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	Legal determinants of health: facing global health challenges by Lancet Commission on Global Health, agencies   Law is crucial for protecting the health and wellbeing of society. Robust legal systems strive to create a society that is fair. Laws influence every aspect of society and health, from regulating individual lives to stipulating expected behaviours of individuals, states, and corporate entities.   Today, The Lancet publishes the report of the Lancet/O'Neill Institute Commission on Global Health and Law, The legal determinants of health: harnessing the power of law for global health and sustainable development.   Initiated in 2015, the Commission was led by Lawrence Gostin and John Monahan of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University, and convened experts from health, governance, and law to examine the central role of law in responding to global health and to define the legal determinants of health.   The report provides a timely and important contribution as the world and global health community grapple with challenges to human civilisation and humanity.   Among these challenges are the catastrophic health conditions caused by conflict in Yemen and Syria, the persecution of the Rohingya refugee population, the slow response and defiant rejection by some governments to act on scientific evidence for climate change and its impact on human health, the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, the work to build stronger health systems, and the hatred and intolerance for religious and cultural diversity seen in the act of terrorism in New Zealand. All such events affect health and are impacted by the enforcement or design of laws.   The Lancet O'Neill Institute Commission is structured around four legal determinants of health.   First, law provides the mechanisms, frameworks, and accountability measures to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly universal health coverage.   Second, law can strengthen the governance of national and global health institutions. Third, law can be used to implement fair and evidence-based health interventions. Fourth, law can build legal capacities for health.   The Commission makes key recommendations, particularly pertinent to WHO and governments. Recommendations include that governments and the global health community work to create legal frameworks towards good governance of national health systems and global institutions, and towards rights-based universal health coverage through mechanisms such as a constitutional or statutory right to health.   Social, political, planetary, and commercial determinants of health are the subject of intense and growing scholarship within global health. Legal instruments and litigation have had crucial roles in, for example, the history of access to medicines and tobacco control.   There are also now emerging opportunities in planetary health to collaborate on environmental challenges to the right to health of current and future generations, the specific use of human rights law, and on the emergence of new actors in global health, including corporations. Law is required to address all of these complex challenges.   The Lancet therefore welcomes the overarching message of this Commission for the strengthening of the legal capacity of the global health community and ultimately for the strategic use of law in the pursuit of health equity.   http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30808-6/fulltext http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30233-8/fulltext   June 2019   Who Controls Our Genes? The U.S. Congress is deciding right now and it could harm Our Health, by Sandra Park & Kate Ruane. (American Civil Liberties Union)   This morning the ACLU, along with 169 other civil rights, medical, scientific, patient advocacy, and women's health organizations, including the Mayo Clinic, Breast Cancer Action, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, the Huntington's Disease Society of America, the Women's March, University of Washington, and many others sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property strongly opposing a draft bill that would allow companies to patent our genes. Yes. You read that right.   The draft bill is deeply concerning because if it becomes law, it would allow private companies to hold patents granting them 20-year monopolies over genes, their links to disease, other products of nature and abstract ideas.   Patent-holders could control who can provide testing for genetic mutations associated with diseases like cancer, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, and other rare and common diseases, driving up prices for testing and jeopardizing patients.   They could also control which researchers could examine and study the gene, stifling the free exchange of information and impeding the progress of developing treatments.   Beginning early this year, Senators Tillis and Coons, held closed-door roundtables with industry representatives and others interested in changing the law to discuss radically rewriting Section 101 of the Patent Act, which currently prohibits patents on laws of nature, products of nature, and abstract ideas.   Now, the Senators, along with Reps. Johnson, Collins, and Stivers, have released the draft bill, which removes this prohibition and erases all related prior court precedent. Senators Tillis and Coons will be holding three hearings this month, starting tomorrow, calling 45 witnesses to discuss changes to Section 101.   Disturbingly, of the 30 witnesses testifying so far, very few organizations will speak on behalf of patients (the ACLU will be one of the exceptions) and the broader scientific community.   