WHO (Geneva)
Thanks to the generous support of my law firm, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP ("BLG"), I had the pleasure of working for two months at the World Health Organization ("WHO") in Geneva. After working at the health law section of BLG for the first half the summer, the WHO was the ideal organization to fill out my experience and to gain insight into international health.
When I was considering where I might want to do my split summer, I contacted Professor Rebecca Cook. She kindly put me in contact with a former LL.M. student of hers, Eszter Kismodi. Eszter is a Human Rights Adviser in the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, in the Family and Community Health Cluster of the WHO. Eszter was fabulously helpful and agreed to take me on as an intern. It took quite a while for formal approval (note to potential interns: the WHO bureaucracy moves slowly!) But, luckily, on July 10th, I was on a plane headed to Switzerland.
The WHO is a UN organization which is tasked with providing technical assistance to ensure that people across the world attain the highest possible standard of health. The Geneva headquarters is a massive organization filled with some of the most respected health care researchers, doctors, epidemiologists, development studies specialists and lawyers in the world.
Under Eszter's helpful supervision, I participated in the preparation of a global and regional information kit on human rights and sexual and reproductive health. The kit was designed for parliamentarians and health care providers, not lawyers. So, a great deal of the work consisted of taking international law provisions and removing the legal jargon. It also required gathering data and case studies that showed how human rights could be implemented in different contexts. It required a literature review and systematic analysis of legislation and case studies relevant to human rights as they relate to sexual and reproductive health.
I also prepared a human rights needs assessment of abortion care. The WHO participates in and facilitates reviews of the delivery of specific reproductive health care across the world. Those reviews entail systematic analysis of all the factors that affect the quality of care that patients receive. My task was to outline how an assessment of law and policy concerns can be an important part of this quality of care analysis.
Being at the WHO also allowed me to get a glimpse of life in UN organizations. With almost daily lunch seminars and updates to WHO staff, I was able to learn about issues ranging from the WHO's role in Darfur, to obstacles to safe motherhood in developing countries. The WHO is also located in the heart of Geneva's international organization district, with the ILO, UN, UNHCR, ICRC and others all within short walking distance. Yes, it's an acronym festival in that area of Geneva! That fact also allowed me to meet tons of other interns in the city, so I was never without social events to attend. Thanks to the time and effort of Eszter and others at the WHO, I had a fantastic experience and would highly recommend it to future students.
