Is There a Human Right to Private Health Care?

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aeyal Gross
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Special Rapporteur ◽  
International Level ◽  
Private Health Care ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
The Right

Recent years have seen an increase in the turn to rights discourse within the context of access to health and specifically health care. Developments took place at both the national and global levels, with a significant increase in right to health litigation around the world1 and developments at the international level, such as the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health and the adoption of a “General Comment” on the topic by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Some Comments on the Highest Attainable Standard of Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-140
Author(s):  
Gabriela Belova ◽  
Stanislav Pavlov
Keyword(s):  
Health Resources ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Special Rapporteur ◽  
Health It ◽  
Significant Development ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

AbstractThe last decades present a significant development of the economic, social and cultural rights and specifically, the right to health. Until 2000, the right to health has not been interpreted officially. By providing international standards, General Comment No.14 on the right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health has led to wider agreement that the right to health includes the social determinants of health such as access to various conditions, services, goods or facilities that are crucial for its implementation. The Reports of the Special Rapporteur on the right to health within the UN human rights system have contributed to the process of gaining the greater clarity about the right to health. It is obvious that achieving the highest attainable level of health depends on the principle of progressive implementation and the availability of the necessary health resources. The possibility individual complaints to be considered by the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights was introduced with the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, entered into force in 2013.

An Introduction to Global Health Delivery

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joia Mukherjee ◽  
Paul Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Treatment Access ◽  
The Road ◽  
Health Delivery ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
The Right

What has called so many young people to the field of global health is the passion to be a force for change, to work on the positive side of globalization, and to be part of a movement for human rights. This passion stems from the knowledge that the world is not OK. Impoverished people are suffering and dying from treatable diseases, while the wealthy live well into their 80s and 90s. These disparities exist between and within countries. COVID-19 has further demonstrated the need for global equity and our mutual interdependence. Yet the road to health equity is long. People living in countries and communities marred by slavery, colonialism, resource extraction, and neoliberal market policies have markedly less access to health care than the wealthy. Developing equitable health systems requires understanding the history and political economy of communities and countries and working to adequately resource health delivery. Equitable health care also requires strong advocacy for the right to health. In fact, the current era in global health was sparked by advocacy—the activist movement for AIDS treatment access, for the universality of the right to health and to a share of scientific advancement. The same advocacy is needed now as vaccines and treatments are developed for COVID-19. This book centers global health in principles of equity and social justice and positions global health as a field to fulfill the universal right to health.

scholarly journals THE HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH: A RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS AFTER 70 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

2018 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
MARÍA DALLI
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the first international text recognising universal human rights for all; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 recognises the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the right to health and medical care. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration, this article presents an overview of the main developments that have been made towards understanding the content and implications of the right to health, as well as an analysis of some specific advancements that aim to facilitate the enforcement thereof. These include: a) the implication of private entities as responsible for right to health obligations; b) the Universal Health Coverage goal, proposed by the World Health Organization and included as one of the Sustainable Development Goals; and c) the individual complaints mechanism introduced by the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted on the 10th December 2008, 60 years after the UDHR).

scholarly journals A Human Rights-Based Approach to Maternal and Child Health in Ethiopia: Does it Matter to Promote Health Equities?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Tekle Abegaz
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Maternal And Child Health ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Care Services ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Child Health

A rights-based approach to health helps to address health equity gaps. While several aspects of health as a human right exist, this chapter highlights particular indicators relevant to shaping a human rights approach to maternal and child health in Ethiopia. These indicators include recognition of the right to health; national health plan; accessible and acceptable health-care services; accountability; and a civil society that draws on the agency of vulnerable groups. Probing the extent to which the Ethiopian health system includes these features, this chapter identifies that the Federal Constitution does not adequately recognize maternal and child health as a human right. While identifying the positive developments of increased access to women’s and children’s health-care services in Ethiopia, the chapter also charts problems that limit further improvement, including health workers’ inability from making the right health-care decisions; extreme gaps in ensuring accountability; and a restrictive law that restrains social mobilization for a proper health rights movement. The chapter concludes by providing recommendations to the government of Ethiopia that addressing these problems using a rights-based approach offers an alternative pathway for the progressive realization of the right to health of women and children, and it thereby improves health inequities in the country.

scholarly journals Article 24: The Right to Health

2022 ◽  
pp. 205-216
Author(s):  
Christian Whalen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Preventive Health Care ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Access To Health Services ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Post Natal Care ◽  
The Right ◽  
Minimum Criteria ◽  
Basic Minimum

AbstractArticle 24 reflects the perspective of the drafters that the right to health cannot be understood in narrow bio-medical terms or limited to the delivery of health services. Rather, in its reference, for example, to food, water, sanitation, and environmental dangers, it recognises the wider social and economic factors that influence and impact on the child’s state of health. Thus, the text of Article 24 sets out: a broad right to health for all children combined with a right of access to health services a priority focus on measures to address infant and child mortality, the provision of primary health care, nutritious food and clean drinking water, pre-natal and post-natal care, and preventive health care, including family planning the need for effective measures to abolish traditional practices harmful to children’s health a specific obligation on States Parties to cooperate internationally towards the realisation of the child’s right to health everywhere, having particular regard to the needs of developing countries. The right to health is a prime example of the interelatedness of child rights as it is contingent upon and informed by the realization of so many other rights guaranteed to children under the convention. This chapter analyses the child’s right to health in relation to four essential attributes. The first attribute of the child’s right to the highest attainable standard of health emphasizes what an exacting standard this human rights norm contains. Taking a social determinants of health perspective the right entails not just access to health services but programmatic supports in sanitation, transportation, education and other fields to guarantee the enjoyment of health. The second attribute focuses on the Basic minimum criteria of the right to health as reflected in Article 24(2). A third attribute is the insistence upon child health accountability mechanisms using the Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and Quality Accountability Framework. Finally, given the wide discrepancies in enjoyment of children’s right to health across the globe, a fourth attribute focuses upon international cooperation to ensure equal access to the right to health.

