About Us

Lawyers Collective (www.lawyerscollective.org)

Lawyers Collective is a leading public interest service provider in India, with a track record of setting the highest standards in human rights advocacy, legal aid and litigation. Established in 1981 as an association of lawyers and law students pledging to provide legal aid to the poor, today Lawyers Collective is an independent NGO focusing on strategic human rights litigation and advocacy in HIV/AIDS and women’s rights. Within these two themes, the Collective runs programmes on access to medicines, drug policy, LGBT rights, sexual and reproductive rights, violence against women, and the rights of marginalised groups such as people who use drugs and sex workers. Lawyers Collective’s landmark victories before the Supreme Court and High Courts of India have, among other things, safeguarded provisions in India’s patent regime protecting access to medicines, decriminalised homosexuality, ended the mandatory death penalty for drug offences, and outlawed HIV discrimination in employment. The Collective’s advocacy and research has also led to major legislative reforms, such as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 and the HIV/AIDS Bill (pending).

Project Director: Anand Grover

Project Manager: Kelly Percival

O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law (https://oneill.law.georgetown.edu/)

The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University reflects the importance of public and private law in health policy analysis. Established in 2007 through the generous philanthropy of Linda and Timothy O’Neill, the mission of the O’Neill Institute is to find innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing health concerns. The institute’s essential vision rests upon the proposition that the law has been, and will remain, a fundamental tool for solving critical health problems in our local, national, and global communities, particularly for disadvantaged and marginalized populations. The O’Neill Institute’s goal is to use a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and transnational lens, which extends beyond a narrow vision of health law that focuses solely on health care as an industry or scientific endeavors. The institute’s research program combines elements of reflective problem solving, scholarship, and teaching. Our team is comprised of talented faculty, project directors, associates, staff, and affiliates with particularized expertise in the field of health law and policy. The O’Neill Institute draws upon the University’s considerable intellectual resources, including the School of Medicine, School of Nursing & Health Studies, the Public Policy Institute, and the Kennedy  Institute of Ethics.

Faculty Director: Lawrence Gostin

Executive Director: Katie Gottschalk