Let's back up a bit. Genes are fundamental to who we are. They can determine our hair color, our height, whether we have seasonal allergies. Mutations in them also are associated with disease.   For example, mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are correlated with a 50-80% higher risk of breast cancer and a 20-50% higher risk of ovarian cancer, as well as elevated risks of pancreatic and prostate cancers. People with certain personal or family histories of cancer may wish to be tested so they can assess their options.   Now, consider this. What if only one lab can do the testing, because it has patented the genes?   This is not a made-up hypothetical. It was the reality for many people before the Supreme Court decided a 2013 case known as Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics.   For decades, the U.S. Patent Office issued patents on thousands of human genes, arguing that the first to sequence a gene and remove it from the human cell somehow 'invented' the DNA.   Because Myriad patented the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, it had the power to control who could test the genes and who could research them.   Myriad used that power. It charged monopoly prices for its tests, and other labs were stopped from providing different and more comprehensive genetic testing.   The ACLU sued Myriad Genetics on behalf of 20 plaintiffs, including patients, geneticists, and scientific associations, arguing that genes should never be granted to anyone as intellectual property.   The Supreme Court agreed and unanimously held that human genes cannot be patented because they are 'products of nature'.   The decision was not radical. It was grounded in over 150 years worth of precedent that teaches us that patents on laws of nature, naturally occurring phenomena, and abstract ideas are invalid, because they grant monopolies over the fundamental building blocks of human ingenuity.   If things created in nature and broad ideas (like the concept of hedging risk) are not available for everyone to use, then the patent holder is empowered to stop all further innovation to the public detriment, as economist Joseph Stiglitz, one of the experts in our litigation, explained.   Patent law is not just about one company asserting property rights against another. Patents affect all of us, with real consequences for how we access medical care and the research that scientists pursue.   Rewriting the law to allow for patents on nature will return us to an era where patents on genes increase the price of testing beyond patients reach, stymie competition for developing improved genetic analyses, and interfere with advancements in developing therapies targeted to genomic markers.   As we said in Myriad, we will say it again: products of nature, laws of nature, and abstract ideas should not be granted as intellectual property to anyone.   Members of Congress should oppose this draft legislation and any effort to rewrite the law that would harm patient health care, access to diagnostics and treatment, or scientific research.   http://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/medical-and-genetic-privacy/who-controls-our-genes-congress-deciding-right Visit the related web page
	25th commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide by New Times, Aegis Trust, agencies   19 May 2020   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has hailed the arrest on 16 May in Paris of Felicien Kabuga, who is accused of playing a leading role in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.   "The arrest of Felicien Kabuga, 26 years after the genocide, underscores the long reach of international criminal accountability. No one committing international crimes should think that the passage of time means they can evade justice and will never be held to account," said Bachelet.   Kabuga had been indicted in 1997 by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on seven counts - including genocide, complicity in genocide, as well as direct and public incitement to commit genocide - all in relation to crimes committed against the Tutsi in Rwanda.   According to the indictment, Kabuga, together with others, was alleged to have used Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines to further ethnic hatred between Hutu and Tutsi people in Rwanda.   Kabuga is also alleged to have established, together with others, the National Defense Fund to raise funds to provide financial and logistical support for the Interahamwe militia that led the killing spree against the Tutsis, during which Hutus and others who opposed the genocide were also killed.   "As we continue today to see dangerously false news, racial and ethnic hatred and incitement to violence being disseminated widely, the case of Kabuga and the effects of the propaganda broadcast by Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines are a stark reminder of where such language can lead, and why the fight against it is so important," the High Commissioner said.   "I would like to pay tribute to the many victims of the Rwandan Genocide who have long waited to see Kabuga, and the seven other people indicted on similar charges who are still at large, answer in court for the extremely grave charges against them," Bachelet said.   "We hope this success redoubles the commitment of all States to take the steps necessary to track down the whereabouts of the last seven indictees, in order that they too may face justice."   http://www.dw.com/en/rwandan-genocide-the-long-wait-for-justice/a-53525962   7 Apr. 2019   25th commemoration of the Rwandan Genocide. (BBC, New Times/Rwanda)   Rwandans in the country and across the world joined by the rest of the global community to mark the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide.   