Groningen Centre for Health Law

There are currently 68.5 million forcibly displaced persons worldwide, most of whom are dependent on humanitarian aid and assistance. Chronic conditions are evident across the refugee population and become heightened in protracted crisis.

Over the last decades, a specific type of human rights violation has been emphasized around the globe, especially in the inter-American region, which violates women's sexual and reproductive rights in particular.

On 1 February 2019, article 53(3), second sentence of the Dutch Patent Act 1995 came into force introducing a patent exemption for the preparation of medicines in a pharmacy. Article 53(1) of the Dutch Patent Act provides the usual list of exclusive acts reserved for the patent holder: to make, use, put on the market or resell, hire out or deliver the patented product, or otherwise deal in it in or for his business, or to offer, import or stock it for any of those purposes. The law now provides an exemption for pharmacy preparation to these exclusive acts.

Monday 4 February, the UK parliament will debate the issuing of a compulsory licence by the government, called ‘Crown use’, for the cystic fibrosis drug lumacaftor/ivacaftor (Orkambi) sold by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The topic was put on the agenda by Member of Parliament, Bill Wiggin.

As of 2012, over 500,000 girls and women in the U.S. were estimated to be at risk of FGM or the consequences of FGM.[1] However, on November 20, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan held that the U.S. government does not have authority to prohibit FGM of children. According to the court in U.S. v. Nagarwala,[2] the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) does not provide a legal basis to support the U.S. government’s attempt to prohibit FGM of children within the United States.

This blog briefly summarises the results of the PhD research that has been conducted on Surinamese health law. The aim of this study is to provide insight into the role of the government through legislation. In doing so, it examines whether the government has adequate administrative law and criminal law instruments in place to protect the health of citizens and to guarantee the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of healthcare.

A key concern in global health is the use of international health instruments and the complex interaction between international law and health considerations. The Research Handbook on Global Health Law, which we published in November 2018, brings together the work of 18 leading experts in this field. Whereas some of the experts focus on a specific component of global health law, such as infectious disease control and the human rights dimensions of HIV/AIDS, others analyse the protection of health under related branches of international law such as international trade law and international environmental law. Altogether, we have attempted to provide a comprehensive overview of the most important dimensions of global health law. We hope our approach will respond to the reference and research needs of both scholars and practitioners alike.

In June 2018, the WTO – Tobacco Plain Packaging panel reports were published. The four reports contain the findings of the WTO panels in the disputes launched in 2012­–2013 by Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Indonesia, against the introduction of plain tobacco packaging in Australia. This blog post provides some overall reflections on the outcomes of this case. The starting point for these reflections is a side event organised by the Global Health Law Committee of the International Law Association (ILA) on Tuesday 21 August 2018, during the ILA’s biannual conference in Sydney.