Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HEAVEN (HeaVen - Venezuelan migration, human rights and intersectoral strategies: Towards a new right to primary health care for irregular migrants in Colombia)
Période du rapport: 2023-04-01 au 2024-03-31
What is the problem/issue being addressed?
In most countries, health & its social determinants for irregular migrants are normally cared for in exceptional situations of emergency, outside a preventive and promotional paradigm of public health & without fully complying with human rights frameworks. Using Colombia as a case study, HEAVEN aims to understand such a resistance & attempt to conceptualize a right to primary health care for irregular migrants, according to interdisciplinary standards, and in the light of the practice & opinions of many state and non-state actors that offer a response to the health needs of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.
Why is it important for society?
HEAVEN objectives and activities target the relations between health and migration, promoting human rights, public health social medicine standards. These are phenomena with strong social, economic and legal implications. Besides undertaking a rigorous socio-legal study, the project includes strategic litigation, advocacy and interdisciplinary training & teaching activities.
What are the overall objectives?
Overall, HEAVEN aims to develop a primary health care-based paradigm of rights implementation for irregular migrants. Specific objectives include: systematizing and analysing applicable law and policy regulations; outlining the conceptual and operational contours of the human right to PHC of irregular migrants via interdisciplinary research and empirical data collection to understand whether and how actors in the field adopt or may adopt a human rights-based approach to health that meets core rights obligations; employing HEAVEN’s findings to stimulate and contribute to legal and other advocacy initiatives both nationally and internationally; discussing and communicating preliminary and final research findings with key stakeholders, including government officials, judges, UN human rights experts and development community agents.
In most countries, health & its social determinants for irregular migrants are normally cared for in exceptional situations of emergency, outside a preventive and promotional paradigm of public health & without fully complying with human rights frameworks. Using Colombia as a case study, HEAVEN aims to understand such a resistance & attempt to conceptualize a right to primary health care for irregular migrants, according to interdisciplinary standards, and in the light of the practice & opinions of many state and non-state actors that offer a response to the health needs of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.
Why is it important for society?
HEAVEN objectives and activities target the relations between health and migration, promoting human rights, public health social medicine standards. These are phenomena with strong social, economic and legal implications. Besides undertaking a rigorous socio-legal study, the project includes strategic litigation, advocacy and interdisciplinary training & teaching activities.
What are the overall objectives?
Overall, HEAVEN aims to develop a primary health care-based paradigm of rights implementation for irregular migrants. Specific objectives include: systematizing and analysing applicable law and policy regulations; outlining the conceptual and operational contours of the human right to PHC of irregular migrants via interdisciplinary research and empirical data collection to understand whether and how actors in the field adopt or may adopt a human rights-based approach to health that meets core rights obligations; employing HEAVEN’s findings to stimulate and contribute to legal and other advocacy initiatives both nationally and internationally; discussing and communicating preliminary and final research findings with key stakeholders, including government officials, judges, UN human rights experts and development community agents.
Concerning research activities, the researcher conducted thematic analysis of the data collected to prepare the research outputs and engaged in collaborative work to achieve the impact-related objectives of the MSCA.
Collaboration with staff at TC and home institution, training and transfer of knowledge have been particularly rewarding during the period covered by this final report. Among other things, the researcher attended / participated in 2 professional development modules offered at QUB and Harvard University and 1 intensive subject-related training at the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (recognised with the Spanish acronym CLACSO); at QUB, he was co-coordinator of the PhD training module and teamed up with a colleague to submit a proposal for a social lawyering research module as an intermediate step towards a legal clinic. With his mentor at QUB, he delivered a MSCA informational session at Lund University, during an invited visit to present his book’s findings. Having secured a visiting scientist position at FXB Center for Health and Human Rights (Harvard’s School of Public Health), he delivered 1 guest lecture and several workshops for students of law, public health and governance at Harvard University.
Dissemination, communication, exploitation activities included publication of: 1) a piece on the blog of the International Commission of Jurists (Opinio Juris); 2) a 100-page open access book/research report with the most influential human rights NGO in Colombia (Dejusticia); 3) a podcast in Lawpod, the podcast series of the beneficiary university Queen’s University Belfast; 4) a 1-minute video for the European Researchers’ Night at Trinity College Dublin. A journal article "A Primary Health Care-based Approach to Migrant Health Rights: A Qualitative Study from Colombia" (JA3) was submitted to a international open access Journal and a viewpoint on Community Health Workers and Migrant health Rights (extra) is underway. HEAVEN’s findings were presented at 2 university-based seminars, 2 national and 3 international conferences and workshops. Research-related activities grounded a) an international call for papers on ‘distress migration and the right to health’ for the Harvard-based Health and Human Rights Journal; b) the design, preparation & realization of 1 interdisciplinary workshop on human rights-based approaches to health and migration in Ireland and Northern Ireland; b) planning and execution of 7 training courses (12 hours each) for community health leaders (in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration IOM), an activity which was widely promoted via social media); c) design, planning and execution of 1 course for medical, policy and humanitarian staff (in collaboration with the Pan-American Health Organization -PAHO); study for strategic litigation and pedagogic activities with two legal clinics at the TC university (Universidad del Rosario).
