A native of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Anthony Maher is a first year law student at McGill. He previously studied global governance and diplomacy at the University of Oxford. His interests include global health law, communication in public health, and non-communicable diseases.
How can inequities in health be tackled at the global level?
WITH THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS) SET TO EXPIRE IN 2015, WHAT WILL THE POST-MDG GLOBAL HEALTH FRAMEWORK LOOK LIKE?
According to the Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health (JALI), a Framework Convention on Global Health could serve to address these questions. The JALI has issued a Manifesto calling for the establishment of such a Framework. As stated in the Manifesto:
The world fails nearly 20 million people every year, and fails billions more people whose lives are shattered by want and deprivation. To address at least a part of this injustice, we are launching a global campaign grounded in the human right to health, where governments assure the conditions in which everyone can be healthy. Recognizing the strength of existing international law, yet how hard it is to utilize by the people who most need to assert their rights, we are calling for a Framework Convention on Global Health to give true force to international law and extend its reach into the communities where we live, to create the conditions for health and wellbeing for everyone.
According to advocates, a Framework Convention on Global Health could delineate national responsibilities for health, provide strong global health leadership, ensure stable funding for health, and coordinate fragmented activities, among other important functions.
To use the words of one legal expert, could this be the answer to the two-fold objective of ‘health for all, justice for all’?
To read the full Manifesto and for more information, visit: http://www.jalihealth.org/take-action.html.
McGill Journal of Law and Health 