Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Human Rights and Global Health Equity, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Tel.: 416-978-3087
Email: lisa.forman@utoronto.ca

DLSPH profile

Lisa Forman, BA LLB (Witwatersrand), MA (Columbia) SJD (Toronto) is a Full Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Human Rights and Global Health Equity. Her primary appointment is at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and she is cross-appointed to the Faculty of Law. Her interdisciplinary research in law and public health focuses on the content and interactions between international human rights law on health and domestic and global health law, policy, and governance. Her primary research focus is on the right to health in international human rights law, and its relevance to other areas of global health law and policy including the International Health Regulations; the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor Forman’s publications include the co-edited volume Access to Medicines as a Human Right: Implications for Pharmaceutical Industry Responsibility, and close to 130 journal articles, journal special issues, and book chapters published in both comparative, international law, and human rights journals, and in public health, global health and medical journals. Professor Forman has been a resident at the Foundation Brocher, a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Boston College Law School, a visiting research fellow at the University of Cape Town School of Public Health and Family Medicine and at the Minerva Center for Human Rights, Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University. She was a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Bioethics Table, has been an invited expert at multiple United Nations panels and roundtables, and is a current member of the Global Health Law Consortium.

In 1993, Professor Forman completed a BA and LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and in 1995, completed articles of clerkship and the qualifying board exams to become a practicing lawyer. In 2001, Lisa completed a Masters in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University, and in 2006, a Doctorate in Juridical Science (SJD) from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. Her SJD focused on the interaction between right to health in international human rights law and international trade law, and the role of this right in increasing access to AIDS treatment, focusing on the case-study of South Africa. From 2006-2009, Professor Forman completed postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto exploring international human rights law and medicines access in low and middle-income countries.

SSRN Lisa Forman
Education
BA LLB (Witwatersrand)
MA (Columbia)
SJD (Toronto)
Awards and distinctions
Canada Research Chair in Human Rights and Global Health Equity (Tier 2) (2014-2025)
Fellow, Brocher Foundation, Switzerland (2023)
Canadian Women Leaders in Global Health (2020)
Canadian Women Leaders in Global Health (2018)
Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize, University of Toronto Award of Excellence (2015)
Connaught New Researcher Award (2012/2013)
University of Toronto Comparative Program on Health and Society Research Fellowship (2005-2006)
Canadian Institute of Health Research Program in Health Law and Policy Doctoral Fellowship (2002-2005)
Other info

Research area(s): Human rights and global health law; Human rights and the International Health Regulations; Human rights and COVID-19; Universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals;  Trade-related intellectual property rights and access to medicines globally; the social determinants of health.

