In a lecture titled “Investigating Health and Human Rights Abuse” on Sunday evening, Wilson School visiting lecturer Joseph Amon described health as a “human right.”
“Human rights are really about how people with certain health conditions are subject to discrimination,” Amon said, citing examples such as how people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS are shunned by their communities.
These human rights abuses create vulnerability for health, Amon said, noting that one such right that is frequently abused is the “right to information” such as freedom of speech and the press.
An example he cited was the problem of lead poisoning and pollution in China. He explained how the Chinese government’s reaction to the lead poisoning epidemic has been to censor news coverage on and deny access to information about lead poisoning. Parents are turned away if they ask to check lead levels in their children’s blood, he said, and others who try to go to neighboring towns to get checks are stopped on the road.
Amon also mentioned the right to due process, such as the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial.
“In a number of countries ... drug users are sentenced to compulsory detention for rehabilitation,” said Amon, adding that there is no judicial protection associated with drug use in these cases because it is not a criminal offense to use drugs. People are sometimes turned in by neighbors and family members, or even just caught in the act by police and sentenced to years of hard labor, regardless of whether they are actually drug abusers or not.
Rehabilitation centers are no picnic, he said. Many come out in a worse state than before and are then stigmatized by their communities for having been locked up.
There is a need to make a “positive obligation” for governments, as they have “the obligation ... to make sure that people have a right to health,” Amon said. But this is difficult as the right to health is not an absolute or black-and-white one.
One possibility is to “use leverage with governments to make change,” he said, citing the example of the United States’ relationship with Vietnam.
“The Vietnamese really want to improve trade with the West, [so] using our report to say there are labor rights abuses, human rights abuses, etc. is powerful,” he said.
“They were very aware of the report” and were very emphatic that they were attempting to improve, he continued.
In response to a question from the audience, Amon noted that what may seem like a human rights violation on the surface can actually be a result of a lack of resources.
The lecture was sponsored by the International Relations Council, a subsidiary of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society.
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