Michael Kirby: Health & Human Rights

UNSW Centre for Ideas

Regardless of where people are born or the communities they belong to, equal access to healthcare should be a fundamental human right. In our age of pandemics, and with healthcare inequality widening, how can we make healthcare access equitable?

Esteemed jurist and legal scholar Michael Kirby has tirelessly advocated for equal access to healthcare over his lengthy career. As a pioneering AIDS activist, member of the WHO’s Global Commission on AIDS from 1988 – 1992, and respected legal mind, Kirby’s focus in recent years has also included decriminalising homosexuality and sex work, and reducing the cost of life-saving medications.

Hear Michael Kirby in conversation with journalist Geraldine Doogue as they discussed his life and career, focusing on what we have learnt from the HIV/AIDS epidemic, how we have applied those lessons during recent pandemics, and how we can build support for egalitarian global healthcare.

Presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas, The Kirby Institute and supported by UNSW Medicine & Health.

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ABOUT THE DAVID COOPER LECTURE

The David Cooper Lecture honours the legacy of The Kirby Institute’s Founding Director, Professor David Cooper AC. Professor Cooper passed away in 2018 and was an internationally renowned scientist and HIV clinician, who laid the foundations for Australia’s ongoing global leadership in the fight against the global HIV epidemic.

To make a donation to support David Cooper’s incredible vision for equitable access to healthcare visit unsw.to/DavidCooperMemorialFund.

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