Groningen Centre for Health Law

In this interview, Henriette Roscam Abbing tells us about her past career and reflects on the future of health law. This interview is the first publication from the series ‘Voices in the field,’ a joint endeavour by GHLG and IFHHRO.

At the time of writing there is a remarkable case pending in the Netherlands concerning the effects of air pollution on the health of the population. Two foundations and 57 individual plaintiffs have launched a case against the Dutch State in which they ask the court to order the State to reduce air pollution below the European maxima to the norms set in the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on air quality. If the case is successful, this will have significant consequences for the government as it will be ordered to protect the health of its citizens in a more effective manner by improving air quality. What are the chances of the plaintiffs succeeding in winning the case?

Given the global context (i.e., the Syrian crisis and other humanitarian crises) Greece in virtue of being one of the frontier States of the EU (i.e., one of the main entry points to the EU) experiences a sustained pressure over the course of the last years as regards to the number of refugees mainly arriving from Middle East under difficult and most of the times degrading circumstances.

In 2014, the largest and by far most serious outbreak of Ebola occurred since the virus was first detected in 1976. With an overall death toll of 11.300, there were more cases and deaths in this outbreak than in all others combined. The disease quickly spread between countries, starting in Guinea and then spreading to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Globally, millions of people suffer health and socio-economic related problems due to the unavailability of controlled essential medicines such as morphine for pain treatment, which leaves them in disabling and sometimes degrading situations. Controlled essential medicines are medicines included in the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, and whose active substance is listed under the international drug-control treaties. Their availability and accessibility therefore fall within the remit of both human rights and international drug-control law. Even though the unavailability of controlled essential medicines is generally caused by a multifaceted and complex interplay of factors, the current international drug-control framework paradoxically hinders rather than fosters the access to medicines.

As I write this, the inauguration of a new U.S. president will be held in a few days. Many people outside the United States might experience the adverse consequences that the U.S. election is likely to have on global public health. At the European Public Health Conference in Vienna shortly after the election, one of the speakers, David Stuckler, described the new U.S. president as a “direct threat to public health.”

On 24 January 2017, Prof. Brigit Toebes will give a guest lecture on Refugees & the Right to Health – Challenges for Amnesty International. Please feel free to join us!

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) has released a new report on the health situation in Syria. Titled The Failure of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 in Preventing Attacks on Healthcare in Syria, this report documents 172 attacks on medical facilities and personnel from June through December 2016, using first-hand testimony and photo documentation from physicians and health workers in Syria.

Between 12 and 16 January 2017 the Learning Community Global Health of UMCG organises for students, staff and interested professionals a series of presentations of interest for people who want to know more about developments in global health. We are also happy that the new professor Global Reproductive Health, Prof Jelle Stekelenburg, will give his inaugural lecture this week.

The PhD research examines the national implementation of the right to health with a particular focus on Greece. For this reason, the research builds upon two interconnected parts, Part I and Part II. Part I seeks to identify the primary standards deriving from the right to health on the basis of human rights law by employing evidence from various sources: The UN, Council of Europe and human rights doctrine. Part II is a case study examining the Greek context relating to the right to health whilst considering the particular challenges within Greece such as, economic austerity.