Submission ID 132049
| Issue/Objective | International human rights laws serve as the normative cornerstone for defining health equity and addressing systemic socioeconomic disadvantages. However, realizing these rights is stymied by fragmented sovereignty, transnational private governance, and state self-interests. Furthermore, when states do attempt to protect populations, they often rely on blanket, "etic" assumptions of vulnerability that paternalistically restrict, rather than empower, marginalized groups. This presentation analyzes how adopting a relational, "emic" lived-experience understanding of vulnerability can bridge the gap between aspirational human rights to health and geopolitical realism. |
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| Methodology/Approach | This presentation evaluates the intersection of human rights frameworks and global health governance within an anarchic international system. It contrasts traditional, state-centric definitions of vulnerability with "layered," relational models of public health ethics. The analysis assesses how current legal mechanisms, hindered by competing nation-state political interests, fail to adequately address systemic disadvantages and can paradoxically increase harm for marginalized communities. |
| Results | Blanket legal protections meant to safeguard vulnerable populations often risk disempowering them or exposing them to greater exploitation. Simultaneously, the universal right to health remains largely aspirational because states exploit the principle of "progressive realization" to justify inaction based on resource constraints. Implementing a layered approach to vulnerability directly aligns with the human rights mandate to progressively remove socioeconomic obstacles, demonstrating that effective governance requires context-driven solutions, rather than rigid, paternalistic state control. |
| Discussion/Conclusion | To collectively reclaim global health equity, governance must transcend both vague rights-based aspirations and rigid geopolitical realism. By legally embedding a relational understanding of vulnerability, international frameworks can mandate the empowerment of marginalized voices and create robust accountability tools. Restoring a commitment to action requires abandoning stigmatizing blanket policies in favor of dynamic, layered laws that hold states accountable for the systemic, social determinants of health inequities. |
| Presenters and Affiliations | Afiyah Islam University of Windsor, Faculty of Law & University of Detroit Mercy, School of Law Afiyah Islam University of Windsor, Faculty of Law & University of Detroit Mercy, School of Law |