Rwanda's president Paul Kagame, who led a rebel force that ended the genocide that killed 800,000 people, lit a remembrance flame in the capital Kigali.   Rwandans will mourn for the next 100 days, the time it took in 1994 for a tenth of the country to be massacred. Most of those who died were minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, killed by ethnic Hutu extremists.   "In 1994, there was no hope, only darkness," Mr Kagame told a crowd gathered at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims are thought to be buried.   "Today, light radiates from this place. How did it happen? Rwanda became a family once again."   He said the resilience and bravery of the genocide survivors represented the "Rwandan character in its purest form".   "The arms of our people, intertwined, constitute the pillars of our nation," he said. "We hold each other up. Our bodies and minds bear scars, but none of us is alone.. Together, we have woven the tattered threads of our unity into a new tapestry."   "The fighting spirit is alive in us. What happened here will never happen again."   Mr Kagame then led a vigil at the Amahoro National Stadium, where thousands gathered in remembrance.   BBC Flora Drury in Kigali:   'There was a moment - when all the candles were lit, and their lights bobbed around the stadium, when people were taking pictures with their smartphones - when it was almost possible to forget the horror that brought thousands of people together on this warm evening in Kigali. But then I turned to the man next to me, and asked him what tonight meant to him.   "Well," he said, "it's important." In the understated way which so many people in Rwanda speak he said: "I lost people. I lost my parents. I lost my siblings."   We had already heard the names of entire families wiped off the map read out, accompanied by a promise never to forget. We had watched students march in silence from the parliament to the stadium.   But it was as the final speaker took to the stage, to describe how he survived to grow up and give his children the names of the four siblings he had lost, that the emotion seemed to bubble to the surface, and anguished cries were heard above the crowd. Sometimes on this day, my neighbour said, it is hard to keep the emotions in'.   The government has focused this year's commemoration on educating the youth about the history of the Genocide and seeking their engagement to build a brighter future based on love and humanity instead of hatred and destruction.   The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG), Jean-Damascene Bizimana, said that the youth are key in fighting the Genocide ideology and fostering a future marked by unity and reconciliation.   "Today's youth are promoters of love and humanity," he said at an international conference on the Genocide organised in Kigali this week.   In a message for the Genocide commemoration this year, the president of Ibuka, an umbrella organisation for Genocide survivors in Rwanda, Prof Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu, told Sunday Times on Saturday that the occasion should be used to renew commitment to the country.   "My wish is that we all make the commemoration a time to renew our promise and commitment to the country. We need to once again pledge to strive for the unity of Rwandans and build a strong country that we will be happy to leave for our children," he said.   Apr. 2019   Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General's Message:   This year marks the 25th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, one of the darkest chapters in recent human history. More than 800,000 people overwhelmingly Tutsi, but also moderate Hutu and others who opposed the genocide were systematically killed in less than three months. On this Day, we honour those who were murdered and reflect on the suffering and resilience of those who survived.   As we renew our resolve to prevent such atrocities from ever happening again, we are seeing dangerous trends of rising xenophobia, racism and intolerance in many parts of the world. Particularly troubling is the proliferation of hate speech and incitement to violence.   They are an affront to our values, and threaten human rights, social stability and peace. Wherever they occur, hate speech and incitement to violence should be identified, confronted and stopped to prevent them leading, as they have in the past, to hate crimes and genocide.   I call on all political, religious and civil society leaders to reject hate speech and discrimination, and to work vigorously to address and mitigate the root causes that undermine social cohesion and create conditions for hatred and intolerance.   The capacity for evil resides in all our societies, but so, too, do the qualities of understanding, kindness, justice and reconciliation. Let us work together to build a harmonious future for all. This is the best way to honour those who lost their lives so tragically in Rwanda 25 years ago.   http://www.kgm.rw/education/ http://www.kgm.rw/about/archive-documentation/ http://www.newtimes.co.rw/kwibuka/kwibuka25-updates http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47843843 http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/index.shtml http://www.aegistrust.org/learn/mass-atrocities/rwanda/ http://news.un.org/en/story/2019/04/1036211 http://news.un.org/en/story/2018/04/1007301 http://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/04/rwanda-25-years-solidarity-victims http://www.globalr2p.org/ http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ http://unictr.irmct.org/ http://www.icc-cpi.int/ Visit the related web page
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