Research Seminar September 29 |
Programme Research Seminar on On 11 August 2000 the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published General Comment 14 on the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. To date this is the most authoritative interpretation on the Right to health. General Comment 14 has challenged our conception of the right to health and human rights more generally in numerous ways. Protection for example goes beyond ‘clinical’ matters and extends to underlying social determinants of health care which range from water through to housing. Effectively General Comment 14 directly links the right to health with the enjoyment of other Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR). In addition the Committee considers health from various ‘need’ perspectives. Thus the Committee takes the traditional doctor-patient relationship into account when it considers issues such as privacy. It also takes into account clearly connected yet previously viewed as exclusively external relationships which all impact on the right holders capacity to enjoy the right to health, for example international co-operation and assistance, economic sanctions and trade or other activities. Finally, General Comment 14 introduces the idea that the right to health is also a right of the ‘collective’ and not just the individual, a proposition which is not without some controversy. To sum up, in broad terms General Comment 14 presents timely and intriguing legal and social questions which can be grouped into two broad thematic foci. In particular it raises issues of normative standards and enforcement mechanisms. In the all embracing spirit of General Comment 14 this Seminar is intended not just for right to health specialists but is intended to be relevant to all activists, researchers and academics interested in ESCR - Sessions I and II.
Session III is an opportunity for researchers and students interested in ESCR to meet and to discuss the establishment of more regular meetings and other forms of collaboration through the setting up of a working group on ESCR.
Session I – “A Norm Setting Document?”
Ingrid Westendorp (University of Maastricht)
Stephanie Jansen (Tilburg University)
Shamiso Zinzombe (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Session II – “Enforcement Matters”
Andre den Exter (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Jasper Krommendijk (Maastricht University)
Diana Contrera (University of Utrecht)
Session III – “An ESCR Working Group”
Cornelieke Keizer (Equalinrights)
Martin Buijsen – (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Registration Form Info: info@erasmusobservatoryonhealthlaw.nl |
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