Besides, during the period covered by the final report, the researcher published 1 chapter in book and co-edited a volume on the European Social Charter, organised book launches for the latter and his monograph.
Collaboration with staff at TC and home institution, training and transfer of knowledge have been particularly rewarding during the period covered by this final report. Among other things, the researcher attended / participated in 2 professional development modules offered at QUB and Harvard University and 1 intensive subject-related training at the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (recognised with the Spanish acronym CLACSO); at QUB, he was co-coordinator of the PhD training module and teamed up with a colleague to submit a proposal for a social lawyering research module as an intermediate step towards a legal clinic. With his mentor at QUB, he delivered a MSCA informational session at Lund University, during an invited visit to present his book’s findings. Having secured a visiting scientist position at FXB Center for Health and Human Rights (Harvard’s School of Public Health), he delivered 1 guest lecture and several workshops for students of law, public health and governance at Harvard University.
Dissemination, communication, exploitation activities included publication of: 1) a piece on the blog of the International Commission of Jurists (Opinio Juris); 2) a 100-page open access book/research report with the most influential human rights NGO in Colombia (Dejusticia); 3) a podcast in Lawpod, the podcast series of the beneficiary university Queen’s University Belfast; 4) a 1-minute video for the European Researchers’ Night at Trinity College Dublin. A journal article "A Primary Health Care-based Approach to Migrant Health Rights: A Qualitative Study from Colombia" (JA3) was submitted to a international open access Journal and a viewpoint on Community Health Workers and Migrant health Rights (extra) is underway. HEAVEN’s findings were presented at 2 university-based seminars, 2 national and 3 international conferences and workshops. Research-related activities grounded a) an international call for papers on ‘distress migration and the right to health’ for the Harvard-based Health and Human Rights Journal; b) the design, preparation & realization of 1 interdisciplinary workshop on human rights-based approaches to health and migration in Ireland and Northern Ireland; b) planning and execution of 7 training courses (12 hours each) for community health leaders (in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration IOM), an activity which was widely promoted via social media); c) design, planning and execution of 1 course for medical, policy and humanitarian staff (in collaboration with the Pan-American Health Organization -PAHO); study for strategic litigation and pedagogic activities with two legal clinics at the TC university (Universidad del Rosario).
Besides, during the period covered by the final report, the researcher published 1 chapter in book and co-edited a volume on the European Social Charter, organised book launches for the latter and his monograph.
All HEAVEN actions (details at Technical Report Part B) targeted the overall goal of conceptualizing migrant health rights and problematizing the implementation of measures for this population from a preventive, partnered, and promotional PHC approach. Social impact in Colombia (TC) and NI/Ireland (Beneficiary) has been pursued by, for example:
i) Inviting key policymakers (at local and national levels) and other stakeholders to the book/report launch event in Bogota (M30, Dejusticia) as either speakers or attendees. The book/report, which covers the regulation and implementation gaps of the right to health for migrants, especially from a PHC perspective, has been widely disseminated via social media, emails, and postal delivery. The data analysis performed for this publication is being employed for the drafting and publication of other research outputs (JA3 and an extra viewpoint).
ii) Coordinating/participating by the researcher (and colleagues at UR) in IOM and PAHO-funded training sessions (grounded in the research) for social leaders, community health workers, humanitarian actors, policymakers, and public servants (see EXTRA in Table 3 above).
iii) Inviting and engaging in an interdisciplinary workshop on “Migrant and Refugee Health from a Human Rights-Based Approach in Ireland & Northern Ireland” to spark discussion about the topic of MSCA-HEAVEN-GF and its research results as applied to the island of Ireland context (D5.11 M30). A policy brief with the NGO NASC, based on the workshop's results—which exceeds what was promised in the DOA—is in its initial stages.
i) Inviting key policymakers (at local and national levels) and other stakeholders to the book/report launch event in Bogota (M30, Dejusticia) as either speakers or attendees. The book/report, which covers the regulation and implementation gaps of the right to health for migrants, especially from a PHC perspective, has been widely disseminated via social media, emails, and postal delivery. The data analysis performed for this publication is being employed for the drafting and publication of other research outputs (JA3 and an extra viewpoint).
ii) Coordinating/participating by the researcher (and colleagues at UR) in IOM and PAHO-funded training sessions (grounded in the research) for social leaders, community health workers, humanitarian actors, policymakers, and public servants (see EXTRA in Table 3 above).
iii) Inviting and engaging in an interdisciplinary workshop on “Migrant and Refugee Health from a Human Rights-Based Approach in Ireland & Northern Ireland” to spark discussion about the topic of MSCA-HEAVEN-GF and its research results as applied to the island of Ireland context (D5.11 M30). A policy brief with the NGO NASC, based on the workshop's results—which exceeds what was promised in the DOA—is in its initial stages.