Public health advocates often push for new laws or stronger implementation of existing policies. But without a clear understanding of legal frameworks, those efforts can fall short — leaving gaps in enforcement or policies that never take full effect.
The Legal Advocacy Action Guide, launched by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, or GHAI, this month, seeks to address that gap. Designed as a companion to their Advocacy Action Guide, the new resource offers practical ways to integrate legal strategies into public health advocacy.
“Lawyers are an essential partner in the advocacy arc,” said Kate Konopka, GHAI’s legal director. “The guide is written in an accessible manner to flag relevant steps and considerations for non-lawyers as well as lawyers as they collaborate on strategies to advance and protect public health policies and hold health-harming industries accountable.”
The Legal Advocacy Action Guide is designed to help advocates understand how to use legal strategies to advance health policy goals — and how to navigate them effectively. Highlighting step-by-step actions across four components — analyze, draft, litigate, and assess — the guide outlines how to analyze the legal and political context of a given jurisdiction to identify feasible legal strategies; develop robust, evidence-based laws and regulations; and deploy strategic litigation to advance and protect public health.
The new guide provides step-by-step approaches to primary legal strategies, including legal landscaping, law drafting, and strategic litigation.
In partnership with GHAI, Devex reviewed key takeaways. Here are four ways advocates can strengthen their campaigns through legal advocacy.
Map the legal terrain
The first step is understanding where you’re starting from. What laws already exist? What is the political context? Where are the gaps? A thorough legal analysis provides the foundation for choosing the most effective and feasible strategies to advance public health goals.
This involves not just understanding relevant domestic and international laws, but also mapping out key stakeholders to identify critical allies with decision-making power. Likewise, it’s essential to identify barriers, analyze past reform efforts and opposition tactics, and define a legal strategy that can adapt over time.
Legal structures are central to achieving public health goals. Consider which legal mechanisms might help uncover critical information or expose conflicts of interest. For example, in Colombia, GHAI partner Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo, or CAJAR, used the country’s ‘Freedom of Information’ law to uncover that lawmakers who delayed food policy implementation had received campaign donations from affected industries. CAJAR used this information to reveal a gap in Colombia’s conflict of interest law that allowed this to happen and to successfully challenge that loophole in litigation.
Lawyers should be deployed to translate research and evidence into laws and regulations; to navigate rules for access to enforcement bodies, courts, and information; and to apply legal precedents and procedural rules.
Turn policy goals into strong legal drafts
Once the legal landscape is defined, the next step is translating public health objectives into constitutionally sound laws and regulations that can withstand industry interference, legal scrutiny, and trade disputes.
But what makes a law effective, not just appealing on paper? It’s about context, clarity, and inclusion. You have to choose the right instrument — keeping in mind that sometimes a regulation is more suitable than legislation, depending on the country and whether your cause has more champions in the legislative or executive branch of government. Strong laws also use clear, plain language to avoid misinterpretation.
Just as important is making sure that the law is equitable and benefits marginalized groups and communities. That means learning from other jurisdictions and involving diverse stakeholders from the start.
Don’t shy away from legal action
Strategic litigation — the targeted use of legal action (the power of the courts and other tribunals) to drive broader policy change — offers advocates a powerful way to compel government action and hold health-harming industries accountable.
Advocates and civil society organizations should not be afraid of litigation. It is a powerful tool in the toolbox to defend and advance public health policies, and the primary way to hold health-harming industries accountable.
Litigation can be defensive — such as fending off lawsuits from industry. However, it can also be proactive, such as suing governments for failing to enact legally mandated health policies or suing industry for deceptively marketing unhealthy products.
For example, in India, advocates used consumer protection law to challenge misleading health claims on sugary products marketed to children. By filing complaints under the Consumer Protection Act and leveraging individual consumers as plaintiffs, they called for the removal of deceptive labels and stronger food labeling regulations.
When advocates are pushing for health promotion policies, industry often takes legal action against government departments to stall policies or to silence civil society organizations’ campaigns. In those cases, civil society may need to fight back in court — or strategically initiate litigation themselves.
The guide has tried to break down strategic litigation in a way that advocates won’t feel threatened or scared when the conversation comes up.
Monitor, adapt, and respond as needed
Legal advocacy doesn’t end when a law is passed or a case is won. It’s an ongoing process that requires regular assessment to remain effective amid changing political, legal, and social conditions.
In Argentina, for example, advocates helped pass a landmark healthy food promotion law under Alberto Fernández’s administration. But when a new government took office, progress stalled, civil society organizations were cut out of policy discussions, and new regulations were issued that weakened labeling and marketing requirements. Advocates responded by turning to litigation to protect the law’s core provisions and hold authorities accountable.
Continuous monitoring allows advocates to identify new risks, reassess priorities, and respond quickly to shifts in government leadership or enforcement practices.
For more insights and resources, download the four-step Legal Advocacy Action Guide from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator.
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