Chapter 14. Health and Human Rights in Latin America, and Beyond: A Lawyer’s Experience with Public Health Internationalism

2019 ◽  
pp. 238-253
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Health And Human Rights

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 8 Justiciability of Human Rights for Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flood Colleen M ◽  
Thomas Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines both the power and limitations of litigation as a means of facilitating accountability for the advancement of public health. While almost half of the world’s constitutions now contain a justiciable right to health, the impact of litigation has been mixed. Judicial accountability has, in some cases, advanced state obligations to realize the highest attainable standard of health, but in other cases, litigation has threatened the solidarity undergirding public health systems. There is significant country-to-country variation in interpreting health-related human rights, as well as differing views of the proper role of courts in interpreting and enforcing these rights. Surveying regional human rights systems and national judicial efforts to address health and human rights, it is necessary to analyze how courts have approached—and how they should approach—litigation of the right to health and health-related human rights to improve health for all.

Co-Opting the Health and Human Rights Movement

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Jacobson ◽  
Soheil Soliman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Health Response ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
Broad Public Health

Public health is concerned with how to improve the population’s health. At times, though, actions to improve the community’s health may collide with individual civil rights. For example, a public health response to a bioterrorism attack, such as smallpox, may require relaxing an individual’s due process protections to prevent the smallpox from spreading. This tension lies at the heart of public health policy. It also must be considered in discussing the concept of human rights in health.Proponents of incorporating the concept of human rights in health emphasize the importance of both individual rights and collective rights. They argue that observing human rights is not only consistent with broad public health goals, but necessary to their attainment. To many human rights advocates, the concept is not limited to protecting against governmental intrusion. Accordingly, they emphasize the government’s obligation to promote attainment of human rights by, for instance, providing adequate health care.

scholarly journals Global Justice and Human Rights: Health and Human Rights in Practice

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Tarantola
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Global Response ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Specificity ◽  
Natural Law Theory ◽  
Key Dimensions

The origin and justification of human rights, whether anchored in biological theory, natural law theory, or interests theory, as well as their cultural specificity and actual value as international legal instruments are subject to ongoing lively debates. As theoretical and rhetorical discourses challenge and enrich current understanding of the value of human rights and their relevance to democratic governance, they have found their way into public health in recent decades and play today an increasing role in the shaping of health policies, programs and practice. Human rights define the obligations of states to their people and towards each other, create grounds for governmental accountability and inspire recognition of, and action on, factors influencing people’s attainment of the highest possible standard of health. This article highlights the evolution that has brought health and human rights together in mutually reinforcing ways. It draws from the experience gained in the global response to HIV/AIDS, summarizes key dimensions of public health and of human rights and suggests a manner in which these dimensions intersect in a framework for analysis and action.

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