I’m happy to announce publication of my latest article, which brings together two major strands in my scholarly work: cities and the right to health. “The Urban Evolution of the Right to Health”, available open access in the International Journal of Human Rights, represents my current overarching research project, inquiring into how human rights’ invocation in, by and against cities is reshaping their substantive content. It considers the example of the right to health, which has always evolved dynamically in response to a diversity of health threats and invocation contexts.
Drawing on treaty interpretation, domestic and international jurisprudence, the practice of health rights interpretation by urban local governments and soft law produced by global city networks, it identifies three hallmarks of an ‘urbanised’ understanding of the right to health: a collective orientation, being grounded in mutual solidarity and depending on inclusive community participation.
The article was completed during my summer stay at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in July 2025 and my visiting academic fellowship at the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism at UCL Laws from September-October 2025. It has benefited much from comments received during seminar presentations at UCL Laws and the University of Birmingham Law School in October-November 2025. Sincere thanks to all involved.
Marius Pieterse 