Module 1 - Getting Started

A bold new initiative

Over 100 participants from over 20 countries came together today in Cape Town to start a new chapter in the history of the Open Society Institute (OSI) and Soros Foundations Network (SFN). For the first time, staff from the public health and rule of law programs have come together for joint training and strategic planning.

Astonishingly, some of the staff of the two programs, although working in the same city in the same building in places such as Budapest, had never met until today, here in Cape Town – showing how big a task it will be to foster collaboration between the public health and rule of law programs. In her opening remarks, Françoise Girard, Director of the Public Health Program, was half serious, half joking when she said that “collaboration between Network programs is no trivial matter – it may be something like nuclear arms negotiations.”

At the same time, the status quo is no longer acceptable. For many years now, public health staff have witnessed the essential role of law and human rights in achieving positive health outcomes for their target populations. And rule of law staff have seen increasing opportunities to incorporate public health issues into their advocacy and programs. As Françoise put it, “we believe that expanding access to health can be a fruitful and exciting task for lawyers, and conversely, that legal strategies can help health activists make access to health care a reality.”

A beautiful, and appropriate, setting

Françoise remarked on the fact that “is particularly fitting that the workshop takes place in South Africa – in the country where an NGO, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), has successfully sued the government to expand access to HIV prevention and treatment” – and in the city where TAC had its founding meeting nearly 10 years ago. On a sunny day, participants were struck by how beautiful Cape Town is, but reminded that only 10 miles from the meeting venue millions of people live in poverty, with little access to health and human rights, despite the fact that South Africa is home to some of the most exemplary health and human rights initiatives in the world.

Inspiration and a call for action
Participants had a chance to hear about these initiatives from two heroes of the health and human rights movement, Khosi Xaba, well-known for her work for women’s health and rights, and Mark Heywood, one of the movement’s most visionary and provocative thinkers. Khosi talked about how, at a critical moment in South Africa’s history as apartheid was coming to an end, a group of determined women managed to put women’s health on the political agenda. Mark started by reminding us of the importance of advocacy and by acknowledging that “a lot of the work we did here in South Africa drew its inspiration from ACT-UP and groups like Gay Men’s Health Crisis.” Mark then talked about the legal action TAC and the AIDS Law Project took in 2001 to secure access to medication to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (for more details, see page 2-26 of the Resource Guide on Health and Human Rights), and about other examples of legal action taken since. While he stressed the importance of litigation as a tool to advance access to medicines, he warned that litigation alone is not enough. “The real success story is how people living with HIV across the country have mobilized to claim their rights.” In an interview after his presentation, Mark said that participants should “build strong links between their public health work and their law and human rights work”, realizing that the people we work for “cannot afford to wait.” He stressed the importance of using legal strategies to achieve progress on urgently needed public health priorities, such as access to treatment for prevention of mother-to-child transmission or access to treatment for prisoners, but said that “simultaneously we need to develop long-term advocacy and legal strategies to secure broader change”. “For example, it is high time that we force governments to establish realistic human resource plans that will allow them to deliver the care people need – if we don’t do that, we will fail.” One of the biggest recent successes in South Africa is the development and adoption of the country’s new National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS. “Human rights have driven the process of developing the plan, are integral to all key priority areas, as well as identified as a separate priority in the plan. This represents an opportunity not only for people in South Africa, but also for health and human rights activists around the globe who should use this plan to demand similar, concrete action from their governments.”

At the end of the session, Jonathan Cohen, Project Director of the Public Health Program’s Law and Health Initiative, called upon all participants to “roll up our sleeves and to use the next days to move from inspiration to action.” “Our goal is to be better health and human rights advocates, working together. This means that all of us need to work together to enhance our strategies. We know we will have been successful when these new strategies will start making a difference for the people we work for.”

Open to change
From the feedback they have provided, participants clearly seem to be ready to work hard to make the links between their programs, and to explore all options for collaboration. In one of the working groups, participants said they were “open to new ideas”, saw “massive links between our programs and priorities” and were hoping for “concrete proposals and action.” “We are ready to change our approaches, incorporate new learning, and identify common activities.”

One participant, however, seemed to be more cautious. “It is one thing to get excited about these new ideas here, it will be another to implement them in practice when I get back to my country, to a full plate of work. I see why this important, but I hope we will get concrete, practical ideas about how to make it possible for us to move into this new direction.”

