Report on Involuntary Medical Repatriations

Earlier this week, the Seton Hall University School of Law Immigrants’ Rights/International Human Rights Clinic and International Human Rights and Rule of Law Project joined with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest’s Health Justice Program to submit to the United Nations a report on involuntary medical repatriations. (Download CSJ NYLPI UPR Submission).  The report documents the practice of extrajudicial medical repatriations of seriously ill or injured indigent immigrant patients to countries lacking adequate medical care, in violation of international human rights law and U.S. law. The submission also suggests measures the U.S. can take to and curb medical repatriations to uphold its obligations under international law, including increased oversight and enforcement of existing US laws by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The United Nations Human Rights Council will consider this report when it meets this November as part of its first Universal Periodic Review of the United States, which will assess the US’s compliance with its human rights obligations and commitments. In December of 2010 the United States will go under review by the Human Rights Council for the UPR. This is an important moment for holding the US accountable to its human rights obligations.

KJ