Gillian MacNaughton
Status: DPhil candidate (status confirmed)

Supervisor: Dr Andrew Shacknove
College: St Antony's College
Start date: September 2006
End date: October 2010

Email: gillian.macnaughton@law.ox.ac.uk

DPhil topic and short description:

Thesis: Equality Rights, Social Spending and Human Development

My thesis examines the relationship between equality and social rights in the International Bill of Human Rights.  It argues that the minimum threshold approaches that focus on basic capabilities or core obligations are insufficient to fully realize social rights and eliminate multi-dimensional poverty.  Because socio-economic inequality adversely impacts on many dimensions of people’s lives, such as health, life expectancy, personal security and political participation, a positive right to equality is a necessary corollary to social rights in a holistic human rights framework.  Drawing on international, regional and domestic law, the thesis argues for recognizing a right to positive equality, distinct from status-based nondiscrimination, in the International Bill of Human Rights.

Education:                                          

• MSt in International Human Rights Law, distinction, University of Oxford 2005

• MPA, Harvard University 2003

• JD, magna cum laude, Vermont Law School 1991

• BEd, McGill University 1986

Recent Publications:

“Decent Work, Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals,” co-authored with Diane F. Frey, Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal (forthcoming Spring Issue 2010).
 
“A Human Rights-Based Approach to Social Impact Assessment” co-authored with Paul Hunt, chapter in New Directions in Social Impact Assessment: Conceptual and Methodological Advances edited by Frank Vanclay & Ana Maria Esteves, Edward Elgar Publishing (forthcoming 2010).

“Untangling Equality and Nondiscrimination to Promote the Right to Health Care for All” 11(2) Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, Special Issue on Non-Discrimination and Equality 47 (2009). http://www.hhrjournal.org/index.php/hhr/article/view/173/271

“Health Impact Assessment: The Contribution of the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health” co-authored with Paul Hunt, 123 Public Health 302 (2009).

“A Human Rights-Based Approach to Health Indicators” co-authored with Paul Hunt, chapter in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action edited by M. Baderin & R. McCorquodale, Oxford University Press (2007).

“Impact Assessments, Poverty and Human Rights: A Case Study Using the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health” co-authored with Paul Hunt, Health and Human Rights Working Paper Series No 6, World Health Organization and UNESCO (2006):
http://www.who.int/hhr/Series_6_Impact%20Assessments_Hunt_MacNaughton1.pdf

“Women’s Human Rights related to Health-Care in the Context of HIV/AIDS” Health and Human Rights Working Paper Series No 5, World Health Organization (2004):
http://www.who.int/hhr/Series_5_womenshealthcarerts_MacNaughtonFINAL.pdf

 Recent Papers and Presentations:

“A Holistic Human Rights Perspective on Poverty” Paper presented at the Conference on Human Rights in the USA, University of Connecticut, 22-24 Oct 2009.

“A Holistic Approach to Regulating Decent Work” Paper co-authored by Diane F. Frey, presented at the Conference on “Regulating for Decent Work: Innovative Regulation in a Turbulent World” International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland, 8-10 July 2009:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/condtrav/pdf/rdwpaper4.5c.pdf

“New Tools and Techniques: Focus on Indicators and Impact Assessment” Workshop at the Symposium on “The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health: Looking Back and Moving Forward,” British Medical Association, London, 25-27 September 2008: www.ifhhro.org/files/Gillian%20MacNaughton%20WG2.doc

“Toward a Methodology For Governments To Improve Policy-Making: Human Rights Impact Assessment,” Right to Health Workshop, Conference on Human Rights Impact Assessment in Practice, held by the Humanist Committee for Human Rights The Netherlands, 23 Nov 2006: http://www.humanrightsimpact.org/fileadmin/hria_resources/conference_presentation/Gillian_MacNaughton_presentation.pdf