Animal health is often ignored, but indispensable to the human right to health

Although preventable by vaccines, approximately 60′000 humans die due to canine transmitted rabies annually, mostly in Africa and Asia. The aim of this paper is to advocate for including animal health aspects into considerations of human health and human rights, and for equitable access to rabies vaccination for both animals and humans. An infringement of human - in particular of children’s - right to health will be illustrated with the case of rabies and poor dog management in Uganda.

Considerations for implementing criminal law for defendants exposed to COVID-19

This study discussed the scope of criminal law considerations for defendants exposed to the Coronavirus through legal studies and health literacy in Indonesia. This article also tries to understand the criminal sanctions carried out by defendants exposed to COVID-19 by examining the potential for criminal justice with considerations and consequences for the rights of citizens to obtain health protection. This study concludes that punishment for criminal acts related to criminal cases must be limited considering that prosecution and criminal sanctions can only be given as light as possible where the condition of the community does need help because of their right to obtain health insurance for the population as regulated in the Law on Health and Human Rights. With a set of rights inherent in the nature and existence of humans as creatures of God Almighty are His gifts that must be respected, upheld, and protected by the state. After reviewing several international and national publications active discussing criminal law and the control of COVID-19, we got all this data. We hope that all this qualitative data can be used for future studies related to health rights and criminal law.

Determining the content of corporate reporting on human rights

Business enterprises have to report their activities to stakeholders in order to provide corporate transparency. Non-financial corporate reports provide a comprehensive coverage of environmental, socio-economic, labor, health, and human rights issues. In the paper the author argues that a uniform definition of a sector-specific human rights issue in reporting frameworks, rather than self-identification by enterprises of salient human rights issues, would help to achieve standardization and thus the possibility of sanctions in the event of false or misleading reporting. The author analyzes existing international and regional non-financial reporting instruments regarding the human rights included in it. The main content issues of non-financial reporting are derived and given requirements to improve them. The author further analyzes whether the two main frameworks for human rights reporting (the GRI Standards and the UNGPs Reporting Framework) currently meet the requirements for content defined in the paper and, if not, how they can be changed.

The Impact and Response to Climate Change as Lived by Older Adults

A growing body of literature documents the domino effects of climate change on the planet and all life. Chief among these changes is the rise in global temperatures, triggering record numbers of heatwaves, and stronger, more dangerous hydrologic events. While climate change looms as a preeminent threat to our planet and future, the public health and human rights ramifications are already apparent. As with many issues in this realm, the effects are felt to a greater degree by our aging populations. As disasters grow in frequency, the more vulnerable populations are at greater risk for more serious outcomes – and will suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change – resulting in greater inequalities. With the consequences of climate change growing more drastic, these outcomes can be expected to climb unless sufficient measures are enacted to combat global warming. In this symposium we will highlight the link between climate change and its impact on the human rights of older adults, and how climate change threatens progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) - a blueprint for a more equitable and healthier planet - if decisive actions are not taken. This symposium will demonstrate what valuable opportunities exist to accelerate progress by leveraging the links between SDGs to combat inequalities and climate change. Panelists will discuss the adverse effects of climate change, the human rights and psychological impacts on older adults, and potential action steps and strategies for older persons to become empowered as advocates for climate change reform.

Neonatal Circumcision: Public Health Necessity or Ethical Dilemma? – Systematic Review

Male circumcision (MC) is common in many countries. Despite clear health benefits, ethical arguments have been invoked opposing MC, especially when performed neonatally (NMC). NMC is when most MCs are performed in developed countries. Here we provide the first PRISMA-compliant systematic review of the disparate evidence of ethical and legal arguments concerning NMC and MC of older boys. Searches were performed of PubMed, Embase and Scopus for publications relevant to ethical and legal aspects of MC in developed Anglophone and European countries. This led to retrieval of 48 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. A further 18 articles and 16 Internet publications were identified from searches of bibliographies of articles retrieved. Two more were supplied by a legal academic colleague. In total 84 publications were reviewed. The literature revealed arguments by some that parent-approved MC of a nonconsenting child is unethical. But parental consent also applies to vaccination and all other medical therapies in children. Strong data support a conclusion that: (1) NMC is low risk, (2) NMC provides immediate and lifetime medical and health benefits, and (3) NMC has no adverse effect on sexual function and pleasure. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child articulates the right to health and focuses on the best interests of the child as its guiding principle. Discouraging or denying MC to neonates is arguably unethical, given the overwhelming health benefits. Legal scholars regard case-law as supporting the legality of NMC. Ethical and legal arguments support the rights of males of all ages to lifetime protection against infection and diseases caused by lack of MC. Arguments opposing NMC generally involve distortion of the medical evidence, poorly designed studies and opinions. Opposition to NMC goes against the principles of evidence-based medicine used in reviews conducted to develop pediatric policies in support of optimum public health, sexual health, mental health, and human rights.

A legal obligation under international law to guarantee access to abortion services in contexts of armed conflict? An analysis of the case of Colombia

This article discusses the existence of an international obligation for the State of Colombia to guarantee access to abortion services for women and girls who are victims of conflict-related sexual violence in the context of the Colombian armed conflict. By examining international humanitarian law rules from an international human rights law lens, it sets out the interdependence between both frameworks from reproductive health and human rights perspectives. Furthermore, the article provides considerations on the recognition and redress of these violations in the transitional justice scenario in Colombia.

COVID-19 raises a health and human rights imperative to advance a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the inequitable health harms and human rights violations faced by older persons, raising a need to support healthy ageing policy as a human rights imperative. However, international human rights law has long neglected the health-related human rights of older persons. Drawing from evolving advocacy efforts to advance the rights of older persons through the United Nations (UN), tentative initial steps have been taken at the regional level, with states in the Americas codifying intersectional rights obligations underlying health through the Inter-American Convention on Protecting the Human Rights of Older Persons. These international and regional efforts provide a foundation to advance the right to health for older persons. Amid an ongoing demographic transition and an inequitable pandemic response, the prospective UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons provides a crucial opportunity to elaborate and uphold the international legal obligations necessary to facilitate healthy ageing.