scholarly journals 'Dialogue, review and reflect': A spiral of co-learning and co-research to surface knowledge on the right to health

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Stuttaford ◽  
Gabriela Glattstein-Young ◽  
Leslie London
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Collective Knowledge ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
The Right

This article explores how participants of a Learning Network, comprising members of six civil society organisations and academics from four universities, understand and participate in a dialogical process of co-learning and knowledge generation about the right to health. First, we describe a co-research process that facilitates the surfacing of previously suppressed or undocumented knowledge on the right to health. Second, we explore how co-research captures and disseminates knowledge related to collective action undertaken by civil society organisations working towards translating the right to health into practice. While undertaking this exploration, we maintain an interest in an African appreciation of ‘collective’ knowledge. Through the dialogical process and spiral of reflection, power between the research partners has been shared and spaces for co-learning and co-research created. Subaltern knowledge on the right to health has been placed within a constellation of plural knowledges, rather than at the periphery. Surfacing ‘other’ knowledge on the right to health reflects the lived realities of people and assists in understanding how the right to health can be achieved in practice. Keywords: Health and human rights, participatory action research, co-learning, co-research, knowledge, South Africa

scholarly journals Maternal mortality in Ethiopia: can a rights-based approach cure?

Afrika Focus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Tekle Abegaz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Maternal Mortality ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Selective Approach ◽  
Human Rights Norms ◽  
The Right

Preventable maternal death as a human rights concern is gaining greater momentum. This article examines the normative framework applying to maternal mortality, and highlights the important link that exists between women’s right to health and several other rights. It then discusses the differing, yet complementary, aspects of the nature of women’s right to health as a right relevant to shaping a human rights approach to maternal mortality, namely: achieving health-care services that are available, accessible, acceptable, and of high quality; engagement of civil society organisations in the promotion and protection of women’s health rights; and ensuring functioning accountability mechanisms. Even though the country recognises the right to health and other complementary rights in its current constitution, and also subscribes to numerous human rights instruments that incorporate the right to health, which equally apply to women, the article finds that there is a selective approach to women’s access to health goods and services; the room for mobilising civil society is restrictive; and an inefficient accountability system exits. Relying on the requirements of human rights norms and standards, the article argues for the potential role of operationalisation of the rights-based model to further reducing or eliminating maternal mortality in the Sustainable Development Goals period. Key words: human rights, maternal health, maternal mortality, rights-based approach to health 

Nachhaltigkeit in Wald und Gesellschaft trotz «Überalterung» und «Unterjüngung» (Essay)

2013 ◽  
Vol 164 (8) ◽  
pp. 236-239
Author(s):  
Werner Schärer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Technical Progress ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Care For The Elderly ◽  
Economic Reasoning ◽  
The Right ◽  
Implementation Programme ◽  
Effective Distribution

Sustainability in forest and society despite “overmaturity” and “lack of regeneration” (essay) This essay compares efforts to move towards sustainability in the forests with those in the care for the elderly in Switzerland, and tries to draw conclusions which may promote sustainability. It is wrong, for forests and human populations, to talk of “overmaturity”, as this assumes the primacy of economic reasoning. To guarantee sustainability, the balance between all aspects is crucial. To attain true sustainability, we need binding guidelines and the “right” scale of implementation programme. Civil society organisations have been working for decades – often longer than the state itself – to improve sustainability. In many different areas, good cooperation and effective distribution of tasks between these institutions can be observed. This is important, among other things, because the ever greater speed of technical progress may overwhelm the adaptive capacity of both forests and people, which would influence sustainability in a negative way.

Human Rights Advocacy in Global Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-154
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Amon ◽  
Eric Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Advocacy Strategies ◽  
The Right

This chapter presents an overview of health and human rights advocacy and describes a broad framework and the diverse strategies used by human rights advocates to advance their goals. Based upon documenting abuses, raising awareness, building coalitions, and engaging communities, human rights advocacy seeks to ensure that government laws, policies, and practices respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health of all. These rights arguments and advocacy strategies, first developed in response to the HIV epidemic, have become the basis for broader right to health campaigns. Health-related human rights advocacy, beyond specific strategies, seeks to elevate the voices of people affected by human rights violations, analyze structural barriers, and identify obligations and responsibilities. Focusing on the strategies and tools that human rights advocates use in documenting rights abuses, raising awareness, and seeking change, it is necessary to examine new advocacy partnerships and approaches for evaluating advocacy efforts.

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 8 Justiciability of Human Rights for Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flood Colleen M ◽  
Thomas Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines both the power and limitations of litigation as a means of facilitating accountability for the advancement of public health. While almost half of the world’s constitutions now contain a justiciable right to health, the impact of litigation has been mixed. Judicial accountability has, in some cases, advanced state obligations to realize the highest attainable standard of health, but in other cases, litigation has threatened the solidarity undergirding public health systems. There is significant country-to-country variation in interpreting health-related human rights, as well as differing views of the proper role of courts in interpreting and enforcing these rights. Surveying regional human rights systems and national judicial efforts to address health and human rights, it is necessary to analyze how courts have approached—and how they should approach—litigation of the right to health and health-related human rights to improve health for all.

