Alicia Ely Yamin
Lecturer on Law
2023-2024
Alicia Ely Yamin JD MPH PhD is a Lecturer on Law and the Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School; Adjunct Senior Lecturer on Health Policy and Management at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; and Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Health Policy at the global health justice organization, Partners In Health.
Known globally for her trans-disciplinary work in relation to economic and social rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights, the right to health, and the intersections between development paradigms and human rights, Yamin’s career has bridged academia and activism. She has lived in Latin America and East Africa for much of her professional life and worked with local advocacy organizations, including co-founding a program on health and human rights in the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (Lima, Peru; 1999).
Yamin was appointed by the UN Secretary General as one of ten international experts to the Independent Accountability Panel for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health in the Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2021). She was the chief consultant to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and drafter of the ‘Technical guidance on the application of a human-rights based approach to the implementation of policies and programmes to reduce preventable maternal morbidity and mortality’, the first guidance on a ‘human rights-based approach to health’ to be adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.
Yamin has served on numerous other UN, WHO and other global expert committees. She currently serves on the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Health Technology Assessments; the WHO Global Advisory Group on Legislating Maternal Perinatal Death Surveillance; the joint World Bank/Norwegian Institute for Public Health/Bergen Centre on Ethics and Priority Setting project on ‘Health Financing for Universal Health Coverage’; the Lancet Commission on Arctic and Northern Health; and as Co-Chair on the Interim Steering Committee of the Global Public Investment Network (GPIN).
In 2011, Yamin was named by the Colombian Constitutional Court as an Independent Expert on the implementation of T-760/08, a major structural judgment that led to significant health system reform In Colombia. She was also the only non-Kenyan appointed to the oversight committee for health matters of the Constitutional Implementation Commission in relation to the 2010 Kenyan Constitution.
Yamin regularly provides testimony and guidance to tribunals and legislative bodies around the globe, as well as amicus curiae briefs, in relation to the application of international and comparative law to health and sexual and reproductive rights issues.
From 2009-2015, Yamin served as Chair of the Board of the Center for Economic and Social Rights (Vice-Chair, 2001-08). She is a current and founding member of the Global Health Law Consortium; a Senior Associated Researcher of the Centre on Law and Social Transformation (Norway); and a Board member of the global organization, Women in Global Health. In Argentina, Yamin sits on the international advisory boards of the RedAAS (Argentine Safe Abortion Access Network) and the Proyecto Mirar (monitoring implementation of Law 27.610, which legalized first trimester abortion).
Yamin holds Juris Doctor and Master’s in Public Health degrees from Harvard University, and a Doctorate in Law from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She has published multiple books and over 160 articles in law and policy journals, as well as peer-reviewed public health journals, in both English and Spanish. A revised and substantially expanded edition of her latest monograph, When Misfortune becomes Injustice: Evolving Human Rights Struggles for Health and Social Equality, is due out from Stanford University Press in 2023.
Additional Information
Series Editor: “Global Health, Human Rights and Social Justice,” Brill/Nijhoff Publishers [2022]
Fulbright Senior Specialist, Institute of International Education [2019-Present]
Visiting Scholar, Institute of Advanced Study of the Americas, University of Miami
Joseph P. Flom Academic Fellow on Global Health and Human Rights, Harvard Law School [2007-09; renewed 2009-2011]
Distinguished Visitor, Urban Morgan Institute of Human Rights, University of Cincinnati College of Law [2003]
Echoing Green Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship [1991-1993]
Education
- M.P.H. Law and Public Health Harvard School of Public Health, 1996
- J.D. Harvard Law School, 1991
- A.B. Sociology, Latin American Literature Harvard College, 1987
- Ph.D. International Law University of Buenos Aires, 2021
Academic Appointment and Employment History
- Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (2021 - Present)
Health Policy and Management
Cambridge - Research Leader, UiB-CMI Centre on Law and Social Transformation (2021 - Present)
‘Gender, Sexuality and the Law’
Bergen, Norway - Senior Advisor, Bergen Center for Ethics and Priority Setting (2020 - Present)
Bergen, Norway - Adjunct Lecturer on Global Health and Population, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (2016 - 2021)
Boston - Visiting Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center (2016 - 2018)
Washington DC - Visiting Professor, University of Connecticut (2015 - 2016)
Gladstein Distinguished Professor of Human Rights
Storrs - Lecturer on Law and Global Health, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (2011 - 2016)
Boston - Senior Fellow in Global Health and Rights,, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology (2011 - 2016)
Boston - Director, Joint JD/MPH Program, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (2011 - 2016)
Boston - Policy Director, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights Office (2011 - 2014)
Boston - Adjunct Associate Professor of Human Rights Law, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (2010 - 2011)
Medford - Adjunct Lecturer, Health Policy and Management, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (2010 - 2011)
Boston - Special Advisor, Amnesty International (2007 - 2011)
Boston - Director of Research and Investigations, Physicians for Human Rights (2005 - 2007)
Cambridge - Instructor, Health Policy and Management, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health (2003 - 2008)
2003-2005, Montevideo Uruguay
Boston - Assistant Professor of Clinical Public Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University (1996 - 2002)
Law and Policy Project. 1998-2003, Lima Peru
New York - Staff Attorney, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University (1996 - 2002)
Law and Policy Project. 1998-2003, Lima Peru
New York - Associate (3rd -5th year), Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton (1993 - 1995)
New York - Visiting Professor and Research Scholar, Department of Social Anthropology, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (1991 - 1993)
Mexico City, Mexico - Legal Associate, Department of Human Rights of Archdiocese (1991 - 1993)
Mexico City, Mexico - Legal Analyst, Human Rights Watch (Americas Division) (1991 - 1993)
Mexico City, Mexico
Bar Admissions
- NYS First District (1992, inactive)
- Washington DC (1992, inactive)
Board Memberships
- Member, Advisory Board, Proyecto mirar (Observatory on Implementation of Law 27.610 of 2020), (2021 - Present)
Argentina - Member, International Advisory Board, Argentine Network for Safe Abortion Access (RedAAS) (2019 - Present)
Argentina - Board Member, Women in Global Health (2018 - Present)
- Advisory Council Chair (2009-2015); Vice-Chair (2001-2008); Member (2015-Present), Center for Economic and Social Rights (2009 - Present)
Honors and Awards
- “Smart Cookie” Award (Awards)
In recognition of global work to establish maternal mortality as a human rights, January 2009 - Ivan and Janice Stone Honorary Lectureship (Other)
Beloit College, January 2010
Representative Publications
- Alicia Ely Yamin, When Misfortune Becomes Injustice: Evolving Human Rights Struggles for Health and Social Equality (2d ed., 2023).
- Alicia Ely Yamin, Reflections on Paul Farmer’s legacy: a clarion call for transformative human rights praxis in global health, OpenGlobalRights, Mar. 4, 2022.
- Alicia Ely Yamin, When Misfortune Becomes Injustice Evolving Human Rights Struggles for Health and Social Equality (2020).