Dear all,
We kindly invite you to the launch of our Global Health Law Groningen initiative on Monday 26 January from 16.00 – 17.30, in the Senaatskamer  (Academy Building, Broerstraat 5). Global Health Law Groningen is aimed at researching international or ‘global’ health law as an emerging field of public international law.

During this first event of our initiative we will focus on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted by the World Health Organization in 2003 and so far the most ‘successful’ standard under international health law. I am very pleased that Mr Phon van den Biesen will come to Groningen to speak about his experiences with this Convention. Mr. Phon van den Biesen is an attorney at law in Amsterdam, an international as well as national litigator, usually in public interest cases. He is currently the lawyer in the recent anti-tobacco case against the State of the Netherlands (which addresses the close ties between the Dutch government and the tobacco industry).

After Mr van den Biesen’s introduction we will have a panel discussion on the potential of the Tobacco Convention and about tobacco control more generally.  The following experts from the University of Groningen will participate in the panel discussion together with mr. van den Biesen:
– Prof Hans V. Hogerzeil, professor of global health at UMCG;
– Dr. Machteld Hylkema, smoking-expert from UMCG; and
– Dr. Heleen Weyers, sociologist of (health) law at the Faculty of Legal Theory.

Students from both law and medicine will prepare some questions to kick off the debate. The event will be informal in nature, hopefully creating lots of opportunity for questions and debate.

Feel free to link with our LinkedIn group.