Eager to move forward
At the end of the day, participants seemed eager to do exactly that – work in the next days not to debate why public health and rule of law programs need to work together, but how they can do it in practice. “OSI is and must remain cutting edge. Often, nobody else wants to do the work we do. Who else supports the rights of lesbians in Nigeria? Who else supports groups of drug users in Eastern Europe? Who else is concerned about establishing centers that provide free legal aid to vulnerable populations? We need to figure it out, and we will. It may look like a lot of work, but in the end, it will be worth it because our work will be improved. We owe it to the people we work for.”

Quotes of the day

“We believe that health and human rights are equal partners. We believe that expanding access to health can be a fruitful and exciting task for lawyers, and conversely, that legal strategies can help health activists make access to health care a reality.”
Françoise Girard

“Health and human rights are so linked – the opportunities are massive.”
Sue Simon

My hope is that after the workshop it will be impossible to imagine doing health and human rights advocacy in anything than a collaborative fashion.”
Jonathan Cohen

“The worst way to form alliances is to start a network.”
Mark Heywood

“Without vision you don’t get very far”
Khosi Xaba

“We don’t want this to be donor driven. We want to know how we can encourage collaboration. What will work? What will not work? We want your feedback.”
Emily Martinez

Activities of the day

13:00 – 15:00 Registration at the BMW Pavilion

14:00 – 15:00 Poster Exhibition and Reception

• Capacity Building for HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Litigation
  Mariana Berbec-Rostas, Open Society Justice Initiative
• Challenging Drug Raids and Criminalization of Drug Use in Hungary
  Balazs Denes, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
• Developing a Policy on Comprehensive Post-Rape Care
  Anne Gathumbi, Open Society Institute East Africa
• HIV/AIDS and Human Rights: Working with Cultural Structures to Protect the Right of Women to Inherit Property
  Catherine Mumma, Kenya National Commission of Human Rights
• Human Rights and Palliative Care
Frank Brennan, Palliative Care Consultant
Liz Gwyther, Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa
Richard Harding, King's College London School of Medicine

• Landmark Case Protecting Confidentiality of an HIV Patient in Kyrgyzstan
  Aisuluu Bolotbaeva, Soros Foundation – Kyrgyzstan
• Legal Support to People with Mental Health Problems and Mental Disabilities Anahit Papikyan and Davit Ameriyan, Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation – Armenia
• Linking Health and Human Rights: Mediators and Monitors in Roma Communities
Heather Doyle, Public Health Program, Open Society Institute

• Litigation on Confidentiality of Medical Information in Ukraine
  Dmytro Groysman, Vinnytsya Human Rights Group
• SANGAMA and PULC-K : Organizing to End Abuse of Sexual and Gender Minorities
Jessica Wahlstrom, Columbia University

• The TAC Case: Litigating for Treatment in South Africa
  Delme Cupido, Open Society Institute for Southern Africa

15:00 – 15:30 Activity 1: Welcome and Opening Remarks (Plenary)

• Françoise Girard, Director, OSI Public Health Program - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE
• Emily Martinez, Director, OSI Human Rights and Governance Grants Program - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE
• Zohra Dawood, Executive Director, Open Society Foundation – South Africa - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE
  

15:30 – 16:30 Activity 2: Success Stories in Health and Human Rights in South Africa (Keynote Panel)

• Moderator: Tawanda Mutasah, Executive Director, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)
• Khosi Xaba, University of Witwatersrand - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE
• Mark Heywood, Director, AIDS Law Project - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE

16:30 – 17:00 Activity 3: Overview of the Workshop (Plenary)

• Jonathan Cohen, Project Director, Law and Health Initiative, OSI Public Health Program - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE

• Paul McAdams, Senior Education Specialist, Equitas - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE
• Justine Jowell, Site Visits Coordinator - DOWNLOAD AUDIO/MP3 FILE

17:00 – 17:15 Networking Break

17:15 – 18:30 Activity 4: Introductions and Expectations (Working Groups)

• Introductions of group members
• Expectations for the workshop
• Explanation of the Resource Guide

19:00 – 21:00 Dinner at the Clipper (Commodore Hotel)