NATIONAL WORKSHOP, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE and RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM on
“REALISING THE RIGHTS TO HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL”

In 2009, The University of New South Wales Initiative for Health and Human Rights and the Central Commission for Popularization and Education of the Communist Party of Vietnam co-hosted a series of activities on the theme ‘Realising the Rights to Health and Development for All’ in Hanoi, Vietnam.  The most prominent of these activities was an International Conference, held from 26-29 October, which aimed to further the understanding of the complex and powerful relationships between health, development and human rights and to propose practical ways that policies, strategies and research can optimally respond to these challenges. 

The themes of the Conference were: HIV/AIDS and other current and emerging public health threats; maternal and child health; climate change; and economic globalization. The four main themes chosen for the Conference exemplify major developmental concerns in Viet Nam, the Asia-Pacific Region and most low- and middle-income countries. Each of the themes shaped the discourse and was addressed using the realisation of the rights to health and development as a cross-cutting theme. The International Conference brought together over 300 delegates from Vietnam and abroad, representing 28 Countries. The Conference participants included representatives from international and national nongovernmental organisations, the United Nations, international agencies, government agencies, the private sector and academic institutions.

The Conference was preceded by a National Workshop, held from 29 June – 2 July 2009, which aimed to build collective and individual knowledge on public health, human and economic development and human rights law and practice in order to prepare National participants for their attendance at the International Conference.  In addition, immediately following the International Conference, a Research Symposium, held on 30 October 2009, was convened to propose practical ways in which research in health, development and human rights can inform the understanding of current global challenges and influence the appropriate responses.  A research agenda, including proposed next steps which underscore the need for specific research priorities in health, development and human rights, was developed.

The realisation of these collective activities is owed to the support from Vietnamese leaders, The Atlantic Philanthropies, the United Nations Viet Nam, the USAID Health Policy Initiative, Task Order 1; the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID); and the Levi Strauss Foundation.

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