Right to Health Discussion Resources

The films, books and case studies listed below can help catalyze a discussion of the Right to Health on your campus.

Bring students together to watch a film or read a book then use it as a platform for a discussion of the Right to Health, using PHR's Right to Health discussion guide. Consider bringing a professor or other expert guest to lead or contribute to the discussion. Follow-up any discussion by providing an opportunity for the participants to take a direct action (for example, signing a petition or calling members of Congress about a current Right to Health issue). The supplemental resources, listed below, can help provide academic and legal context for the discussion.

Featured materials:

Films

• Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma (2008): This documentary portrays Nobel Peace Prize winning Dr. Orbinski as he carries out humanitarian relief around the world and witnesses disasters such as Rwandan genocide and Somali famine.
• Children Underground (2001): This astonishingly intimate documentary follows five homeless children in Romania, where the collapse of communism has led to a life on the street for 20,000 children. Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature in 2001.
• 3 Needles (2006): An absorbing, global view of the AIDS pandemic, 3 Needles follows the stories of three people living with or impacted by AIDS. The film's strong cast portrays the stories in separate three segments, one in China, another in Montreal, and the last in Africa.
• Lifecycles: A Story of AIDS in Malawi (2007): This short documentary explores the themes of sex, witchcraft, poverty, death and religion in relation to AIDS in Malawi, a country where about 15% of the population suffers from AIDS.
• Yesterday (2004): In this captivating film, a young mother named Yesterday learns that she is HIV positive then must try to stay alive until her young daughter Beauty is old enough to go off to school. Yesterday also must care for her husband, also stricken with AIDS, while facing stigmatization by her Zulu village.
• Pills, Profit, Protest (2007): A chronicle of the activist movement to bring international funding and attention to the global AIDS crisis.
• Angels in America (2003): This film combines politics and philosophy in a chronicle of a gay couple, torn apart by AIDS, and the people who impact their lives in 1980's US.
• A Closer Walk (2003): An artful documentary depicting the world's confrontation of the AIDS pandemic, exploring the relationship between health, dignity, and human rights.
• Pandemic- Facing AIDS (2003): This film covers the key aspects of the world AIDS epidemic through documentary stories about five victims and their communities, on five continents.
• And The Band Played On (2003): As HIV/AIDS was beginning to emerge, CDC doctor and his team mount an investigation into a disease in the gay community, the disease's source, and how it can be cured.

Books

• The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman: A beautiful tale of the intersection of culture and health in the life of Lia Lee, the daughter of recent Hmong immigrants to the United States who develops epilepsy as a young child.
• What is the What by David Eggers: In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers depicts the life of Valentino Achak Deng, a young man who struggles to survive as he moves from his Sudanese village to a refugee camp, then settles in the United States.
• And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts: San Francisco Chronicle reporter chronicles the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the US and the lack of political response to the growing health crisis.
• Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health by Laurie Garrett: This Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist travels the world discovering the weaknesses in public health systems everywhere.
• The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett: The author the causes and impacts of the reemergence of infectious diseases around the world.
• Man and Microbes: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times by Arno Karlen: This historical look at the joint evolution of humans and disease tracks infections throughout time and gives perspective on the epidemics facing the world today.
• Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions by Peter Mugyenyi: This book traces HIV/AIDS from its start in Ugandan towns to its spread around the world. The author examines the role of pharmaceutical, multinational companies, and wealthy nations in ignoring the disease until it was too late to stop its pandemic spread.
• The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS by Jonathan Engel: A sweeping look at the AIDS pandemic from its start through its spread around the world.
• Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa by Stephen Lewis: The author sets forth practical suggestions for states to take to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
• The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa by Helen Epstein: Epstein is a public health specialist and molecular biologist working on the AIDS vaccine travels Africa and critically examines current responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Right to Health Case Studies: Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), a PHR partner in Uganda

• Inspiring results from AGHA's work
• A slideshow on treating AIDS in Uganda
• A wealth of case studies can be found in these University of Essex reports by Dr. Helen Potts:
   --> Accountability and the right to the highest attainable standard of health (pdf)
   --> Participation and the right to the highest attainable standard of health (pdf)

Supplemental resources

• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and WHO joint fact sheet on the Right to Health (focus on the Right to Health within international human rights law) (pdf)
• UN General Comment 14*: "The right to the highest attainable standard of health," adopted on May 11, 2000
• University of Essex report "Our right to the highest attainable standard of health" (pdf)
• Other publications, articles, and projects on the right to health can be found at the University of Essex Human Rights Center
• Partners in Health Declaration of Solidarity for a Unified Movement for the Right to Health (pdf)

* What is a UN General Comment? The six UN treaty-monitoring bodies (including the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) release General Comments to clarify certain aspects of treaties or give recommendations to states on how to comply with treaties. General Comments are not "hard laws," but interpretive tools.