The human right to what?
A study published in The Lancet recently has shown there is no consistent correlation between ratification of human rights treaties and a change in health status or social outcomes.
This struck me as odd, given that you would think a country which ratifies a treaty would be more likely to comply with its treaty obligations (in this case, human rights) and integrate these into its laws and policies. Obviously there is a role for Governments in promoting the right to health through legislation, allocation of resources and devising health programmes. There is also a role for lawyers in using treaty obligations to argue for the human right to health (such as the right to essential medicine) and a role for civil society “to change health policy and programes…through advocacy and involvement of international partners”*.
However, experts agree that discourse and debate on what constitutes the human right to health is something which must be had. A 2002 meeting on Advancing The Dialogue on Health and Human Rights also states that this should involve an interdisciplinary group of economists, development practitioners, public health professionals and epidemiologists.
It is clear that for the human right to health to be understood on a level playing field with other human rights, such as the right to freedom of expression, we must all be involved, and not just in terms of thinking about how it should be clarified. Those of us working in health should look around us, see what others like the WHO are doing, what guidance is already out there, engage others in the debate, raise awareness, think about how the right impacts on health programmes or health services and integrate this thinking and these tools into our work.
We need to consider the human right to health when designing health programmes and communication strategies so that slowly but surely people around the world, whether it is a nurse working in a community health centre in Uganda, or a patient in a hospital in the United Kingdom start claiming the right to the health - the right to the highest attainable standard of health.
What do you think?
* http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0140673609602312
Tags: global health, right to health
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