Oliver Lewis contributes to leading textbook on global health and human rights

Today, the book “Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights” was published by OUP. Edited by Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier, it is a foundational text that provides a detailed understanding of the complex relationship between global health and human rights. The foreword was written by the WHO Secretary General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Doughty Street barrister Oliver Lewis co-wrote the chapter on “chronic illness, disability and mental health”. The other author is Dr Soumitra Pathare, psychiatrist based in Pune, India and coordinator of an international diploma on mental health law, human rights and law, a course on which Oliver has taught for the last decade. Their chapter outlines the milestones in the global struggle to recognize the rights of people with disabilities, evolving across countries and culminating in the 2006 adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The chapter sets out three specific rights that are of particular importance to people with disabilities: legal capacity, the right to health, and the right to independent living.  The chapter observes that national implementation challenges remain, including finding space for mental health and disability in policy-making and developing models of service delivery that advance human rights.