Selected publications

Google Scholar

  • Lisa Forman and Roojin Habibi, “Towards reimagining the International Health Regulations Article 43 on travel restrictions,” in Colleen Flood. YY Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi, and Sophie Theriault, eds., Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders: Lessons from COVID-19 (2024; Routledge Press) 47-62.
  • Judith Bueno de Mesquita and Lisa Forman, “Normative Frameworks: Human Rights, Equity and Social Justice in Global Health,” in Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier, eds., Global Health Law & Policy: Ensuring Justice for a Healthier World (Oxford University Press, 2023).
  • Lisa Forman, Chuang-Feng Wu, and Katrina Perehudoff, “International Trade Governance: Free Trade & Intellectual Property Threaten Public Health,” in Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier, eds., Global Health Law & Policy: Ensuring Justice for a Healthier World (Oxford University Press, 2023).
  • Lisa Forman and Carly Jackson, “Interdependent determinants of health and death? Examining the linkages between health equity, human rights, and democracy during COVID-19,” (2023) 89:1 Annals of Global Health 1–10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4104.
  • Lisa Forman, Carly Jackson, and Kaitlin Fajber, “Can we move beyond vaccine apartheid? Examining the determinants of the COVID-19 vaccine gap,” (2023) 18:1, Global Public Health 1-18 (PA).
  • Audrey R. Chapman, Luca Brunelli, Lisa Forman, and Joseph Kaempf, “Promoting Children’s Rights to Health and Wellbeing in the United States,” (2023) 25 Lancet Regional Health – the Americas
  • Lisa Forman, Katrina Perehudoff, and Carlos Correa, Special issue of Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal on COVID-19 vaccine equity and human rights, (2022) 24:2 Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal (121-228).
  • Lisa Forman, Basema Al-Amani, and Kaitlin Fajber, “An inquiry into state agreement and practice on the international law status of the human right to medicines,” (2022) 24:2 Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal 125-140.
  • Gian Luca Burci, Lisa Forman, and Steven Hoffman, “Introduction to special issue on reform of the International Health Regulations,” (2022) International Organizations Law Review (in press).
  • Carly Jackson, Roojin Habibi, Lisa Forman, Diego Silva, and Maxwell Smith, “Between rules and resistance: moving public health emergency responses beyond fear, racism and greed,” (2022) BMJ Global Health 7:e009945.
  • Lisa Forman and Roojin Habibi, “Revisiting the legality of travel restrictions under international law during COVID-19,” (2022) 71:3 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 743-760 (PA).
  • Lisa Forman, Benjamin Meier, and Sharifah Sekalala, “The World Health Organization, International Health Regulations & Human Rights Law,” (2022) 19 International Organizations Law Review 37–62 (PA).
  • Lisa Forman, “Reform rather than discard the WHO,” Comment response to Jillian Kohler, “Why Global Cooperation in Public Health Needs a Leader,” (2021) 19:4 Healthcare Policy Journal 41-46.
  • Monica Gagnon, Rebeccah Cheff and Lisa Forman, “Who deserves care in a pandemic? What can the values that guide action and policy in extraordinary times teach us about ordinary times?” (2021) 23:2 Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal 1-6.
  • Diya Uberoi and Lisa Forman, “Human rights and kidney disease: What role can the right to health play in ensuring equitable access to care?” (2021) 41:3 Seminars in Nephrology Special Issue on Ethics in Nephrology 220-229.
  • Katrina Perehudoff, Nav Persaud and Lisa Forman, “The human right to essential medicines applies to Canadians,” (2021) 67:6 Canadian Family Physician 400-402 (30% contribution to drafting and conceptualization).
  • Maxwell Smith, Sharifah Sekalala, Katrina Perehudoff, Lisa Forman and Belinda Rawson, “Should a COVID-19 vaccine authorized for emergency use be considered an ‘essential’ medicine?” (2021) 23:1 Health and Human Rights Journal 145-150.
  • Sharifah Sekalala, Lisa Forman, Timothy Fish Hodgson, Moses Mulumba, Hadijah Namyalo and Benjamin Mason Meier, “Decolonising human rights: How intellectual property laws result in unequal access to the COVID-19 vaccine,” (2021) 6:e006169 BMJ Global Health.
  • Sharifah Sekalala, Benjamin Meier, Roojin Habibi, Lisa Forman and Stephanie Dagron, “Analysing the human rights impact of increased digital public health surveillance during the COVID-19 crisis,” (2020) Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal (20% drafting and contribution to conceptualization).
  • Lisa Forman and Jillian Kohler, “Global health and human rights in the time of COVID-19: Response, restrictions and legitimacy,” (2020) 19:5 Journal of Human Rights, 1-10.
  • Sharifa Sekalala, Lisa Forman, Roojin Habibi and Benjamin Meier, “Health and human rights are inextricably linked in the COVID-19 response,” (2020) BMJ Global Health 5:e003359, 1-7.
  • Brigit Toebes, Lisa Forman and Giulio Bartolini, “Towards human rights consistent responses to health emergencies: What is the overlap between core right to health obligations and core International Health Regulation capacities?” (2020) Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal 1-16 (50% drafting and conceptualization).
  • Lisa Forman, “Reflections on the evolution of the right to health in the shadow of COVID-19,” (2020) 22:1 Harvard Health and Human Rights Journal 375-378, https://www.hhrjournal.org/2020/04/the-evolution-of-the-right-to-health-in-the-shadow-of-covid-19/
  • Allyn L Taylor, Roojin Habibi, Gian Luca Burci, Stephanie Dagron, Mark Eccleston-Turner, Lawrence O Gostin, Benjamin Mason Meier, Alexandra Phelan, Pedro A Villarreal, Alicia Ely Yamin, Danwood Chirwa, Lisa Forman, Gorik Ooms, Sharifah Sekalala, Steven J Hoffman, “Solidarity in the Wake of COVID-19: Reimagining the International Health Regulations,” (2020) The Lancet 396: 82-83.
  • Roojin Habibi, Gian Luca Burci, Thana C de Campos, Danwood Chirwa, Margherita Cinà, Stéphanie Dagron, Mark Eccleston-Turner, Lisa Forman, Lawrence O Gostin, Benjamin Mason Meier, Stefania Negri, Gorik Ooms, Sharifah Sekalala, Allyn Taylor, Alicia Ely Yamin, *Steven J Hoffman, “Do not violate the International Health Regulations during the COVID-19 outbreak,” (2020) 395 The Lancet 664-666, published online 13 February 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30373-1.
  • Lisa Forman, “International human rights law and the social determinants of health,” in Solomon Benatar and Gillian Brock, eds., Global Health and Global Health Ethics (Cambridge University Press), in press.
  • Lisa Forman, Claire E. Brolan, and Kristi Heather Kenyon, “Global health, human rights, and the law,” (2019) The Lancet 394:30, 1987.
  • Katrina Perehudoff and Lisa Forman, “What constitutes ‘reasonable’ State action on core obligations? Considering a right to health framework toprovide essential medicines,” (2019) 11 Journal of Human Rights Practice 1-19.
  • Lisa Forman, Claire E. Brolan and Kristi Heather Kenyon, eds., Special Issue on the right to health and the social determinants of health, Harvard Journal of Health and Human Rights (2018) 20:2 Harvard Journal of Health and Human Rights 1-56.
  • Lisa Forman,“What do human rights bring to discussions of power and politics in health policy and systems?” (2017) Global Public Health DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2017.1405457.
  • Lisa Forman,“The global policy response to trade-related intellectual property rights and access to medicines in low and middle-income countries,” (2017) 31: 8 Maryland Journal of International Law 7-20.
  • Lisa Forman, Claudia Beiersmann, Claire E. Brolan, Martin McKee, Rachel Hammonds and Gorik Ooms, “What do core obligations under the right to health bring to universal health coverage?,” (2016) 18:2 Health and Human Rights Journal 23-34.
  • Lisa Forman, Luljeta Caraoshi, Audrey Chapman and Everaldo Lamprea, “Conceptualizing the ‘morality of the depths’: How should we define and implement core obligations under the right to health?” (2016) International Journal of Human Rights 20:4, 531-548.Conceptualising minimum core obligations under the right to health How should we define and implement the morality of the depths
  • Lisa Forman, “The ghost is the machine: How can we visibilize the unseen norms and power of global health? Comment on “Navigating between stealth advocacy and unconscious dogmatism: The challenge of researching the norms, politics and power of global health” (2015) 5:3 International Journal of Health Policy and Management 1-3.IJHPM31361456777800
Curriculum Vitae
Research areas
Health Law

Publications

SSRN Lisa Forman
Twitter
@lforman