NCDs and Law Expert Meeting 2015: an interview with David Patterson

Shamiso Philomina Zinzombe, Erasmus University Rotterdam

On 22 September 2015, the International Development Law Organisation, Global Health Law Groningen and the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Working Group of the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research held an expert meeting on 'Human rights-based approaches and domestic legal responses to NCDs: lessons learned'.

Non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease among others are increasingly the major cause of illness, disability and premature death, with estimates showing in 2012 non-communicable diseases killed 38 million people per year. Each of these effects in turn has serious ripple effects on the afflicted individual, the individual’s family, the community and beyond. Given this increasingly, non-communicable diseases have rightly seized the attention of law and policy makers domestically and internationally, as reflected by the inclusion of non-communicable diseases in the current Sustainable Development Agenda. This interview adds to the discussion on law and policy from a human rights perspective where issues of non-communicable diseases arise. The human rights community is no stranger to applying human rights based approaches to health. In this interview, recorded on 21 September 2015, I had the opportunity to interview one of the stalwarts in this area, Mr David Patterson, Senior Legal Expert of the International Development Law Organisation.