Call for Papers: UNESCO Chair on Health, Race and Human Rights Global Congress 2027, San José, Costa Rica [1-3 February 2027; Extended Abstract Deadline 5 October]

The UNESCO Chair on Health, Race and Human Rights is situated at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. It is the first UNESCO Chair hosted at the University of British Columbia and, by its own description, the only UNESCO Chair in the world dedicated specifically to health, race and human rights. The Chair works on research, teaching, policy engagement and international collaboration on health equity, racial justice and human rights across the Global North and South.

The Global Congress is the Chair's flagship international forum. Its inaugural edition takes place in 2027.

The inaugural Congress, Truth-Telling, Human Rights, and Health Justice in an Age of Global Fracture, will be held at the Hilton San José La Sabana, San José, Costa Rica, from 1 to 3 February 2027.

It starts from the premise that trust in public institutions, scientific expertise and international law is increasingly contested, and that regressions in civil rights, reproductive rights, migration and asylum protections, environmental protections and anti-discrimination law fall hardest on racialised communities, Indigenous peoples and other groups who depend on reliable public institutions. Participants will consider whether existing legal frameworks are adequate, what reforms are needed, and how law can better promote accountability, dignity and equitable health outcomes.

The programme is organised around three themes:

• understanding contemporary challenges to truth, science and racial justice;
• identifying legal and policy responses that strengthen accountability and protect health and human rights;
• applying critical theory in shaping national, regional and global mechanisms and responses for securing human dignity, racial justice and just health outcomes.

Empirical, theoretical, doctrinal and comparative contributions are welcome on, but not limited to:

• Populism, scientific authority and law: how populist governance reconstructs and weaponises knowledge, and the role of courts and legal institutions in mediating scientific disputes.
• Racialisation of scientific truth: the disproportionate impact of anti-science governance on racialised communities, from colonial medicine to contemporary epistemic injustice.
• Substantive legal effectiveness and health governance: formally valid law that is scientifically unsound or produces unjust and ineffective outcomes, and rethinking legal validity for unjust health laws and policies.
• Global health institutions and legitimacy: the response of WHO, treaty bodies and regional systems to state resistance to scientific consensus, and the politics of expertise in health emergencies.
• Digital misinformation, platform governance and regulatory gaps: transnational health misinformation and comparative regulatory responses.
• Indigenous and diverse knowledge systems: distinguishing legitimate knowledge diversity from politically motivated anti-science, and the role of international law.
• Emergency powers, public health and rights erosion: selective use of emergency frameworks, racialised enforcement and judicial responses.
• Accountability and reparative justice: legal strategies to counter legal, social and medical harm, scientific institutions as rights actors, and reparative frameworks for affected communities.
• Criminalisation of health: the intersections of health, race, criminal justice and human rights, including criminal law as an enforcement tool in abortion care, mental health, infectious disease control, substance use and homelessness.
• Related topics: racism where law, identity, evidence and rights claims meet contested knowledge and institutional power, including sports and health, biomedical research, welfare systems, algorithmic governance, immigration and citizenship, and scientific classification.

The Congress Organising Committee invites abstracts from scholars, researchers, legal practitioners, judges, policymakers, public health professionals, advocates, civil society organisations and other interested parties working at the intersections of human rights, health, race and justice. The call is open internationally and sets no nationality restriction.

• Abstracts of no more than 250 words, in English.
• Submit only through the Oxford Abstracts submission platform.
• The form asks for your name, paper title, affiliation and a short bio of up to 100 words.
• Panel and roundtable proposals are also welcome.
• All submissions go through double-blind peer review.

Contributors whose abstracts are accepted will be invited to present their work at the Congress in San José. Outstanding contributions will be considered for inclusion in a dedicated post-Congress publication.

The official call does not state any submission or registration fee, and it says nothing about travel or accommodation support. Presenters should plan for their own travel to Costa Rica and write to the organisers for any registration details.

The abstract deadline has been extended to 5 October 2026 following requests from contributors. Decisions are made on a rolling basis, and all decisions will be communicated by 9 October 2026.