Respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human right to health.

Journal: International journal for equity in health

Volume: 21

Issue: 1

Year of Publication: 2022

Affiliated Institutions:  Makerere University Faculty of Law: Makerere University School of Law, Kampala, Uganda. znampewo@law.mak.ac.ug. Makerere University Faculty of Law: Makerere University School of Law, Kampala, Uganda.

Abstract summary 

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.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.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 enforce the right to health.The duty to respect, protect, fulfil and even remedy the right to health, will often be meaningless in practice without a clear identification of the necessary duty bearers to enforce them. The law is the starting point for this to not only enshrine this right as a legally enforceable one but also to clearly identify duty bearers. Without this, the human right to health as outlined under international and regional human rights law generates an implausible, or even impossible, profusion of duties. There remains much work still to be done especially on the moral and legal fronts in order to fully guarantee this right.Not applicable Our work does not report results of a health care intervention on human participants. Registration is therefore not applicable.

Authors & Co-authors:  Nampewo Zahara Z Mike Jennifer Heaven JH Wolff Jonathan J

Study Outcome 

Source Link: Visit source

Statistics
Citations :  UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), General Comment No. 14: The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12 of the Covenant), 11 August 2000, E/C.12/2000/4). Available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4538838d0.html. Accessed 28 Feb 2022.
Authors :  3
Identifiers
Doi : 36
SSN : 1475-9276
Study Population
Male,Female
Mesh Terms
Delivery of Health Care
Other Terms
Fulfil;Human right to health;Implementation;Protect;Respect
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Country of Study
Publication Country
England