Joseph Wong - Dissecting democracy  Nehal Bhuta - Justice for all  Jillian Clare Cohen - Pills and politics

Joseph Wong                                Nehal Bhuta                                Jillian Clare Cohen

Joseph Wong

Dissecting democracy

When a country undergoes democratic reform, what happens to state-controlled services like health care? Political scientist Joseph Wong has searched Asia for answers to this question.And what has the Canada Research Chair in Democratization,Health and Development found? “Countries like Taiwan and South Korea have bucked conventional wisdom on globalization, which tells us that democratization means de-legislation of these so-called quality-of-life policies.” His book,Healthy Democracies, expands on this phenomenon.

Wong isn’t finished with the region.Next,he’s looking at the emerging biotech sector in Taiwan,South Korea and Singapore, examining ways in which these countries are creating rather than copying technology. “In the past, innovation happened in Europe and the West and countries in Asia would copy the technology and do it cheaper and faster. Now, they’re creating their own.”Wong calls this phenomenon “life at the technological frontier” and wants to know what political and economic life is like there. “What’s it like for these countries which are creating as opposed to copying? How are they adapting in terms of public policy, and re-constituting firms, businesses and industrial associations?”

Closer to home, Wong is also director of the Asian Institute at U of T’s Munk Centre for International Studies, where about 100 researchers conduct interdisciplinary research on Asia. “We want to create an environment where someone working, for example, on industrial policy in Japan, can have a substantive conversation with someone working on Indian literature. It’s where you have these intellectual collisions that great things happen.” The Asian Institute organizes and sponsors more than 70 seminars, workshops and lectures a year.

“We’re at a really good moment in Asian Studies here at U of T.The top people working on Asia want to come here. That’s why I find it so appealing.”

– Anjali Baichwal

Nehal Bhuta

Justice for all

Say what you like about former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein,but Nehal Bhuta doesn’t believe he got a fair trial.

Bhuta, an expert in international criminal and humanitarian law who joined U of T’s Faculty of Law in January as an assistant professor,witnessed the trial of Hussein first-hand on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW). A report he co-authored on the trial has received widespread media coverage.

Hussein was on trial for crimes against humanity involving an incident that took place in 1982.After an assassination attempt on Hussein, suspects were tortured and many sent into internal exile. About 150 people were tried before a court and sentenced to death.

Bhuta says that there were a number of problems with Hussein’s trial, beginning with the court itself.

“Human Rights Watch had advocated for an International Criminal Tribunal (similar to the one used to try war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia) or a mixed court with international and Iraqi participation to ensure that basic legal standards were met. But the U.S.was opposed to that and used only Iraqi judges and prosecutors.

“The judgement reflects the fact that the court didn’t have the adequate level of international legal training. The Iraqi judge and lawyers had been insulated from international developments for 30 years. The result is a decision that is legally defective.”

The key problem, Bhuta says, is that the court never made a tangible connection between the crimes against humanity and Hussein. “And because of that gap, the court was forced to make findings that were never actually proven in court.”

Not only was Hussein unfairly tried and executed “but it was a missed opportunity. It wouldn’t have been hard to prove these crimes through an accepted international legal process. And it would have exposed the crimes that took place. Instead, they wound up with a trial tainted by unfairness.”

It’s an ironic position for HRW to take,as the group previously criticized the Iraqi regime under Hussein. “Human rights apply to everybody,” says Bhuta. “Justice is important and you have to get it right, no matter who is on trial.”

– Paul Fraumeni

Jillian Clare Cohen

Pills and politics

What's a political scientist doing in a place like this?

This is a sunny office in U of T’s Leslie L. Dan Faculty of Pharmacy building where Jillian Clare Cohen is putting her research on global drug access into practice.

“Political science and pharmaceutical policy go together perfectly: it’s all about power, interests and resource management,” says Cohen, an assistant professor of Pharmacy and Director of U of T’s Comparative Program on Health and Society.

Her first career took her around the world, conducting research on pharmaceutical policy for UNESCO,UNICEF, the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO). It exposed her to people just trying to get medicine. “One-third of the global population doesn’t have access to medicine.This is wrong. So I decided to channel my work into trying to do something about it.”

Cohen’s recent book, The Power of Pills: Social, Ethical and Legal Issues in Drug Development, Marketing and Pricing Policies, demonstrates how access to drugs is a multi-layered issue.One layer, for example, is intellectual property rights and drug access, an issue on which she is conducting research with Dr. James Orbinski, formerly of Doctors Without Borders and a senior fellow at U of T’s Munk Centre for International Studies.

She’s also focused on corruption in the global distribution of drugs — from the manufacture of counterfeit drugs to improper pricing — and has consulted for various governments on the subject. “There is a lot of corruption, especially in countries that are unable to regulate the sector,” she says. The WHO is using Cohen’s research to help understand and fight corruption in drug delivery. She has also been invited to be a member of the WHO Global Advisory Group on Good Governance in Medicines.

Now a mother of twin toddlers, Cohen stays closer to home and distills her hands-on experience through her students. “They are conducting research in a diverse range of countries and they’re excited and motivated to get results.”

– Anjali Baichwal