| WCL hosts women’s health scholar BY ADRIENNE FRANK
Photo by Jeff Watts
Rebecca Cook, of the University of Toronto Law School, praised WCL’s Women and International Law Program for its work on health and human right issues during a lecture last week.
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Last Wednesday, Rebecca Cook, professor of law at the University of Toronto, discussed promoting women’s health through human rights, noting that future advocates and lawyers will be the ones to tackle mounting health disparities. About 100 students and faculty at the Washington College of Law (WCL) attended Cook’s lecture, which addressed scarce public health care resources for women and girls in the United States and in the international community. During her 30-minute presentation, Cook, faculty chair in international human rights and
codirector of the International Programme on Reproductive and Sexual Health Law at the University of Toronto, discussed fairness in health care reform, the role of courts in promoting fairness, the use of affirmative action measures to address health disparities, and the constitutional and human rights legal obligations of states to remedy these pressing inequalities. Cook, who’s published more than 150 books and articles related to international human rights, feminist ethics, and the law and women’s health, noted that more than 500,000 women around the world die each year of preventable causes. She suggested discrimination and denial of care are, in large part, to blame. “Governments have an obligation to address women’s specific health needs,” said Cook, who noted significant investment in the area of women’s health must be made in order to prevent “the overwhelming economic burden of disease.” Cook discussed the legal debate currently surrounding emergency contraception, saying governments are “ignoring scientific fact by likening it to abortion.” She also spoke about partner and spousal authorization of care, a patriarchal practice which violates women’s right to privacy. During the lecture, Cook also praised WCL’s Women and International Law Program, which sponsored the event, calling it a “beacon” for advocates, lawyers, and scholars in the field of women’s health and human rights. The program, said Cook, “sets standards by which we measure ourselves.” |
