The author of the communication, the mother of a woman who had died during childbirth, claimed that Brazilian authorities had not ensured access to quality medical treatment during her daughter’s delivery in violation of nondiscrimination provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). More specifically, the author of …Read more

The head doctor of a Russian Medical Centre issued an extract from a private citizen’s patient card to be used as evidence in a civil case without the patient’s consent or a court request. Article 61 of the Fundamental Legislation of the Russian Federation of the Healthcare of Citizens restricts access to health information as …Read more

This case involved a challenge to background checks for government jobs on the basis of constitutional privacy.  Nelson and twenty-seven other federal contract employees, working for NASA at a government laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, claimed that two elements of a standard employment background investigation violated their constitutional rights:  a questionnaire that asked …Read more

A doctor was ordered to disclose the medical records of 12 patients, including the plaintiff. The doctor appealed the order to the Labor and Welfare Agency, which rejected the appeal. The plaintiff appealed the same order, but was also rejected since the order was not an “individual decision” making the plaintiff deemed to not be …Read more

Pharmacies, “as a matter of business routine and federal law, receive prescriber-identifying information when processing prescriptions.” This “[k]nowledge of a physician’s prescription practices—called prescriber-identifying information,’” enables marketers representing pharmaceutical drug manufacturers (Detailers) to better “ascertain which doctors are likely to be interested in a particular drug and how best to present a particular sales message.” …Read more

This case is an appeal from the High Court. An appeal from this case was dismissed by the Supreme Court in [2012] NZSC 68. A cross-appeal was filed by the respondent, the Right to Life New Zealand Inc (RTL), which asserted the lower court erred by finding the unborn child had no right to life and …Read more

Bradley McCallum, a detainee at a maximum correctional facility in South Africa, claimed to be a victim of violations of articles 7 and 10 of the International on Civil and Political Rights (“Covenant”). In particular, McCallum alleged that he was physically abused, raped, and subject to other ill treatment by South African prison authorities during …Read more

The Appellant, Seaton, an inmate, brought suit against the director of the California Department of Mental Health, the administrator of a state hospital, and two psychologists, alleging that they violated his constitutional right to privacy when they examined and communicated their opinions about his medical records to the district attorney’s office in the period before …Read more

Indigenous community Xákmok Kásek brought an action against the government of Paraguay before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for failure to meet its international responsibility of timely granting the community members’ request in 1990 for a guarantee of their right to their ancestral lands. Because the government had failed to process their request, the …Read more

Mr A suffered from psychiatric illness and was hospitalised against his will under a guardianship order in 1990 and 1996. His case was later transferred to a doctor chosen by him – Dr B, and all medical records were sent on to Dr B. Mr A later sought to obtain a copy of the entirety …Read more