Sussex anthropologist Professor Maya Unnithan has contributed to a World Health Organisation (WHO) consultation on the impact of human rights on health.

On 25 October, Professor Unnithan attended a consultation meeting organised by the WHO in Geneva, on the impact of human rights on women and children’s health. She spoke on research methodologies (especially ethnographic methods) which address the challenges in understanding the implications of human rights for health.

Professor Unnithan’s work on ethnographic understandings of the intersections between global flows, human rights and sexual reproductive health (ESRC project Res-06223-1609) formed the basis of her contribution to the deliberations of the WHO on health and human rights.

The meeting was a follow-up to a monograph produced by WHO earlier this year (of which Professor Unnithan was a co-author) and launched at the World Health Assembly in May by lead author Dr Flavia Bustreo, Assistant Director General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health at the WHO.

Participants discussed the setting up of a global, multidisciplinary, research network. It was attended by 50 participants who were heads of UN organisations and donor agencies working on rights, the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and ambassadors to the UN from member states, who all welcomed the monograph.

Documents available to download are:

The monograph on Women and Children’s Health: Evidence of Impact of Human Rights

The Executive Summary