Advocacy
- Please find a factsheet on the international human right to the highest attainable standard of health in English and Spanish.
- The Health Rights Initiative includes a focus on human rights in patient care.
The Human Rights Clinic has worked with the Florida Health Justice Project (FHJP) on advocacy to address the maternal and infant health crisis in Florida by expanding Medicaid, improving the Family Planning Waiver Program, and increasing access to midwives and doulas. In 2023, The Clinic and FHJP have developed an advocacy agenda and report on this topic, which was featured on ABC Action News segment at New Report Offers Solutions to Florida Maternal, Infant Health Crisis. The Clinic and FHJP further developed a submission to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on racial injustice in maternal and reproductive care in Florida. In its subsequent Concluding Observations, the Committee prominently highlighted the issue of maternal mortality and called for Medicaid expansion and greater availability of midwifery care. Please find a web story on this at Human Rights Clinic Advocates for the Rights to food, Health, and Housing at the U.N. The Clinic further published a Bill of Health Blog on holistic care and the role of midwives and doulas in addressing racial disparities in maternal health. In a 2024 report to the U.N. Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, the Clinic followed up on this analysis with an assessment of Black maternal and reproductive health equity in Miami-Dade County.
The Clinic has also collaborated with FHJP on advocacy to protect transgender rights in Florida. In 2022, the Clinic submitted a comment to the Florida Board of Medicine in defense of continuing access to gender affirming care, in partnership with physicians in Miami working in this area. In 2023, the Clinic further launched a report providing a visual chronology of key events impacting the transgender community in Florida, a human rights analysis, and recommendations to the state of Florida.
Additionally, the Clinic has engaged in U.N. advocacy in this area. In 2023, the Clinic and partners submitted a report to the U.N. Human Rights Committee on human rights violations against transgender communities in the U.S. and developed a factsheet in English, French, and Spanish addressing this concern. Clinic Fellow Nic Stelter further had the opportunity to provide oral remarks to the Human Rights Committee highlighting the “avalanche of anti-trans bills sweeping state legislatures across the United States.” Please see a web story on this advocacy. The advocacy paid off and the Human Rights Committee’s Concluding Observations prominently address the issue of trans rights and call for the repeal of state laws that discriminate on the basis of gender identity and for the adoption of comprehensive legislation protecting against gender identity discrimination at all levels of government, as well as for investigation and redress of discrimination, harassment, and violence against transgender individuals. Please see the Clinic's Human Rights at Home Blog on U.N. Human Rights Committee Offers Critical Recommendations for Transgender Rights in the United States. In 2024, the Clinic further contributed a submission on freedom of expression violations against LGBTQ+ communities in the U.S. to inform the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education’s analysis of freedom of expression in educational institutions.
Additionally, in 2022, the Clinic collaborated with the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on a report on the impact of commercialized healthcare on the right to health and COVID-19 response in Kenya.
- The Health Rights Initiative addresses the intersection of health rights and drug policy.
In 2020, the Human Rights Clinic provided an analysis of drug policies in the United States in two submissions to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The first submission discusses drug policies resulting in arbitrary detention and discrimination on the basis of gender and race. Please find a web story on this at Via U.N. Advocacy, Human Rights Clinic Addresses Arbitrary Detention Resulting from Drug Policy. The second submission to the Working Group discusses the problems with drug courts, which put drug treatment in the hands of the criminal justice system, which lacks medical expertise, and function in a context of scarce treatment resources. Please find a blog on Care Not Criminalization to Address Drug Dependence, published with the Bringing Human Rights Home series.
The Human Rights Initiative further works to address discrimination and violence against women as a result of drug policy. The Human Rights Clinic has collaborated with partners, including the HIV Legal Network, the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association, LUNEST, and the Russian network of women who use drugs, to ensure the rights of women who use drugs and women living with HIV in Estonia and Russia. This entailed preparing a submission to the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Health and on Violence against Women and the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice in 2019. Our advocacy with the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights further resulted in strong Concluding Observations protective of human rights on both drug policy and HIV/AIDS (paragraphs 44-47). Please find a web story on this at Via U.N. Advocacy, Clinic Addresses Discriminatory Drug Laws Against Women.
Globally, the Human Rights Clinic developed an analysis of obstetric violence experienced by women who use drugs for the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and published the following reports with partners: Harm Reduction and Women: A Human Rights Approach, Drug Policy and the Fundamental Human Rights of Women Who Use Drugs, and Women Who Use Drugs: Key Issues, Violations, and Recommendations. In 2021, these reports served as a basis for a thematic briefing before the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which resulted in strong Concluding Observations in the Committee’s subsequent reviews of Russia and Kyrgyzstan. In both sets of Concluding Observations, the Committee highlighted the need to address discrimination and gender-based violence against women who use drugs and women living with HIV. In its review of Kyrgyzstan, the Committee further recommended improved access to harm reduction, no automatic deprivation of parental rights based on drug dependence, and no criminalization of drug possession for personal use without intent to sell. Please find a web story on this at Via U.N. Advocacy, Clinic Addresses Discrimination and Violence against Women Who Use Drugs.
Furthermore, in 2019, the Clinic made two submissions in response to the International Commission of Jurists’ call for civil society consultation to help develop “principles that address the detrimental impact on health, equality and human rights of criminalization with a focus on select conduct in the areas of sexuality, reproduction, drug use and HIV.” Please see Alternative Models to Punitive Drug Policy and The Impact of Criminalization on Women Who Use Drugs in Estonia.
- The Health Rights Initiative works to realize Indigenous health rights, including the right to a healthy environment and freedom from violence.
In 2023, the Human Rights Clinic developed factsheets on the Right to Water in English and Spanish and on Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Water.
