O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
 

The Fourth Annual Empirical Health Law Conference at Georgetown Law

Apr11
2013 Leave a Comment Written by O’Neill Institute

Empirical Health Law Conference

Friday, April 19, 2013 * 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM * Room 2000

Eric E. Hotung International Law Building * Georgetown University Law Center

The Fourth Annual Empirical Health Law Conference at Georgetown Law will bring together top scholars to present working papers reflecting the most current set of research projects in the field.  While the subject matters of the papers will vary widely, the conference will focus on the general use of empirical methods to inform health law and policy. Each presentation will be followed by a discussant’s comments and a Q&A period.

RSVP to Alison Woodworth at aew74@law.georgetown.edu or (202) 662-9430 

READ MORE »

Posted in Uncategorized - Tagged , , , , , ,

Airline ‘Fat Taxes’: The Dilemmas of the ‘Pay as You Weigh’ Airline Pricing Policies

Apr04
2013 2 Comments Written by O’Neill Institute

United-Airlines-Announces-Fat-Tax-for-Obese-Passengers-2

This post was written by Alberto Alemanno, O’Neill Institute Scholar .  It was originally published at http://albertoalemanno.eu/category/blog. Any questions or comments about this post can be directed to alemanno@hec.fr.

Why most airlines charge your extra-luggage but they do not charge your extra-weight? At a time of high fuel costs and experimental lifestyle regulatory action, economists, business analysts and airline operators begin to play with the idea of ‘pay as you weigh’ pricing.

Introduction

If weight is the key concern for an airplane operation, why do most airlines charge you extra-luggage but they do not charge your extra-weight? At a time of high fuel costs and experimental lifestyle regulatory action, economists, business analysts and airline operators begin to play with the idea (and many others).

Although it initially sounded as an April Fool’s Day joke, Samoa Air announced on April 1 that it is ready to initiate a plan to charge passengers according to their body weight. This tiny company is thus set to become the first airline in the world to embrace a ‘pay-as-you-weigh’ pricing policy and charge passengers based on weight rather than per seat.

There’s been talk of charging by this method for a while and some analysts believe this is how we’ll all be paying for future flights. No surprise the provocative CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has been flirting with the idea to impose an extra levy on passengers who weigh considerably more than average.

READ MORE »

Posted in Uncategorized - Tagged , , , , , ,

Updating the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program for a New Era: Examining critical issues facing this major program in the domestic HIV response

Apr03
2013 Leave a Comment Written by O’Neill Institute

UntitledThis post was written by Jeffrey S. Crowley, Distinguished Scholar and Program Director, NationalHIV/AIDS Initiative at the O’Neill Institute.  Questions may be directed to Jeffrey.crowley@law.georgetown.edu.

This is an exciting and dynamic time in responding to the HIV epidemic.  The United States continues to face a very serious epidemic, with 1.1 million Americans living with HIV and roughly 50,000 people who become newly inflected each year, yet recent developments have led many to conclude that we now have the tools to greatly reduce the scope of the epidemic.  Leading policymakers have even begun talking about working toward an AIDS-free generation.

READ MORE »

Posted in Uncategorized - Tagged , , , ,

Accountability and the FCGH at the CUGH conference

Mar29
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Eric A. Friedman

I had the honor to join two luminaries in the health and human rights world on a panel at the annual conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health here in Washington, DC, two weeks ago. Sofia Gruskin, probably the first “right to health person” I came across back when I was in law school and first learning about the right to health, long at Harvard’s FXB Center and now at the University of Berkeley, and Joe Amon, who heads Human Rights Watch’s health and human rights program, were part of the CUGH conference panel on “Advancing global health through human rights accountability for a Framework Convention on Global Health.”

They had been recruited by O’Neill Institute Scholar and frequent collaborator Ben Meier, a professor at the University of North Carolina, and himself an astute scholar deeply committed to the right to health. The panel’s aim was to highlight the wide range of options for health and human rights accountability – such as courts, indicators, treaties, social mobilization, investigations and reporting, and public and government engagement. And the panel was intended to share the potential of the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) to advance such accountability. READ MORE »

Posted in Global Health, Human Rights

Recap of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health Annual Conference in DC March 14 -16

Mar27
2013 Leave a Comment Written by O’Neill Institute

Conference-2013-postcard-v7-1In partnership with Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania, the Consortium of Universities for Global Health presented its fourth annual conference in Washington, DC on March 14-16, 2013. 

Innovation, Implementation, and Impact was this year’s theme. Co-Chaired by Larry Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute, the conference convened leading academics, government officials, advocates and activists from around the world and across disciplines to identify the most pressing global health challenges and to apply an introspective lens to encourage continuing dialogue and cross-disciplinary solutions. Conference topics spanned the gamut of global health concerns, paying critical attention to health disparities for women and children, growing income inequality and health issues stemming from violence and conflict-torn regions.

Additional information about the conference can be found at the link below:

http://2013globalhealth.org/

Posted in Uncategorized

Congregating Global Revulsion Against Genocides, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

Mar27
2013 Leave a Comment Written by O’Neill Institute
Colloquium B

Eze Eluchie, Ambassador of Montenegro H.E. Srdjan Darmanovic and José Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch (Americas Division)

This post was written by Eze Eluchie (Georgetown LL.M. ’13).  Eze also organized and participated in the event.  A webcast of this event can be found at http://apps.law.georgetown.edu/webcasts/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=1971.  Any questions about this post or the event can be directed to eie2@georgetown.edu.

