The United States was scheduled for its regular review of its human rights violations by the United Nations Human Rights Council on November 7, but it refused to cooperate. As part of the process, activists in the US submitted a shadow report last April called “The Rights to Life and Health: How financing affects the right to health care in the US.” Clearing the FOG speaks with Martha “Marti” Schmidt, a human rights expert and activist, about the findings in the shadow report, the legal basis supporting the human right to health care, the problems with the current healthcare system in the United States and what type of system would honor our right to health care. Schmidt also discusses successful healthcare systems in other countries and the importance of showing solidarity with countries that are targeted by the United States.
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Martha L. Schmidt holds law degrees from University of Washington (LL.M., Law and
Marine Affairs) and University of Wisconsin (J.D.) and a Master’s degree in International
Administration from the School for International Training. She is currently a Board
director of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, a member of the Task Force of the
Monique and Roland Weyl People’s Academy of International Law, and a co-chair of the
Human Rights Framework Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). For more than
a decade she has been involved with groups in the US working on the human right to
health, particularly as an educator and strategist.
Before “retirement”, she practiced labor rights, equal employment and juvenile law in
Washington and Illinois. Pro bono activities included chairing the World Peace Through
Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association several times, including leading a
successful effort for a WSBA resolution supporting US ratification of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child. She has served as NLG regional VP and co-chaired
subcommittees on Peace and Disarmament, the (occupied) Hawaiian Kingdom, and the
Task Force on the Americas. International solidarity activities have included criminal
case and electoral observing in Peru, El Salvador and Venezuela.
In addition to her legal career, she worked as director of an anti-nuclear organization,
union organizer, labor rights educator and adjunct faculty. At the University of
Washington and The Evergreen State College, she taught interdisciplinary arts and
sciences and graduate public policy students labor and employment policy, sociology of
social movements, global political economy, and human rights and public international
law.
