About
United Nations Mandate on the Right to Health
About the United Nations Mandate on the Right to Health
In 2002, the United Nations, through the Commission on Human Rights, established the mandate of Special Rapporteur on the right to physical and mental health. Since then, four independent experts have been appointed to lead the mandate as Special Rapporteurs:
- Paul Hunt (August 2002 — July 2008)
- Anand Grover (August 2008 — July 2014)
- Dainius Pūras (August 2014 — July 2020)
- Tlaleng Mofokeng (August 2020 – present)
In 2014, Dainius Pūras became the first medical doctor to be appointed Special Rapporteur. Throughout his tenure, Dr. Pūras delivered a range of globally significant interventions related to the right to physical and mental health.
In 2020, Dr. Pūras ended his tenure with the appointment of Tlaleng Mofokeng, another historic appointment as the first woman and first person from the global South to hold this post. Read more about the Special Rapporteurs here.
This website is dedicated to documenting the legacy of work produced by Dr. Pūras and cataloguing the transmission of his legacy through a series of handover dialogues taking place from late 2020 to early 2021.
Team
Ana Florence
Ana Florence, PhD is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health and the UN Special Rapporteur Handover Dialogues Project Coordinator.
Julie Hannah
Julie Hannah is a Lecturer in the School of Law, Director of the International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy based at the Human Rights Centre, and co-founder of the Centre for Mental Health, Human Rights, and Social Justice, a global research consortium.