JJUA55136U Health and Human Rights

The course is centered around the right to health as protected under human rights law. As the right to health is closely related to other human rights, such as the right to food, adequate standard of living, education and information, right to life, freedom of speech/right to information, right to privacy, etc) it touches upon broad areas of human rights law both at international, regional and national level. The course is structured around the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): SDG 3 “good health and wellbeing”, and other goals that are also closely related to the right to health will be explored during the course.

The first part of the course will be dedicated to giving the students comprehensive knowledge and competences in general health and human rights issues (the right to health as a human right, related rights (the other SDG’s such as right to food, clean water and sanitation etc.), social determinants of health, equality in health, progressive realization and core basket, rights to medicine, justiciability/access to justice (Regional Courts, UN monitoring committees), the relation between human rights, patients’ rights and public health law. The last part of the course will focus on a number of specific issues including vulnerable groups (children, elderly persons, persons with disability), human rights and chronic diseases, reproductive rights, end-of-life- decisions, human rights and new health technologies, and workshops preparing the students to write the independent assignment for the exam.

The course builds upon the mandatory BA-courses in Public international law, EU-law, Fundamental Rights of the Individual and Administrative law. It relates, furthermore, to the elective BA-courses Health law, and Discrimination and Equality Law. Basic knowledge of international human rights law (e.g. from International Human Rights Law, or Health Law) is an advantage, but not a necessity