Right to health

Background Human rights are best protected, promoted and guaranteed when they can compel binding and enforceability duty. One prominent criticism of category of human rights which includes the human right to health is that it is difficult, to assign the duties that correspond to these rights, because of stark disparity in how the main duty bearers approach their duties. Methods This paper adopts a doctrinal approach to examine and evaluate the duties to the right to health. The method in this study entails a detailed literature search to systematically evaluate the legal implications, regulations, arguments and policy regarding the nature of the obligation to the right to health. This study also engages with normative and philosophical aspects of human rights. Results This paper posits that human rights protect against common, serious, and remediable threats and risks, and ensure that there are remedies from governments and third parties. However, it is difficult to compel duties especially in regard to the right to health. First it is not easy to achieve a uniform standard for duty bearers implied by the words ‘highest attainable physical and mental health.’ Theorists discussed in the paper outline views of what this could mean, from serious to common health concerns. Second, the right to health is not a legally established right in many jurisdictions, making it difficult to enforce. This paper outlines different layers of state and non-state legal duty bearers to enf...

“[The right to health is] an inclusive right extending not only to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health-related education and information …” – Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14 Introduction to Health and Human Rights Resources Key Terms The Right to Health Legal Basis for the Right to Health The right to health is widely recognized in international human rights law. Below is a chart of the international and regional human rights instruments expressly recognizing the right to health: Human Rights Instrument Right to Health Provision Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 25 International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights Article 12 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Article 5 (d)(iv) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Article 11.1(f) and 12 Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 24 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 25 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Article 16 European Social Charter Article 11 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man Article XI Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social a...

Key facts • The WHO Constitution (1946) envisages “…the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right of every human being.” • Acknowledging health as a human right recognizes a legal obligation on states to ensure access to timely, acceptable, and affordable health care. • A state's obligation to support the right to health – including through the allocation of “maximum available resources” to progressively realize this goal - is reviewed through various international human rights mechanisms. • A rights-based approach to health requires that health policy and programmes prioritize the needs of those furthest behind first towards greater equity, a principle that has been echoed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Universal Health Coverage. (1) • The right to health must be enjoyed without discrimination on the grounds of race, age, ethnicity or any other factor. Non-discrimination and equality requires states to take steps to redress any discriminatory law, practice or policy. • Another feature of rights-based approaches is meaningful participation. Participation means ensuring that national stakeholders – including non-state actors such as non-governmental organizations – are meaningfully involved in all phases of programming: assessment, analysis, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. “The right to the highest attainable standard of health” implies a clear set of legal obligations on states to ensure appropriate conditions for...

Jacqueline Bhabha is Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also Director of Research at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights and Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer at the Harvard Law School, Harvard University, the United States of America. Professor Bhabha is University Adviser on Human Rights Education. December 2016, No. 4 Vol. LIII, Human Rights Anniversaries are useful occasions for taking stock. The fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the two implementing covenants of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), both adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966—is one such occasion. Whereas the Universal Declaration was aspirational, a statement of collective intent to build a better world after the devastation wreaked by “barbarous acts [that] ... outraged the conscience of mankind”, 1the Covenants were intended to serve as tools to promote the implementation of the rights they articulated. This ambitious, transformative goal explains the delay in moving from the Declaration to the Covenants: eighteen years were needed to garner sufficient agreement to proceed and to devise a framework that catered to the bipolar world order that had taken shape. Instead of a unitary implementing document following the structure of the Dec...

Abstract Health equity in the United States requires elimination of differentials in access to health services according to race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, comorbidity, or ability. To achieve health equity, governments can use a variety of tools, including civil rights legislation and constitutional jurisprudence. In the United States, 2 such examples are the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. While both have the capacity to reduce health disparities, in practice, neither has achieved its full potential because of how the judicial branch has interpreted and allowed these 2 laws to be enforced. How courts adjudicate health-related cases, especially those in which civil rights or other human rights legislation are at stake, is key to the successful promotion of legislative and jurisprudential approaches to motivating health equity and realizing justice for all. What Is Health Equity? Health equity has been widely defined as an “absence of socially unjust or unfair health disparities.” 1 Equity is different than equality. While both equity and equality focus on notions of fairness, equality emphasizes giving people “the same resources or opportunities” while equity “recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.” 2 Health equity in particular “focuses attention on the distribution of resources and other pro...

Where Is My Right To Health? As members of the human society, we are conscious about our health and the health of those we care about. We consider health to be an essential life asset because ill health can prevent us from participating in community activities and attending to our familial responsibilities. Internationally, health is considered a human right irrespective of age, gender, culture or religion and it has been made mandatory for all states to recognize the right to health as a fundamental right and ensure healthy standards of living for citizens. Fundamental rights are highly protected rights which are meant to be guaranteed by every state to persons living within that state. Mostly, these rights have constitutional protection and higher courts may possess exclusive jurisdiction to take sou moto action against the infringement of such rights. The Constitution of World Health Organization defines health in the following words: “… state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Many conventions and international documents on human rights also contain the right to health in one way or another. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 states the following: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family…” The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) incorporates the definition of hea...

• العربية • Azərbaycanca • বাংলা • Bikol Central • Cymraeg • Dagbanli • Dansk • Ελληνικά • Español • Euskara • فارسی • Français • Galego • 한국어 • Hausa • Հայերեն • Igbo • עברית • ಕನ್ನಡ • Kiswahili • മലയാളം • ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯂꯣꯟ • پنجابی • Português • Русский • Simple English • தமிழ் • Татарча / tatarça • ไทย • Тоҷикӣ • Twi • Українська • اردو • 中文 The right to health is the [ citation needed] The concept of a right to health has been enumerated in international agreements which include the The Definition [ ] Constitution of the World Health Organization (1946) [ ] The Frank P. Grad credits the WHO Constitution as "claiming ... the full area of contemporary international public health," establishing the right to health as a "fundamental, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) [ ] Article 25 of the United Nations' 1948 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is noted as the first international declaration of fundamental human rights, both freedoms and entitlements alike. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) [ ] Health is briefly addressed in the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) [ ] Neither signed nor ratified The United Nations further defines the right to health in Article 12 of the 1966 The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical a...

Tips and information • All people have a right to health • No matter where people live, they should be able to get quality health care when they need it and that they can afford • People also need other things to stay healthy, such as safe, drinkable water and sanitation, food and housing • People also need access to information and education on health • Some people are unable to get information, goods and services for health • When people's health needs are not met, they have a right to raise the issue and expect action to be taken • The right to health is connected to many of the Sustainable Development Goals and linked to other human rights, such as: • Rights of the child • Right to education • Rights to adequate food and to safe drinking water