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 6 Human Rights Advocacy in Global Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amon Joseph J ◽  
Friedman Eric
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Advocacy Strategies ◽  
The Right

This chapter presents an overview of health and human rights advocacy and describes a broad framework and the diverse strategies used by human rights advocates to advance their goals. Based upon documenting abuses, raising awareness, building coalitions, and engaging communities, human rights advocacy seeks to ensure that government laws, policies, and practices respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health of all. These rights arguments and advocacy strategies, first developed in response to the HIV epidemic, have become the basis for broader right to health campaigns. Health-related human rights advocacy, beyond specific strategies, seeks to elevate the voices of people affected by human rights violations, analyze structural barriers, and identify obligations and responsibilities. Focusing on the strategies and tools that human rights advocates use in documenting rights abuses, raising awareness, and seeking change, it is necessary to examine new advocacy partnerships and approaches for evaluating advocacy efforts.

We recovered food heritage, and then? Value enhancement and promotion of local agri-food products in Argentina and Spain

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (12) ◽  
pp. 3168-3180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cintia Analía Barrionuevo ◽  
Elena Espeitx Bernat ◽  
Irene Julia Velarde
Keyword(s):  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Food Products ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Territorial Development ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Local Product ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
The Right ◽  
Innovation Processes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the initiatives of value enhancement and the promotion of local agri-food products in Argentina and Spain to address some of their limitations and contradictions. Design/methodology/approach Based on processes of participatory action research, data and knowledge were produced dialectically with the actors, linking the research process to rural development processes. Findings Value enhancement and promotion of local agri-food products is a complex system where values, preferences and availability of resources converge, allowing to consume products of higher quality, “heritage” products or products differentiated by the production mode. This consumption is not only aimed at tourists who are willing to pay something more for a “certified” local product, but also for the estrategic allies who appreciate the taste of the food of their territory: local consumers. These processes develop strategies such as the “fairs” of each product, or the classic “quality seals.” In the comparison between experiences of both countries, the controversies raise with the high prices of the products as a synonym of value enhancement instead of the right to quality food and the seeking of food sovereignty. Originality/value Problematizing the recovery and valorization of local products reveals the necessity, awareness and inclusion of consumers as actors in the innovation processes and not simply as buyers of luxury products. The originality is also based on specific intervention experiences with territorial actors (social, economic, scientific and political) that shape new forms of intervention, based on strategies that link patrimonialization, knowledge systems and territorial development.

scholarly journals Health and Human Rights Linkage in Bangladesh: Stakeholders’ views from the grassroots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Redwanur Rahman ◽  
Ameerah Qattan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Health Service Provision ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Right

Abstract Background: Bangladesh has attained substantial progress in healthcare services and population health. This study examines the knowledge and awareness about the linkage between human rights and healthcare among patients, healthcare providers and members of civil society in Bangladesh. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed between May and August 2018 to 483 respondents among patients (health service users), providers, and other groups (includes members of civil society, politicians, social and religious elites, media personnel, and rights-based groups) in a regional area in Bangladesh. Of these participants, 58% were from urban areas and 42% from rural areas. As many as 78% were male and 22% female. A survey method and descriptive data analysis was performed to complete the study. Results: Participants in the study were aware and had knowledge about the linkage between human rights and health service provision, but they claimed the right to health has not been implemented in practice. The non-implementation of the right to healthcare is suggestive of a lack of political will, which negatively contributes to the social well-being of the larger population. It has undesirable effects on the development of the health system and the population’s health status. This reflects poor monitoring and performance of public institutions which has ramifications on the wider social parameters of social justice, equity, democratic values, transparency, and accountability. Conclusion: The development of population health is rooted in maintaining and promoting the right to healthcare. The ethical principle of human rights lies in the notions of human dignity, equity, equality, and social justice. The government should adhere to these values at societal levels and engage multiple stakeholders to promote the right to health for the benefit of a wider population.

scholarly journals The Legal Framework for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Cameroon by Non-Governmental Organisations

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-45
Author(s):  
Alvine Longla Boma
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The State ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Right

Civil Society organisations play key roles in African countries. This is not an exception in the Cameroonian dispensation. Indeed, the existence and operation of civil societies in this jurisdiction is legitimated by a 1990 law allowing the free formation of associations. Even though the state has the primary obligation to promote and protect human rights, there also exists a plethora of associations with the same interest. This paper is motivated by the state’s wanton failure in ensuring the enjoyment and fulfilment of the right. For one thing, the state has maintained a stronghold on the Civil Society through legislation which gives public authorities a leverage over human rights defenders. Moreover, an analysis of existing legal and institutional frameworks available to allow human rights non-governmental organisations thrive, leaves much to be desired. Findings reveal that though there are adequate laws and institutions which ensure the creation and functioning of Civil Society organisations in Cameroon, there are also contradictory laws which give the public authority an edge over these organisations and allow them to sanction the activities of some human rights defenders under the guise of maintaining public order. We argue that there should be adequate protection offered to human rights defenders as well as the relaxation of laws permitting public authorities to illegally sanction the activities of relevant non-governmental organisations.

scholarly journals Legal Activism for Ensuring Environmental Justice

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Saiful Karim ◽  
Okechukwu Benjamin Vincents ◽  
Mia Mahmudur Rahim
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Legal Activism ◽  
Movement Strategy ◽  
The Right

AbstractThis article reviews some of the roles environmental lawyers have played in ensuring environmental justice in Bangladesh. It leans on law and social movement theories to explicate the choice (and ensuing success) of litigation as a movement strategy in Bangladesh. The activists successfully moved the courts to read the right to a decent environment into the fundamental right to life, and this has had the far-reaching effect ofconstituting a basis forstanding forthe activists and other civil society organisations. The activists have also sought to introduce emerging international law principles into the jurisprudence of the courts. These achievements notwithstanding, the paper notes that litigation is not a sustainable way to institute enduring environmental protection in any jurisdiction and recommends the utilisation of the reputation and recognition gained through litigation to deploy or encourage more sustainable strategies.

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