GI-ESCR held Training on the Right to Health and Healthcare Systems for Kenyan human rights organisation

The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has organised a 2-days training on the right to health and healthcare systems, including a focus on private actors, for the East African Center for Human Rights (EACHRights), a human rights organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya.

The training is part of GI-ESCR effort to generate mutual learning on the right to health and commercialisation in healthcare, as well as to mobilise civil society actors on the issue globally. Furthermore, the training is also part of GI-ESCR’s effort to promote stronger public healthcare services in Kenya, empowering local organisations with tools for advocacy on the topic, following-up on findings from its recently published research report ‘Patients or Customers? The Impact of Commercialised Healthcare on the Right to Health in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic’.

The training offered both a theoretical overview of the problem and practical tools for advocacy. The first day included an overview of the right to health under international, regional and Kenyan human rights law. A session was dedicated to comparing the different typologies of healthcare systems worldwide through human rights lenses. Special attention was paid to States’ obligations to monitor and regulate private actors in healthcare, and to the potential negative human rights impacts of public health policies that promote privatisation and commercialisation in healthcare. These theoretical knowledge was shared in connection with practical tools to enable health policy analysis through human rights lenses.

The second day was dedicated to action, including advocacy opportunities nationally, regionally and globally, power analysis and review of key thematic issues in current global health debates.

The training was designed and held by Dr. Rossella De Falco, Programme Officer on the Right to Health at GI-ESCR, who also holds a Ph.D. from the University of Padova, Italy with a thesis focused on the right to health. Below you can download the detailed slides used during the training.