In 2021, the Human Rights Clinic produced a report on the impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous Peoples and women, in particular, as well as a report on the Rights of Nature and Indigenous Communities. Another project addresses the intersection of gender-based violence against Indigenous Peoples and environmental justice. A series of reports developed in 2021 provide a human rights framework to address gender and environmental violence, a synopsis with key recommendations, and case studies focused on Pipelines and Man Camps on Indigenous Lands in the Northern United States and on Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, submitted to the CEDAW Committee and UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. In 2022, The Clinic submitted a report, “The Climate Crisis and Gender-Based Violence against Indigenous Peoples: Impacts and Responses,” to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women. Additionally, the Clinic published Human Rights at Home blogs on Celebrating World Water Day by Calling for Respect for our Environment and Indigenous Communities and Past Time for Respect for Indigenous Peoples and the Environment.
The Human Rights Clinic further advocates on behalf of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In February 2019, the Clinic contributed to a written and oral submission before the Canadian National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, with a report focused on the right to truth. Read the web story and partners' press release, building on a previous thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
- Additionally, Miami Law has a Health Rights Clinic, a medical-legal partnership in collaboration with the UM Miller School of Medicine, where students represent clients in different legal matters related to health with a focus on social security/public benefits and immigration. The Health Rights Clinic operates under the guidance of Director JoNel Newman and Associate Director Melissa Swain.
Convenings
- Sustainable Development Goals and Racial Justice Town Hall: On March 2, 2024, the University of Miami (UM) School of Law's Human Rights Program hosted a Town Hall on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Racial Justice in Miami-Dade County, in collaboration with the Environmental Justice Clinic and community partners. Additional sponsors of the Town Hall included the Miami Law Human Rights Society, Freedom Lab Miami, Black Audit Project, UM Center for Global Black Studies, Miami Coalition to Advance Racial Equity (MCARE), and Miami Law Office of Intellectual Life. Following up on the Town Hall, the Human Rights Clinic produced a report on The Sustainable Development Goals and Racial Justice in Miami-Dade County, which delves into the racial dimensions of five critical community issues: housing, food, climate justice, gender-based violence, and maternal health, and shared key findings form the report with the U.N. Permanent Forum on People of African Descent at their April 2024 meeting. The UM Race and Social Justice Law Review subsequently published a Symposium Report capturing highlights of the discussions and an article on Restoring the Soul to Birthing in Miami: A Call for Justice for Obstetric Racism in Miami–Dade County.
- Film Screening & Panel Discussion on Legacy, Power, Voice: Movements in Black Midwifery: On February 28, 2023, the Human Rights Program and Clinic hosted a film screening and panel discussion on the docuseries, Legacy, Power, Voice: Movements in Black Midwifery, in collaboration with the Center for Ethics and Public Service, Dade County Street Response, Florida Health Justice Project (FHJP), Miami Law Human Rights Society, Miller School of Medicine Human Rights Clinic, National Black Midwives Alliance, and the Southern Birth Justice Project. The three-part docuseries sheds light on the rich history of Black midwifery in the United States. The panel discussion featured the docuseries’ director and producer, a midwife; health and human rights advocates; and faculty from law, medicine, and sociology. It explored the history of Black midwifery, the role of midwives in providing community-centered care and addressing our current maternal health crisis, and race and gender intersections in health care. Please find a synopsis report capturing the discussion prepared by the Human Rights Clinic.
- Film Screening & Panel Discussion on Nothing Without Us; The Women Who Will end AIDS: On February 16, 2022, the Human Rights Program and Clinic hosted a film screening and panel discussion on Nothing Without Us: The Women Who Will End AIDS, in collaboration with the Miami Law Clinics, Human Rights Society, University of Miami Miller Medical School’s Human Rights Clinic, the Center for HIV and Research in Mental Health (CHARM), and the Center for Ethics and Public Service. This documentary tells the story of the inspiring women at the forefront of the global HIV and AIDS movement in the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa. The panel discussion featured the filmmaker, local advocates, and faculty from law, medicine, psychology, and history and explored intersections between health and human rights, gender and race dimensions, and interactions between social movements and legal advocacy. Please find a synopsis report capturing the discussion prepared by the Human Rights Clinic.
- International Law and COVID-19 Symposium: On April 12 and 16, 2021, the University of Miami (UM) School of Law Human Rights Clinic and International and Graduate Law Programs, hosted a symposium on the impact of COVID-19 on international law, in collaboration with the Human Rights Society, Health Law Association, Environmental Law Program, and International and Comparative Law Review. The International Law and COVID-19 Symposium delved into the intersections of COVID-19 with human rights and public health, including state obligations towards vulnerable populations, rights restrictions to protect public health, environmental aspects, reactions by international and regional human rights bodies, and public health responses. The symposium featured various international experts, including the president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the former U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, and members of the U.N. International Law Commission. Professor Claudio Grossman, Dean Emeritus and Raymond I. Geraldson Scholar for International and Humanitarian Law at the American University Washington College of Law; and member of the U.N. International Law Commission, provided introductory remarks. The UM International and Comparative Law Review subsequently published a special journal issue with a symposium report and articles following up on discussions.
- Strategy Meeting on Realizing the Rights to Food, Health and Housing in the U.S.: On November 12-13, 2020, the Human Rights Clinic and Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights hosted a National Strategy Meeting on Realizing the Rights to Food, Health and Housing in the U.S. that brought together advocates and scholars to share strategies and experiences for realizing the rights to housing, health, and food. The meeting provided participants with the opportunity to jointly strategize on cross-cutting issues. For the meeting, the HRC developed factsheets in English and Spanish on the international human rights to food, health, housing, and water. For more information about this meeting, please see the meeting agenda and report, as well as a Human Rights at Home blog and web story.
Scholarship
Faculty and student scholarship addressing health rights includes:
