Oct 28: Public Consultation on Trade, Access to Medicines and the Right to Health with Anand Grover, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health

October 28, 2010
Room 603
9:00-2:30

This meeting will provide the public with an opportunity to present information to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health on the intersection of trade policy, access to medicines and the right to health. The morning session will be devoted to discussion of use of the U.S. “Special 301” program to promote intellectual property norms in developing countries that threaten access to affordable medicines. The Special 301 program has been the subject of human rights complaints by numerous global public health organizations. The afternoon session will discuss the potential impact of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and other aspects of the international intellectual property enforcement agenda on access to affordable medications. The Special Rapporteur was appointed by the Human Rights Commission to focus on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Civil Society Complaints to the Special Rapporteur

About the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health

The United Nations Human Right Council appointed Mr Anand Grover as Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health at its eighth session held in June 2008. Mr Anand Grover, a practicing lawyer in the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court of India, took up his functions as Special Rapporteur on 1 August 2008. He is the Director of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS in India, having offices in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore which he co-founded in 1981 with Ms. Indira Jaising, The Unit dealing with HIV/AIDS was established in Mumbai in 1998.

Anand Grover is a pioneer in the field of HIV and has handled several hundred HIV/AIDS related litigations in India. He appeared in the first HIV case relating to the HIV activist, Dominic D Souza, The Lucy D’ Souza case, challenging the isolationist Goa Public Health Amendment Act. He also fought the first case on blood transfusion in the Calcutta High Court, P v. Uol as well as successfully arguing against the patenting of anti-AIDS drug Nevirapine Hemi-hydrate.

Mr. Grover has also appeared in several well known cases as lead counsel in various public interest and human rights matters, including the first HIV case in India relating to employment law, MX v. ZY, the Bombay Pavement Dwellers case, several environmental cases including the Bhopal Gas Disaster case, the Goa Zuari Agrochemicals case, various sexual harassment cases including the India Air Hostess cases, the Shehnaaz Mudhbatakal v. Saudi Arabian Airlines, and various animal rights cases, such as the Camel case, the Kamani Tubes Ltd. Case, and the Garware Nylons Case.  He has also acted as an advocate in many important cases regarding the right to marry and the rights of sex workers, such as the Mr. X v. Hospital Z case and the Mumbai Bar Dancers case. 


CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT.

 

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