Health Law, Policy and Ethics Seminar

Speaker: Y.Y. Chen, SJD, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa

Abstract

International migration puts people's sexual and reproductive health (SRH), particularly those of women and children, at increased risk. However, many international migrants are denied access to timely and adequate SRH information, goods, and services by governments and/or service providers. This workshop reviews the barriers frequently faced by migrants in accessing SRH care and highlights the incongruence between these barriers and international human rights norms, including the guarantee of the rights to health and non-discrimination. Particular attention will be paid to the views issued by the Human Rights Committee in 2018 in Toussaint v Canada, which found the Canadian government’s hindrance of migrants' access to health care a violation of the rights to life and equality based on immigration status. The implication of this case on migrants'health care entitlement in Canada will also be explored

Biography:

Y.Y. Brandon Chen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. A lawyer and social worker by training, Professor Chen’s research program examines laws and policies at the intersection between health and international migration, particularly the mechanics of health inequities facing noncitizens and racialized minorities. His published work has addressed such topics as health rights litigation, migrant and refugee health, social determinants of health, health care solidarity, and medical tourism. He is currently a member of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics; Public Law Centre; and Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health.

Commentator:

Kathleen Hammond, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University

Kathleen Hammond is an assistant professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University. Prior to joining Lincoln Law, she was a postdoctoral fellow with the Research Group on Health and Law at McGill University’s Faculty of Law and a visiting fellow with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law and Policy at Harvard Law School. She holds a JD and BCL from McGill University. She completed an MPhil in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies and a PhD in Legal Sociology at the University of Cambridge where she was a Gates Cambridge scholar and a Commonwealth scholar. She teaches and researches in the areas of health law and policy, science and technology law, and gender and families.

Please note, this seminar will be held in- person and through zoom.

Location: Jackman Building, 78 Queens Park, Room P115.

The zoom link will be emailed to those that register for the seminar through Eventbrite at 11:30am on October 27, 2022.