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Working Group: Advancing Health and Human Rights
Making health and human rights law universally accessible
(Photo Credit: Marco Verch)
Leads: Max Levy (2L) and Frid Mughal (2L)
Members: Laura Clerk (1L), Masha Janjuz (2L), Erin Kim (1L), CeCe Li (1L), Samar Omidi (1L), Abdul Qarizada (1L), Ayushi Thakur (1L), and Aimee Veiner (1L).
What is the objective of your working group?
Our working group aims to further develop and expand the Global Health and Human Rights Database (“the Database”) by contributing case summaries. The Database is a free online legal resource with content from around the world relating to health and human rights. It offers an interactive, searchable, and fully indexed website of case law, national constitutions, and international instruments. It is the first attempt at an accessible, comprehensive health and human rights law database from both common and civil law jurisdictions. Its goal is to promote the right to health and make records of health rights litigation from across the world accessible to NGOs, lawyers, governments, and society at large.
What kind of work are members of your working group engaged in?
Our volunteers are central to the work we do. Volunteers are responsible for identifying two to three health and human rights cases that are not currently in the Database and summarizing them. In doing so, our volunteers are mindful that their work will be used by those who may not be proficient in English. The summaries, therefore, are written in an easily digestible style. Since legal cases are often the antithesis of plain language, distilling the cases is a unique challenge that our volunteers take on.
Who is your community partner organization?
We work in partnership with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law. The O’Neill Institute has a broad mandate of “discovering innovative solutions to the most pressing health concerns facing the world.” The majority of their work is researching evidenced-based solutions to national and international health concerns, and proposing policies directed at solving those concerns. Their initiatives focus on addiction and mental health, food insecurity, health law, international development, infectious diseases, and more.
The O’Neill Institute supports our work by providing us with access to the Database, supplying the necessary materials and resources needed to find and summarize cases, and reviewing our summaries prior to them being added onto the Database.
The Global Health and Human Rights Database can be accessed at https://www.globalhealthrights.org/.