International - Bill of Health

COP29 and the UNFCCC’s Health Turn: Progress or Peril?

December 12, 2024December 13, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Thalia Viveros Uehara and Alicia Ely Yamin

Conclusion of the Digital Symposium Climate Change and Health:

Mobilizing Public International Law into Action

COP29 in Baku underscored what many had feared — a summit defined by missed opportunities. Perhaps this was to be expected, given that it was the second COP in a row held in a petro-state, with more fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance than climate and environmental activists. The pitiful outcome of $300 billion pledged (by 2035) felt more like an insult than a compromise, particularly when compared to Africa’s $163 billion annual expenditure on debt servicing.

But the disappointment surrounding financing outcomes was merely a symptom of deeper power imbalances, what critical legal scholar Martti Koskenniemi describes as the “structural biases” of global governance institutions. COP29 marked yet another shift in the fragile equilibrium of the underlying logic of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), steering it further toward the ultimate commodification of climate action. What does this mean for the “health turn” that the UNFCCC has recently begun to witness?

Reproductive Health at Risk: Climate Change and Agrotoxins in Latin America

December 10, 2024December 11, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Cristina Rosero-Arteaga

The climate emergency in Latin America is intensifying a long-standing yet underrecognized health crisis: reproductive harm due to agrochemical exposure, particularly for rural women. As shifting climate patterns threaten to exacerbate these harms, it is crucial to bring these issues into the focus of climate action. The region’s human rights framework — including landmark cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and reports by special procedures — has already addressed the realities of agrotoxins and their impact on health rights. In light of human rights obligations, building on these legal advancements by developing climate policy, like national adaptation plans, is essential to give effect to paragraph 12 of the Paris Agreement’s Preamble, which calls for respecting and promoting human rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of women.

Would You Sell Your Ancestors? The ethical paradigms of Ayahuasca (Part II)

December 9, 2024December 10, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

artwork by Daiara Tukano

by Daiara Tukano and Maria Fernanda Gebara

Last June, we had the honor of speaking at “Law and Policy of Psychedelic Medicine,” the 2024 Annual Conference hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. You can watch our panel here.

Part I of this post highlighted the ethical considerations surrounding the use of Indigenous medicines. Part II considers paths forward to true ethical engagement.

Part II: Towards ethical integration

Would You Sell Your Ancestors? The ethical paradigms of Ayahuasca (Part I)

December 9, 2024December 9, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

artwork by Daiara Tukano

by Daiara Tukano and Maria Fernanda Gebara

In two posts, based on the Conference discussions, we aim first (Part I) to highlight the ethical considerations surrounding the use of Indigenous medicines and second (Part II), to consider paths forward to true ethical engagement.

Part I: Ethical Considerations

A Brief Quantum Medicine Policy Guide

December 6, 2024December 16, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Mauritz Kop, Suzan Slijpen, Katie Liu, Jin-Hee Lee, Constanze Albrecht & I. Glenn Cohen

I. Introduction: Harnessing Quantum and AI in Precision Medicine

The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technology (QT) in precision medicine promises to revolutionize healthcare by enabling hyper-personalized treatment.

Fundamentally, for our purposes, quantum technology leverages unique properties of quantum physics—such as superposition and entanglement—to solve problems beyond classical capabilities. Second-generation (2G) quantum technologies harness these principles to achieve quantitative (speed, fidelity) and qualitative (novel functionality) advantages over other methods. Quantum-classical hybrids (frameworks, algorithms or devices that integrate both quantum and classical computing resources such as qubits and digital bits) combine elements from both macroscopic and microscopic worlds to solve complex problems.

Life rights for reproduction: Voices from the climate-affected rural subalterns

December 5, 2024December 5, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

Women queue to fill their buckets, Bolangir, Odisha, India 18.1.2022. ©Nairita Roy Chaudhuri

by Nairita Roy Chaudhuri

Most small farmers in rural India directly depend on rainwater for agricultural production and subsistence livelihoods. However, climate change is intensifying droughts, threatening crop productivity, the food and livelihood security of agrarian farmers, and increasing their risks of hunger and malnutrition. Recognizing climate change as a health and existential crisis, adapting to water scarcity and droughts is essential for the sustainable well-being of rural communities, alongside mitigation efforts. The health consequences of climate change intersect with gender, as rural women bear the primary responsibility for ensuring water security for domestic consumption and performing care or reproductive work.

