Health And Human Rights

Human rights are moral principles or norms for certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected in municipal and international law. They are commonly understood as inalienable, fundamental rights "to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being" and which are "inherent in all human beings",regardless of their age, ethnic origin, location, language, religion, ethnicity, or any other status. They are applicable everywhere and at every time in the sense of being universal, and they are egalitarian in the sense of being the same for everyone. They are regarded as requiring empathy and the rule of lawand imposing an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of others, and it is generally considered that they should not be taken away except as a result of due process based on specific circumstances.
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People's Health Rights
One of the most critical challenges facing India today is reduction of funds allocated for the health of its people. In fact, the State has discreetly withdrawn from the public health system in the country, handing over more and more services, treatment and medications to the corporates, making it impossible for those with low incomes to pay their way through. Espousing the WHO’s broad definition of health as, “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, the People’s Health Rights Initiative (PHRI) focuses on making the government invoke human rights enshrined in the Constitution of India and ensure the right to life and health through the use of law.

Issues Of Concern

  • Right to life
  • Right to health
  • Universal access to treatment
  • Free access to treatment for the poor and marginalized
  • Universal access to essential drugs
  • Right to information
  • Right to informed consent
  • Right of choice
  • Medical negligence
  • Reasonable care

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Key facts

  • The WHO Constitution enshrines “…the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right of every human being.”
  • The right to health includes access to timely, acceptable, and affordable health care of appropriate quality.
  • Yet, about 100 million people globally are pushed below the poverty line as a result of health care expenditure ever year.
    Vulnerable and marginalized groups in societies tend to bear an undue proportion of health problems.
  • Universal health coverage is a means to promote the right to health.

Introduction
“The right to the highest attainable standard of health” requires a set of social criteria that is conducive to the health of all people, including the availability of health services, safe working conditions, adequate housing and nutritious foods. Achieving the right to health is closely related to that of other human rights, including the right to food, housing, work, education, non-discrimination, access to information, and participation.

The right to health includes both freedoms and entitlements.

Freedoms include the right to control one’s health and body (e.g. sexual and reproductive rights) and to be free from interference (e.g. free from torture and from non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation).

Entitlements include the right to a system of health protection that gives everyone an equal opportunity to enjoy the highest attainable level of health.

Health policies and programmes have the ability to either promote or violate human rights, including the right to health, depending on the way they are designed or implemented. Taking steps to respect and protect human rights upholds the health sector’s responsibility to address everyone’s health.
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Video links

WHO: Health and human rights - interview with Professor Paul Hunt

Global Health and Human Rights

HealthRight International - Health is a Human Right


 

 

 

 

 

 


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