EUPHA-LAW Newsletter June 2026

You are welcome to post your items in the forthcoming Newsletter (July 2026) The deadline is the 23rd of the month. The Newsletter will be sent out at the beginning of the month. Please include your contact details in case verification is needed.

Next EUPHA-LAW General Meeting, week of 14 September

Please complete the Doodle by 26 June to help choose the best date for everyone. 

EUPHA-LAW LinkedIn page

EUPHA-LAW has a new face and a new LinkedIn page. A warm welcome to Jessica Commins, a PhD candidate in health law and ethics at Erasmus University. Jessica is supporting the EUPHA-LAW section by developing and updating EUPHA-LAW’s new LinkedIn page [https://www.linkedin.com/company/eupha-law/] Contact Jessica Commins with enquires for posting.

Upcoming Events

8th International Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference (LEPH2026), Leeds, 6-9 September  

Enforcement & Public Health: Vulnerability, policing and public health 

Hosted by the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association (GLEPHA) and the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre The conference is open to law enforcement and public health agencies, national and local governments, relevant research bodies, academic institutes, policy makers as well as the commercial sector and other partner organisations.

19th European Public Health Conference, Bilbao, 11-13 November

Authors of abstracts accepted for poster or oral presentation will be contacted in June. To assist conference delegates, EUPHA-LAW will invite presenters to contribute their abstracts to a list of abstracts which address law in public health. Details to follow.

Host a EUPHA-LAW webinar in 2026

You are welcome to propose a webinar on a topic related to law and public health. EUPHA Secretariat will provide the Zoom platform and can publicise the event if sufficient notice is given. Now is the time to plan for webinars in Q3 & Q4. Contact David Patterson dpatterson@healthlawdc.com with your pitch!

Online course on climate change, law, ethics and public health

Developed and delivered by the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) in cooperation with the European Climate and Health Observatory (ECHO) and with the support of the European Commission. Registration will open in June – details to follow.

Previous Events

79th World Health Assembly

On 20 May the European Public Health Association in collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières, Global Network for Academic Public Health, Global Climate and Health Alliance and other partners organised a side event at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva: Climate crisis, peace, and the rights to health and to a healthy environment Speakers included:

• Prof. John Middleton ( President, Global Network for Academic Public Health)
• Dr Jeni Miller (Executive Director,  Global Climate and Health Alliance)
• Dr Maria Neira (Former Director Public health, environment and social determinants, WHO)
• Dr Astrid Puentes Riaño (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a healthy environment)
• Emma Rawson-Te Patu (President, World Federation of Public Health Associations)
• Dr Agnes Soares (Director of the Department of Environmental Health and Workers’ Health, Brazil Ministry of Health)
• Atty. Vicente Paolo B. Yu III   (Lawyer, G77 lead negotiator)
• Dr Stella Ziegler (Board member, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War)

Dr Farhang Tahzib, EUPHA-ETH President and EUPHA-LAW SC member co-chaired the panel with Dr Maria Guevara, MSF International Medical Secretary. 

Other participation included:

• Official side event Advancing the Right to Health through the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change (Patterson and Tahzib).
• Side Event in the Executive Board Room at WHO HQ on the Global Health and Peace Initiative (Tahzib); 
• Side event: briefing on the Pan European Commission on Climate and Health report (Patterson); 
• Side event on Promoting Peace and Health: Public Health’s Role, sponsored by Switzerland and IPPNW and WFPHA (Tahzib); and
• Launch of the Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict, and Forced Displacement: health in a world of crisis and impunity (Tahzib).

The occasion provided significant opportunity for learning, networking to take forward further activities to advance public’s health and ongoing work on peace, polycrisis and public’s health. Further information: farhang.tahzib@gmail.com or dpatterson@healthlawdc.com 

European Public Health Week, 4-8 May

The EUPHA-LAW webinars explored a diverse range of pressing public health law topics: 

• the PFAS crisis and the pursuit of justice for affected communities 
• new approaches to tackling drug-impaired driving drawing on lessons from the UK;
• the transdisciplinary working model of the Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health and its role in generating societal impact 
• the future of the WHO in global public health 

Many thanks to our invited speakers:

• Joanna Cloy (FIDRA)
• Ruth Halkon (The Police Foundation)
• Zsuzsanna Jakab (former WHO Deputy Director-General) 
• Claudia Marcolungo (UniPd)
• Adriana Pérez Fortis (Aletta Jacobs School of Public Health)

Thanks as well as to our Vice Presidents, Andreea Badache and Chiara Cadeddu, and Steering Committee member Orsolya Varga, for hosting the events and leading the discussions. Thanks also to Josephine Gotze, LLM student in the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen for liaising with the hosts and speakers and coordinating the contributions.

Selected recordings will be made available on the EUPHA-LAW LinkedIn page.

Publications

Add your related publications to the next Newsletter.

Climate Corner

Climate Justice: A youth guide to legal responsibility, policy action and accountability (UNDP, April 2026)

Re-Endangerment Lancet Planetary Health Editorial, April 2026

Horton R, Offline: Climate and health—time to step up our activism
The Lancet, 4071769. May 9 2026 

Al Jazeera series: Global Warning: Our Future in a Warmer World

Britain’s Political Prisoners, QMUL Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice

Britain has created a new breed of political prisoners through the systematic incarceration of people acting to prevent climate breakdown and the annihilation of Gaza. The research by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the protest group Defend Our Juries says that custodial sentences for acts of direct action or civil disobedience were once rare but are now being imposed with increasing length and frequency.

Readers’ Comments

Health promotion, welfare policies and legal determinants of health: an Italian perspective

Health promotion and public health law should be increasingly connected. Welfare policies, social protection, access to local services, housing, employment conditions and institutional accountability are key legal and political determinants of health.

From an Italian public health perspective, reducing inequalities requires stronger integration between health services, municipalities, social services and civil society. This is particularly important for underserved populations, where fragmented access to health and social support may increase vulnerability and reduce trust in institutions. A more equity-oriented approach should therefore combine prevention, community-based health promotion, legal protection and welfare policies. Strengthening these links may help build more accessible, preventive and resilient responses to health and social needs.

Manuel Stocchi, MD
Italy
manuelstocchi93@gmail.com