On 31 October 2019, following work that I had done in the International Human Rights Law & Practice Clinic during my time in the MSL program, I had the opportunity to facilitate and present at a first-of-its-kind, legal and community training workshop in Hyderabad, India, on the subject of a human rights-based response to tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis (TB) is curable and preventable, yet it is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, surpassing even HIV/AIDS. About one-third of the world’s population has latent TB (with a 10% lifetime risk of falling ill with active TB). In 2018 alone, 10 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.5 million died from TB. The World Health Organization-defined regions of South-East Asia and Africa carry the highest burdens of TB in the world, with India leading the count. The global approach to TB must change, and adopting a human rights-based approach to TB is one of the areas in which a paradigm shift is needed.
This human rights-based approach to TB is the subject of the work that my clinic partner, Megan Richardson (JD ’19), and I did in International Human Rights Law and Practice, taught by Professor Brian Citro and Schuette Clinical Fellow in Health and Human Rights, Elise Meyer. Our ultimate work product was a legal and community training workshop, geared towards participants from Asia-Pacific and Africa, and held in partnership with Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA) and Stop TB Partnership (STP).
In preparation for the workshop, Megan and I researched and wrote a collective 200+ pages of legal memoranda, including specific recommendations for TB policymakers and program implementers and supporting case summaries. We also created presentations on our chosen session topics with accompanying handouts and group activities; put together a workshop concept note, participant applications, and agenda; led weekly project team meetings; held periodic meetings with our partner organizations; and more. In addition, our partner, GCTA, contracted with me to document the workshop and write the official Workshop Report that went out to participants, partners, and sponsors.
“A Human Rights-Based Response to TB” took place in Hyderabad, India on October 31, 2019. The first of its kind, the workshop paired human rights lawyers with TB community leaders and activists from more than a dozen countries. This is the first time that both spheres have come together for the purpose of advancing understanding and activating a human rights-based response to TB at regional, national, and community levels. Among the nearly fifty attendees were representatives from international institutions like GCTA, STP, Treatment Action Group (TAG), KELIN, The Global Fund, USAID, TBpeople, and Médecins Sans Frontières.
My hour-long session, based on a 50+ page research memorandum I had written, described the global environment for isolation and involuntary isolation in the context of TB, and presented the legal and ethical standards that must be established to protect the rights of people with TB and promote public health.
Other sessions throughout the day were led by such distinguished speakers as Blessina Kumar, CEO of Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA); Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership (STP); Justice Mumbi Ngugi of the Kenyan Court of Appeals; 2019 Kochon Prize-winner, Allan Maleche of KELIN; Mike Frick of Treatment Action Group (TAG); James Malar of STP; and of course, Northwestern’s own Professor Brian Citro, who presented both his own work and Megan’s work, as she was unfortunately unable to attend.
As the only MSL student who was part of the Legal Clinic in Spring 2019 – an opportunity usually reserved for JD 2Ls & 3Ls – I was grateful for the consistent support of my clinic partner and instructors, and for the solid foundation that the MSL classes gave me to be able to perform at the level expected of the Clinic and real-world clients.
The class I took in Fall 1 – Research in Law, Business & Technology – laid a strong foundation for how to find and understand on-point legal documents, how to use a variety of databases, and how to build a legal argument. While I have experience doing public speaking, the Public Persuasion class taught me techniques to influence the audience and how to formulate my ideas into precise, impactful language. Building on the skills learned in Public Persuasion, the Communicating Scientific Information class taught me how to convey highly technical information, how to build an understanding in the inexperienced listener, and how to do so in an engaging manner. Other classes that helped me understand how patents and the pharmaceutical industry work were IP Fundamentals; Regulation of Drugs, Devices, & Biologics; and Regulatory Compliance, Product Approval, & Life Cycle Issues; these topics are especially relevant in the persistent lack of and development of new diagnostics and treatments for tuberculosis. Health and Human Rights, an interdisciplinary class open to JDs, MSLs, MBAs, and MPHs and also taught by Prof. Citro, aided me immensely in understanding the global legal landscape and what institutions are most relevant to the topics of health and human rights. Importantly, every single class in the MSL trained me how to think and problem solve in a “legal” and interdisciplinary manner, an essential skill for my Clinic work and beyond.
Since the workshop was held at the same time as the 50th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Hyderabad, I took the opportunity to attend several Community Connect sessions at the conference, meeting people from around the world and learning about work that other organizations are doing in response to the global TB epidemic.
Our Workshop and the Conference itself clearly demonstrated that the interdisciplinary approach upon which the MSL program is based is the way forward in tackling global issues like the fight against tuberculosis.
