S4 E1: Reversing the commercialisation of public services with a particular focus on the right to health

In conversation with Dr Rosella de Falco and Ms Ashina Mtsumi

Everyone has the right to health which relates to both the right of individuals to obtain a certain standard of health and health care, and the State obligation to ensure a certain standard of public health with the community generally. This episode was published in light of the World Health Day. World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on 7 April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as other related organisations.

In today’s  episode Dr Rosella De Falco and Ms Ashina Mtsumi from The Global Initiative For Economic, Social And Cultural Rights(GI-ESCR) explore the issue of reversing commercialisation of public services and advocating for quality public services for all with a particular focus on the right to health.  The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a number of flaws that existed in most public systems around the world. The Global Initiative For Economic, Social And Cultural Rights launched a report titled, ‘The failure of commercialised healthcare in Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic’.

Dr Rossella De Falco works as a Program Officer on the Right to Health at the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR). She graduated cum laude with a Ph.D. in Human Rights from the University of Padova, Italy. She holds an LLM in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from Essex University, an M.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in International Cooperation and Development, Bologna University. She has authored several publications which can be found here. She previously collaborated with the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Ms Ashina Mtsumi is a human rights lawyer and Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She is also an alumnus of the Master’s programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi and is passionate about social justice. She has worked in the human rights sector for over five years, carrying out research and advocacy on economic, social and cultural rights. In particular, her work focuses on the international human rights legal framework relating to the rights to land, housing, education, health and water, for marginalised communities.

This conversation was recorded on 1 April 2022

Music: Inner Peace by Mike Chino https://soundcloud.com/mike-chinoCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/0nI6qJeqFcc