In my doctoral research, I employed ethnographic methods to explore how law can enable rural communities living in postcolonial societies, examined in particular within the framework of gender and colonial power relations, to sustainably adapt to droughts and water scarcity. Conducting fieldwork in the semi-arid belts of rural parts of West Bengal (Puruliya district) and Odisha (Bolangir, Bargarh, and Rayagada districts) between December 2021 and May 2022, I explored the intersections of water (in)security and gendered labor. With over three hundred participants, I qualitatively analyzed climate-affected small farmers’ accounts of water sourcing, their reflections on water’s domestic and agricultural uses, and the gendered division of water-related labor and time.

Climate Change and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Africa: The Urgent Need for Intersectional Approaches in Climate Change Policy and Governance

December 2, 2024December 3, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

Photo credit: @wambuigichobi | SMA

A Masai woman raises her fist as other women leaders look on at COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt during one of the debriefs by the Women and Gender Constituency.

by Faith Lumonya, Esther Wambui, and Eunice Musiime

As global temperatures rise and the frequency of extreme weather events — such as floods, droughts, and heat waves — increases, climate change poses a growing threat to the progress of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Women face intersecting forms of vulnerability depending on their lived realities and experiences. For example, climate change reduces access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, increases rates of sexual risk behavior, and leads to earlier sexual debut, higher prevalence of infectious diseases, and gender based sexual abuse and exploitation — however, these realities are not taken into account in climate change policy and governance.

Climate-related disasters frequently disrupt health care services, limiting women’s access to essential SRH care such as contraceptives and maternal health services. Associated economic and infrastructural damage further hamper access to vital health resources, while the increased instability exacerbates risks of gender-based violence and reproductive health challenges, especially for vulnerable women and girls. Given these compounded risks, it is crucial to integrate SRHR into broader global and national climate adaptation efforts.

Climate Change and Health: Mobilizing Public International Law into Action

November 19, 2024November 21, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

This post launches a new Digital Symposium, Climate Change and Health: Mobilizing Public International Law into Action by Guest Editors Thalia Viveros Uehara and Alicia Ely Yamin. Check back for more posts twice a week!

The election of Donald J. Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax” and in his prior administration pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, has sent shock waves through government and civil society leaders gathered at COP29. Argentina has walked away from the negotiations. Meanwhile, top leaders from the world’s largest polluting nations have not attended. COP29 was supposed to mobilize commitments to finance climate action as well as solidify the growing “health turn” within the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including WHO guidance on integrating health into Nationally Determined Contributions. But that progress seems now in jeopardy.

This digital symposium makes clear that stakes could not be higher for global health. Projections estimate that between 2030 and 2050, climate-related health impacts could lead to an additional 250,000 deaths per year, largely from undernutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress. Furthermore, mental health conditions are worsening as extreme weather, livelihood losses, and wildfire smoke increase trauma.

Assisted Death for Psychiatric Suffering: Approaching Uncertainty with Humility

November 18, 2024November 19, 2024 The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

by Zain Khalid

On May 22 this year, Zoraya Ter Beek, a 29-year-old woman from Netherlands, died by euthanasia on grounds of mental suffering. Zoraya had been diagnosed with chronic depression, borderline personality disorder, and autism and had struggled with self-harm and suicidal thinking for several year. She had tried numerous treatments, including 30 sessions of electroconvulsive therapy, until, as she reported her psychiatrist told her, “There’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never going to get any better.”

Open Genomics and Privacy: New Case Law in South Africa Affirms a Key Principle

November 7, 2024November 8, 2024 Donrich Thaldar Leave a comment

by Donrich Thaldar

As the era of genomic medicine dawns, large-scale genomics projects are becoming increasingly central to health care advancements. Projects like FinnGen in Finland, the UK Biobank, and the All of Us initiative in the United States are charting new frontiers in precision medicine, enabling researchers to unlock the genetic codes underlying a wide array of diseases. These initiatives collect genetic data from hundreds of thousands of individuals, providing an invaluable resource to identify disease markers and tailor medical treatments to individuals’ genetic makeup. Such projects are not only pushing the boundaries of medical knowledge but are also laying the foundation for a future where treatments are more effective and personalized.

However, in the Global South, large-scale genomics projects are far fewer. Qatar has taken strides with its own Qatar Genome Program, but examples are still limited across Africa and other regions, where genomics research is often constrained by funding, infrastructure, and representation issues. In Africa, where genetic diversity is high but research representation has historically been low, the need for such projects is critical. Without local genomics data, the benefits of precision medicine may largely bypass African populations, further exacerbating global health inequities.

Category: International