The quest to congregate global revulsion against the commission of mass murders, forced enslavement and some of the worst crimes conceivable, received a big boost with the convocation of the 1st International Colloquium on Genocides, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, on Friday, March 1st, 2013 at the McDonough Hall of Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC.  The Colloquium was co-sponsored by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the Human Rights Association-Amnesty International, both of Georgetown University and organized by Eze Eluchie (Georgetown LL.M. ’13). READ MORE »

Posted in Uncategorized - Tagged , , ,

Health Warnings on Junk Food

Mar27
2013 Leave a Comment Written by O’Neill Institute

junk foodThis post was written by Alberto Alemanno, O’Neill Institute Scholar and Jean Monnet, Professor of EU Law at HEC Paris.  It was originally published at http://albertoalemanno.eu/category/blog. Any questions or comments about this post can be directed to alemanno@hec.fr.

Chile is set to become the first country in the world to introduce mandatory health warnings on food products. It remains to be seen how this labeling scheme will score under WTO law and in particular the necessity test imposed by the TBT Agreement.

The international community learned last week, on the occasion of the latest meeting of the TBT Committee, Chile’s proposed amendments to its Food Health Regulations — which would place “STOP” signs on junk food.

READ MORE »

Posted in Uncategorized - Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Juan E. Méndez, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Punishment Reports on Torture and Health-care Settings: The Case of Palliative Care

Mar20
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Paula Avila
Photograph by Mark Garten/UN

Photograph by Mark Garten/UN

This post was written by Francisco J. Quintana (Legal Intern from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) and Paula Avila Guillen (Institute Associate) of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Any questions or comments about this post can be directed to fjq2@law.georgetown.edu  or pa390@law.georgetown.edu.

           Juan E. Méndez, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Punishment recently presented his 2013 report. [1] In this report, he addresses a wide variety of topics, including a section analyzing different forms of abuse in health-care settings. The report has been broadly covered by the press. Yet, most of the press reports seem to concentrate on just one specific point-Méndez’s arguments regarding restrictions on access and absolute bans on abortion as violating the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. In this post, we would like to concentrate on another important point analyzed in the report-palliative care.

           According to the World Health Organization (WHO), palliative care is understood as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.”[2] In his report, Méndez highlights that “5.5 billion people live in countries with low or no access to controlled medicines and have no or insufficient access to treatment for moderate to severe pain.”  He adds that “83 per cent of the world population has either no or inadequate access to treatment for moderate to severe pain.” READ MORE »

Posted in Global Health, Human Rights - Tagged , , , , ,

Uruguay New Abortion Law Starts Debate about Conscientious Objection

Mar19
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Paula Avila

 

Photo by Matilde Campodonico

Photo by Matilde Campodonico

This post was written by Francisco J. Quintana (Legal Intern from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) and Paula Avila Guillen (Institute Associate) of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Any questions or comments about this post can be directed to fjq2@law.georgetown.edu or pa390@law.georgetown.edu.

           In October 2012, Uruguay became one of the few Latin American countries to decriminalize abortion outside the frame of specific exceptions (such as rape and the risk of maternal death), by sanctioning a new law, which amended the Criminal Code. Besides Uruguay, only Cuba and Guyana have decriminalized abortion in the Latin America region. The Uruguayan law, which came into effect last December, waives criminal penalties for abortion in the first 12 weeks of gestation, with certain procedural requirements, and in the first 14 weeks of gestation in the cases of rape. Moreover, the law abolishes all criminal penalties, regardless of the timing of the abortion in the cases when the fetus is severely malformed, or when the mother’s life is threatened.

            The new law was highly controversial in a deeply Catholic Latin American country. Latin American countries have some of the most restrictive abortion policies in the world. Several countries, such as Chile, El Salvador, and Nicaragua have absolute bans on abortion. READ MORE »

Posted in Global Health, Human Rights - Tagged , , , , , , ,

O’Neill Institute Co-Hosts CUGH Conference, “Tackling Urgent, Domestic, and Global Health Challenges” (March 14-16, 2013)

Mar13
2013 Leave a Comment Written by O’Neill Institute

O’Neill Institute Co-Hosts Meeting of Global Leaders in DC March 14 -16 to Address Urgent Global Issues

Between March 14 – 16, leaders from an array of disciplines from the US and around the world will be meeting in Washington, DC to attend the Consortium of Universities for Global Health’s 4th Global Health Conference. They will be presenting innovative, evidence-based solutions to address these challenges (www.2013globalhealth.org). The conference will be co-hosted by the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and co-chaired by our Faculty Director, Lawrence O. Gostin.

A complete press release can be found at the link below:

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/documents/CUGHconferencepressrelease.pdf

Additional information about the conference can be found at the link below:

http://2013globalhealth.org/

Posted in Uncategorized
« Older Entries Newer Entries »

The views reflected in this blog are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent those of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law or Georgetown University. This blog is solely informational in nature, and not intended as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed and retained attorney in your state or country.
See the full disclaimer and terms of use.