James Curran, an Evaluation of the Contribution of the Conference

• Citation: Vol. 22 No. 1
• Publication year: 2008

AN EVALUATION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE CONFERENCE

James Curran^*

When Professor Berman asked me to be one of the final speakers, I said, "But I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not an expert on gender difference." And he said, "Thank you so much for doing this." So I become one of thousands of people who can't say no to Hal Berman.

I'd like to thank Hal and his Emory colleagues, President Carter, and Professor van der Vyver, and acknowledge the three former presidents who spoke here. It's extremely unusual to have such eminent, worldly, important people who've made such a difference in the world-President Carter, President Mádl, and President Robinson, a former Berman student who is making good and doing well in the world.

I'd like to thank all of you who are still here and those of you who were here before. You're truly the real coalition of the willing, the people who want to make a difference and to work together. It has been an incredible program with incredible breadth and inspiration-a confluence of world law and world health, involving many disciplines, many interests.

Global health is de facto about inequities and inequalities. You hear people say, "Well, global also includes Atlanta. It includes the world." It's not true when we talk about global health. It's not the same as global trade, the opportunities of global finance. These things are related topics, but we don't find ourselves just talking about how to make the world more economically viable for business. Of course, reduction of poverty may be related to reduction of economic inequities, but generally the people interested in globalization and global trade are looking for cheaper labor markets. The kinds of things they do are not necessarily related to global health. Those of us

198 EMORY INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 22 in global health are primarily interested in reducing inequities and inequalities in health, interested in making the world a healthier place. The world is filled with double standards when it comes to women-in terms of economic inequalities and in terms of health. These remain throughout the world, but in developing countries, in areas of scarcity and extreme poverty, these inequities are exaggerated and result in greater health inequities than they do in the United States.

In the developing world, the role of women is at the very center of the family's health. This is obvious and crucial. So this conference provides opportunities for dialogue in that regard. Now, the one thing...