HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES AND PUBLIC HEALTH
1. INTRODUCTION
Respect for human rights is a distinguishing characteristic of harm reduction. And it is widely
defined as a public health movement. Health law and public health law have both served
widely as health protection and promotion tools. Yet both remain limited in their effect and
scope. And they do not properly cover nor supply a systemic solution. A potential solution to
this deficiency can be found in the health care legal approach’s human rights issues.
The reframing of international human rights law and constitutional thinking and tools into a
cohesive approach to the preservation and advancement of personal and communal health is
the definition of human rights inpatient care. It applies human rights discourse and human
rights law to patient care settings. At the same time, it moves away from a narrow consumerist
view of health care delivery.
Policy makers should apply human rights to health care. Then, courts can act as instruments
of policy influencing to protect the rights of the most vulnerable.
2. THE RIGHT TO HEALTH
Buchanan, (2013) stated that the Rights relating to autonomy, information, education, food
and nutrition, association, equality, participation, and nondiscrimination are integral and
indivisible parts of the achievement of the highest attainable standard of health, just as the
enjoyment of the right to health is inseparable from all other rights whether they are
categorized as civil and political, economic, social, or cultural. Hunt, (2004) added that This
recognition is based on empirical observation and on a growing body of evidence that
establishes the impact that lack of fulfilment of any and all of these rights has on people’s
health status: Education, non-discrimination, food and nutrition epitomizing this relationship.
Conversely, ill-health constrains the fulfilment of all rights as the capacity of individuals to
claim and enjoy all their human rights depends on their physical, mental, and social well-
being.
, The right to health does not mean the right to be healthy as such, but the obligation on the
part of the government to create the conditions necessary for individuals to achieve their
optimal health status. In addition to the ICESCR, the right to health is further elaborated in
CERD ( Thornberry, 2016)
In May 2000, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
adopted a General Comment further clarifying the substance of government obligations
relating to the right to health. In addition to clarifying governmental responsibility for
policies, programs and practices impacting the underlying conditions necessary for health, it
sets out requirements related to the delivery of health services including their availability,
acceptability, accessibility, and quality(UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, 2000).
All international human rights treaties and conventions contain provisions relevant to health
as defined in the preamble of the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO),
repeated in many subsequent documents and currently adopted by the 191 WHO Member
States: Health is a ‘‘state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity.’’ The Constitution further stipulates that ‘‘The enjoyment
of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human
being without distinction of race, political belief, economic or social condition’’ (WHO,
2006).
3. HUMAN RIGHTS AS GOVERNMENTAL OBLIGATIONS
Human rights constitute a set of normative principles and standards which, as a philosophical
concept can be traced back to antiquity, with mounting interest among intellectuals and
political leaders since the seventeenth century (Tomushat, 2014). The atrocities perpetrated
during World War II gave rise, in 1948, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(Assembly, 1948) and later to a series of treaties and conventions that extended the
aspirational nature of the UDHR into instruments that would be binding on states under
international human rights law. Among these are the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR), both of which came into force in 1976.
