30.I. Round table: Human rights and the right to health – implications for day to day public health practice

Abstract

Abstract Public health laws have significant impact to improve public's health and essential to achieving the sustainable development goals. Human Rights legislation and advancing the Right to Health approaches are seen as key to tackling social determinants of health and widening health inequalities. Health law is not just the work of lawyers, legislators and enforcers. There is growing expectations and need for public health practitioners and leaders to understand local and international legal systems and obligations and their critical role in improving and protecting the public's health, and to work in strategic partnership to improve population health through law and policy. Yet such issues are often neglected in educational and training programmes in public health and their practical implications poorly understood and appreciated by practitioners. The purpose of this workshop is to highlight the nature and key role of law in improving public's health in practice, and to share the work by NHS Scotland and Wales in considering human rights and right to health approaches in their day to day to day activities and projects in public health. It will highlight practical issues and ideas in advancing the political goal of public health law reform and getting the right to health approaches into day to day practice and activities. This will include options to include educational and training activities for the public health workforce, including its practical inclusion in public health curriculum. It will share case study of the innovative and powerful “Wellbeing of Future Generations Act” in Wales and its implications for public's health and practice. The panel for the workshop will be senior expert experienced public health legal scholars, practitioners and policy makers who will briefly share their expert perspectives on the issue and the projects. One of the elements of the roundtable workshop will be to reflect and consult with the participants around their experience and insights in considering public law and right to health approaches in their practice and the needs, opportunities and barriers to engage more systematically in strategic partnerships and activities around better understanding and use of public health law to protect and improve public's health and the training and educational needs to advance the agenda. Key messages Strengthening public health laws and advancing right to health approaches are vital to improving public’s health and tackling health inequalities. There is need to build capacity and competency of public health leaders and practitioners around public health law and strategic partnerships to improve population health.