For Immediate Release
September 19, 2005

Contact:
Elissa Free, (202) 662-9500

Washington -- The Center for Law and the Public's Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities has been designated a World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights, making it the only academic center of its kind to receive this global status. Georgetown Law's Associate Dean for Academic Research and Academic Programs, Lawrence O. Gostin, has been appointed to head the joint Center.    

Georgetown Law Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff said of the landmark achievement, "This designation is a capstone for the Center; reflecting the critical importance of global health, transnational law, governance, and human rights at Georgetown University."

 Dr. Michael J. Klag, recently named dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg of School of Public Health, the nation's preeminent public health school, added "The School strongly supports this new standing for the Center, which speaks highly of its prior and future efforts in international public health law."  

Founded in 2000 with funding from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a joint institutional center at Georgetown University Law Center and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Center for Law and the Public’s Health is a scholarly resource at the international, national, and regional levels on public health, ethics, policy, and human rights. Gostin is internationally known for his scholarly and applied work in public health and human rights, having authored several books and hundreds of articles in the field.  

"This unique status with WHO and PAHO allows the Center and our two preeminent academic institutions to engage in scholarship, teaching, and international assistance to protect the health of populations worldwide," said Gostin. "Transnational law, ethics, and human rights are key tools for scholars and advocates pursuing global health and justice."

Among the Center's projects are efforts to develop model international public health legislative provisions consistent with WHO's Millennium Development Goals; create a structural template for WHO Member States to compare existing national laws to WHO's Revised International Health Regulations; and produce significant scholarly and applied work on mental health and human rights. Other efforts will focus on mobilizing needed expertise and providing scholarly research, technical assistance, training, and education worldwide.

Professor Stephen P. Teret, Center Director at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, notes "the most pressing issues for public health law now transcend national boundaries but the legal bases for addressing public health problems, unlike the biological bases, change country by country. Our challenge, aided by this WHO/PAHO designation, is to find innovative ways to use multi-national and international law as effective tools for protecting the public."

The Center, Georgetown Law, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have devoted considerable energies and resources to international public health law and human rights issues.  Georgetown Law recently opened the new Eric E. Hotung International Law Building and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is globally recognized as an academic leader in international public health.  Both institutions have multiple international components and together train future leaders through joint programs.  

"Our institutions' and the Center's considerable accomplishments in international health and human rights underlie the WHO/PAHO collaborating center status," said James G. Hodge, Jr., Center Executive Director and Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 Gostin and Hodge have worked closely with WHO on other projects, including the development of a toolkit for WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.  Other Center scholars, including Professor Scott Burris of Temple University Law School and Professor David Fidler of Indiana University School of Law, also work on international health laws and policy projects at the Center.

The Center is planning an event at Georgetown Law early next year to formally launch the WHO/PAHO collaborating center.  It will bring together preeminent officials from WHO, PAHO, World Bank, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as deans, faculty, and students from the Center’s joint institutions, to commemorate the designation and discuss emerging issues in international health and human rights.

About Georgetown University Law Center

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means; justice is the end. With this principle in mind, the Law Center has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body.

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