Book review: Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance for a Globalizing World
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BOOK REVIEW
Open Access
Book review: Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance for a Globalizing World Unni Gopinathan1,2 Abstract This is a review of the book “Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance for a Globalizing World” edited by Benjamin Mason Meier and Lawrence O. Gostin. Keywords: Global health governance, Global governance for health, Human rights, International law, Social determinants of health
Main text Institutions of global governance play a critical role in diffusing norms and influencing the behaviour of states and non-state actors [1, 2]. Previously, scholars have examined how policies promoted by global governance institutions impact human rights [3], how these institutions can advance human rights norms [4–6], and how organizational culture influences the adoption of policies promoting human rights [7]. A broad range of global governance institutions influence areas that intersect with health and human rights. Yet no comprehensive comparative assessment of how these institutions have operationalized health-related human rights have been produced. Against this background, the volume ‘Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance for a Globalizing World’, edited by Benjamin Mason Meier and Lawrence O. Gostin, brings together an impressive group of academics, individuals from UN and international civil society organizations, and policymakers to make a far-reaching contribution to close this analytical gap [8]. Following a clear and logical structure, the book’s introductory chapter and first section clarify its expansive focus on the underlying social, economic and
political causes (e.g. ‘determinants’) of health and illness, thereby broadening the scope of global institutions beyond those we commonly consider to do ‘global health’ work. The next three chapters are about the World Health Organization (WHO)—the world’s normative authority on global health. These chapters give insights into how WHO at critical junctures in its history, from the drafting of its constitution to facing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, has struggled to reconcile a technical role focused on standard-setting with its constitutional authority to advance human rights norms. Moreover, these provide forward-looking reflections suggesting how WHO can assume a greater role in advancing rightsbased approaches. Going beyond WHO, the subsequent three sections examine the institutional mandate and the evolution of various global institutions, and how these institutions have engaged with and operationalized the right to health through their policies, programs and practices. Among the book’s many strengths are that these chapters broadly follow a unifying framework that enables comparison of the approaches of these institutions. This framework introduces the reader to:
Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Oslo Group on Global Health Policy, Department of Community Medicine and Global Health & Centre for Global Health, Institute for Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, N
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