A Right to Health Care

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavlos Eleftheriadis
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
The Right ◽  
International Conventions ◽  
Special Case

Do we have a legal and moral right to health care against others? There are international conventions and institutions that say emphatically yes, and they summarize this in the expression of “the right to health,” which is an established part of the international human rights canon. The International Covenant on Social and Economic Rights outlines this as “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,” but declarations such as this remain tragically unfulfilled. According to recent figures, roughly two billion people lack access to essential drugs or to primary health care. Millions are afflicted by infections and illnesses that are easily avoidable or treatable. In the developing world many children die or grow stunted and damaged for lack of available treatments. Tropical diseases receive little or no attention by the major pharmaceutical companies’ research departments. Is this a massive violation of the right to health? And if so, why does it attract so little attention? Is it because our supposed commitment to human rights and the rule of law is hypocritical and hollow? Or is it because the right to health is a special case of a right, so that these tragedies are no violation at all? Jennifer Prah Ruger summarized this puzzle when she wrote: “one would be hard pressed to find a more controversial or nebulous human right than the right to health.” In this essay I discuss three different theories of a right to health care. I conclude by offering my own reconstruction of one such theory.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-202
Author(s):  
Patricia Zavella
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Reproductive Justice ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Poor Women ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

This chapter reflects on how the movement for reproductive justice addresses the increased polarization of politics around immigration and reproductive rights in the wake of the election of President Trump. It argues that women of color in the movement for reproductive justice have a history of crafting a politics of inclusion that aims to empower those who are marginalized by intersecting systems of power, with a radical vision of citizenship. These activists insist that poor women of color have the human right to access to health care with dignity as well as the right to healthy lives and wellness.

scholarly journals LEGAL ASPECTS OF USING NATURAL RESOURCES FOR HEALTH AND RECREATIONAL PURPOSES TO ENSURE HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (11) ◽  
pp. 3077-3084
Author(s):  
Alla K. Sokolova ◽  
Maryna K. Cherkashyna
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
The Right

The aim: Is to conduct a comparative legal analysis of the use of natural resources for health and recreation purposes in Ukraine, the European Union, and other countries to improve the scientific theoretical basis of the legal regulation for the use, protection, and conservation of such natural resources. Materials and methods: The national and international legal instruments regulating the rights to health and the right to use natural resources for health and recreational purposes were examined by analyzing practices of foreign states in the field of these legal relations, in particular, the comparative-legal, complex, formal, and logical, structural and functional methods along with analytical and empirical research tools. Conclusions: The legislation of Ukraine does not fully disclose the concepts, features, classification of natural healing and recreational resources, and therefore many aspects of their use, protection, and conservation remain uncertain and unsecured provisions of regulations. The article features approaches to improving the current ecological legislation promoting proper legal regulation of using natural resources for health and recreational purposes, thereby creating the necessary conditions to ensure the right to health care.

Denying the Right to Health

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Illingworth ◽  
Wendy E. Parmet
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
The Status ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
The Right ◽  
Universal Health

Many nations claim to respect the right to health, which requires states to provide access to necessary health care without discrimination of any kind. Nevertheless, most states that purport to recognize the right to health discriminate against some classes of newcomers, especially unauthorized immigrants. This chapter reviews the status of immigrants’ right to health under international law and then turns to an examination of immigrants’ access to health insurance in Canada and the European Union. The chapter demonstrates that even in nations that are widely believed to have universal health care systems, many classes of immigrants are left without access to the means to pay for needed health care. As in the United States, these exclusions impact the health of newcomers and natives alike.

scholarly journals The human right to security in the implementation of the concept of the "right to health protection"

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oleкsandr SHEVCHUK ◽  
Nataliya MATYUKHINA ◽  
Oleкsandra BABAIEVA ◽  
Anatoliy DUDNIKOV ◽  
Olena VOLIANSKA
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health Protection ◽  
Healthcare Sector ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Right

Legal support of human security in the field of health care includes the guarantee, protection and protection of rights and freedoms in the field of health care, which is the main function, as well as the goal and duty of the state. This paper describes certain aspects of the legal regulation of the implementation of the "human right to security in the health sector" and the problems of its enforcement. The research methodology is based on a system of methods of the philosophical, general scientific and special scientific level. The main goal of this scientific article is to define the concept‚principles‚ types and directions of implementation of the “human right to safety” in the concept of “the right to health protection”. The general principles of the implementation of the “human right to security in the health sector” are disclosed. It is emphasized that the legal mechanism for the implementation of the “human right to security in the healthcare sector” is the activity of legal entities, lawmaking and law enforcement agencies, and the existing legal norms governing their activities in the healthcare sector. The investigated human right to safety should be understood as a complex of rights related to the protection of the patient's legitimate interests in the healthcare sector from unlawful encroachments and threats.. The author's understanding of the definition of "patients' right to safety". It is argued that human security in the field of health care belongs to the basic needs of a person - the implementation of this need is determined by the level of development of a country, its economic and cultural components, the level and quality of life of a person living in this country, an effective health care system. It is concluded that the main goal of legal ensuring human security in the healthcare sector is to create the minimum necessary (safe) conditions for the implementation of these rights and obligations when receiving medical services.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document