An Inflection Point for Global Health and Human Rights Presented by: Mrs. Yamin Date: 5 May 2022 Challenging Public Narratives - Pandemic Preparedness - 'The Great Leveler' - Return to Normality Taking Stock in Health and Human Rights - Revealed and exacerbated structural inequalities (which affect health-related rights) - Emergency Powers and Moves toward Illiberalism: violations of civil rights (privacy, movement, education... with disparate effects) - Crisis of legitimacy in democracies and multilateralism Explanatory Narratives - Steady progression until wave of populist nationalism - Populism a symptom more than a cause Struggles to Advance Global Health through Human Rights - Subverting entrenched ideas that these were not real rights, but mere programmatic aspirations - Articulating implications of taking health-related rights seriously in laws, policies, and practices ("human rights-based approaches") - Demonstrating that doing so could achieve meaningful progress toward social justice in national and global orders Origins - Universal Declaration - 2 multilateralism - Development v Human Rights Struggles for Inclusion - Economic growth - Social investment - Tax policies Post Cold War: Diverging Parables of Progress - UN Trans-sectoral Conferences - ESC Rights in international law - Social/Transformative Constitutionalism BUT… - Structural Adjustment/health system reforms - Trade liberalization (e.g., NAFTA, WTO); financial deregulation, changes in anti-trust law, intellectual property... - De-democratizing, 'governance at a distance' Era of ‘Operationalization' or ‘Implementation'? - Proliferation of Human Rights Guidance and Norms - 'Human rights-based Approaches to health' The Invisible Architecture - Crisis of democratic legitimacy - Effects on Global Health Governance Where are we now? - Shackles of debt and austerity - Privatized and/or underfunded health systems, medicalized care v public health - Loss of social protection; labor rights, and profound inequalities - Private sector solutions (e.g. vaccine)