NURS1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Ebola Virus Cases In The United States, Médecins Sans Frontières, Tonsillitis
Topic 10: Human Rights and Health
Human Rights: Rights held to be justifiably belonging to any person
Said to be:
Due to our ‘humanness’
universal (all humans have them)
Inalienable (cannot be taken away)
Is a moral or legal claim
Is a relationship: if an individual or group claims a HR, another individual or group needs to
uphold or protect that HR
Rights are ‘Negative’ and ‘Positive’
‘negative’ rights – require states not to interfere in the affairs of their citizens (e.g. privacy,
freedom of expression, thought, and religion, freedom of movement)
‘positive’ rights – require states to actively implement measures to secure these rights (e.g.
right to a clean environment, rights to education, health)
Many Social Determinants of Health fall into the ‘positive’ rights category because
there is an associated cost to governments (i.e. improve housing)
Treaties with positive rights are less likely to be signed because countries are
worried about having to meet their obligations
Role of Governments
States (meaning country governments) are responsible for protecting and upholding
the human rights of people living in their territories
States need to sign and then ratify treaties
States must then implement the treaty via domestic law
Some countries sign international treaties, but do not ratify or implement them
rights treaties are moral not legal agreements, but increasingly they are seen as
‘customary international law’ and therefore legally binding
Countries report to the UN on their treaty obligations
A right to health?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) Article 25:
”Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well‐ being of
himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary
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social services ... and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
Despite this statement in the UDHR, international rights treaties talk more about the right to
health care, than a right to health
Health Rights in Conventions
The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR), 1966 specifically names
health‐related rights
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognise the right of everyone to the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present covenant to achieve the
full realisation of this right shall include those necessary for:
a. The provision of or the reduction of the stillbirth rate and of infant mortality
and for the healthy development of the child
b. The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene
c. The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational
and other diseases
d. The creation of conditions which should assure to all, medical services and
medical attention in the event of sickness.
Human Rights and Health – 4 Challenges
Challenge 1: Rights are interconnected – securing one relies on securing others
oe.g. the right to health relies on the right to food
Challenge 2 ‐ Are rights are culturally informed or universal?
oThis is a complex debate, but one example would be the right of parents to
physically discipline (‘smack’ or ‘spank’) their children, as part of a cultural tradition
of parenting and respect vs the child’s right to physical safety
Challenge 3: Sometimes rights contradict each other
oThe rights of parents and the rights of the child in making health decisions such as to
stop treatment vs the child’s right to make decisions about her/his body
Challenge 4 ‐ Rights can be limited at times
oLimitations on the right to liberty can be placed when epidemics occur. This
happened with: SARS, Antibiotic‐ resistant TB, Swine flu, Bird flu, HIV, STIs
Human Rights and Public Health
Overall, human rights may benefit work in the area of public health by providing
A tool to enhance health outcomes through using a human rights approach to
designing, implementing and evaluating health policies and programmes;
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Document Summary
Human rights: rights held to be justifiably belonging to any person. Due to our humanness" universal (all humans have them) Is a relationship: if an individual or group claims a hr, another individual or group needs to uphold or protect that hr. Negative" rights require states not to interfere in the affairs of their citizens (e. g. privacy, freedom of expression, thought, and religion, freedom of movement) Positive" rights require states to actively implement measures to secure these rights (e. g. right to a clean environment, rights to education, health) Many social determinants of health fall into the positive" rights category because there is an associated cost to governments (i. e. improve housing) Treaties with positive rights are less likely to be signed because countries are worried about having to meet their obligations. States (meaning country governments) are responsible for protecting and upholding the human rights of people living in their territories. States need to sign and then ratify treaties.
