What have Rights got to do with it? Evaluating ‘Human Rights’ as a practice within the Global Fund

In this article, we want to understand the relationship between states and global

health financing organizations and how they seek to advance human rights in their grant

programs. We therefore ask: to what extent can global financing institutions shape human

rights practices at the domestic level? The article uses the case study of the GFATM’s

experience of adopting human rights as an institutional norm and analyzes the implications

for the institution’s new role as a human rights actor within states. In particular, we argue

that the institutional design of the institution impacts on the ability of the GFATM to

substantively enhance human rights agendas within local health governance contexts.