Webinar #4 'social rights, the role of the state and the value of public services'
On Wednesday August 26, we held our fourth seminar entitled ‘social rights, the role of the state and the value of public services’. The panellists presented the challenges and opportunities that Chile faces in recognising social rights in a new constitutional framework, the importance of ensuring non-discriminatory access to essential public services and the role that the state should play in the progressive realisation of economic and social rights.
For Alicia Ely Yamin, the care system in Chile needs to be redesigned as a space for inclusion and based on people’s rights:
"The health system functions as a fundamental social institution. As with the criminal justice system, the health system can exacerbate injustices, exclusion and patterns of discrimination in society, or it can be a space for weaving inclusion, citizenship and dignity into a democratic and rights-based state.”
Koldo Kasla stressed that justice in a Constitution depends not only on how well rights, including social rights, are recognised, but also on the legitimacy they gain from the procedure by which those rights are recognised. Only an open, participatory, transparent and democratic process can allow citizens to take ownership of a Constitution.
"It is not only about having a Constitution that recognises rights, but about the process of recognising those rights.”
Verónica Undurraga commented that Chilean society has been bombarded with discourses promoting individualism and consumerism, leading to a deep stigmatisation of the public sphere. Much of the work that needs to be done in the health system is mainly about prevention and primary health care, functions usually carried out by the state.
“Most importantly, the market logic should not dominate the way we think about organising the provision of social rights such as the right to health.”
Panelists:
Alicia Ely Yamin, Senior Researcher at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and a member of Harvard's School of Public Health.
Koldo Casla, Research Professor at the Human Rights Research Centre, University of Essex. Former Executive Director of the "Just Fair" study centre in the United Kingdom.
Verónica Undurraga, Professor of Law at the Adolfo Ibañez University. Director of Public Space and Doctor of Law at the University of Chile.
Chair:
Javier Couso, Professor of Law and Director of the Constitutional Law Program of Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago. PhD in Law and Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.