/initiatives/health/focus/law/articles_publications/publications/human_20071017. For more information, please contact Jonathan Cohen at jcohen@sorosny.org or Ralf Jürgens at rjurgens@sympatico.ca.

Lawyers Trained on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Litigation in Botswana
On March 29, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)-LAHI grantees-the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) and the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA)-in collaboration with the Law Society of Botswana, convened a training workshop on HIV/AIDS and human rights for private lawyers in Botswana interested in litigating these cases.  The training covered the use of international and regional law in Botswana courts; the intersection of litigation and advocacy; the state of discrimination law in Botswana; how to litigate privacy and confidentiality issues in Botswana; and Botswana law as it relates to prisoner rights and HIV issues.  Participants included over 20 competitively selected Botswana lawyers from the private sector and representatives from networks of people living with HIV.  In discussing the obstacles to bringing successful human rights challenges in Botswana courts, participants identified the lack of expertise among judges and lawyers and stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV.  SALC is continuing to work with local lawyers in Botswana and regional partners to address these concerns.  For more information, please contact Priti Patel at pritip@osisa.org or Tamar Ezer at tezer@sorosny.org.

American Bar Association Hosts Panel on Global AIDS and Human Rights
The closing panel of the 2008 meeting of the American Bar Association's HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee addressed the crisis of HIV-related human rights abuses around the world.  Jonathan Cohen and Joanne Csete, the acting director of the Firelight Foundation, gave remarks about the range of human rights abuses undermining HIV responses and what funders can do to address the crisis.  The meeting was held in Dallas, Texas from April 9-11 and brought together over 100 lawyers from across the United States to discuss challenges and trends in the legal representation of people living with and affected by HIV.  The ABA's HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee aims to engage the professional bar in issues of HIV/AIDS law and policy, both in the U.S. and abroad.  For more information, please contact Jonathan Cohen at jcohen@sorosny.org.

Capacity Development

Improving Access to Health and Human Rights for East African Sex Workers 
In late March, a meeting organized by Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA) in partnership with the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA), OSI's Sexual Health and Rights Project (SHARP), and LAHI brought together 35 activists from across Kenya and Uganda to discuss health risks and human rights abuses faced by sex workers in the region.  Participants explored the difficult environment sex workers face in East Africa and shared information regarding access to rights and safety.  Such discussions are critical to reduce risk for sexually transmitted diseases and to improve overall health and wellbeing.  A press release on the meeting is available at www.soros.org/initiatives/osiea/news/press_20080403

 For more information, please contact Rachel Thomas at rthomas@sorosny.org or Anne Gathumbi at agathumbi@osiea.org. 

Legal Strategies in Health Monitoring

Release of A Monograph on Accountability and the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health
On May 1, the OSI Public Health Program held a round table to discuss a fresh-off-the-print monograph, Accountability and the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, written by Helen Potts, Senior Research Officer in the Right to Health Unit of the University of Essex as part of a joint LAHI grant. The monograph was co-presented by Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health. Accountability is a central feature of human rights, but despite its critical role, little work has been done to explore its meaning and content.  Even less work has been done in the context of the right to health.  As a result, accountability is cloaked in misunderstandings.  The monograph is an accessible, practical, and timely study, addressing these misunderstandings by clarifying the process of accountability; the relationship between monitoring, mechanisms and redress; and the pre-conditions for effective accountability. For more information, please contact Jonathan Cohen at jcohen@sorosny.org or Helen Potts at htpotts@essex.ac.uk.