Right to health

The right to health is the economic, social, and cultural right to a universal minimum standard of health to which all individuals are entitled. The concept of a right to health has been enumerated in international agreements which include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. There is debate on the interpretation and application of the right to health due to considerations such as how health is defined, what minimum entitlements are encompassed in a right to health, and which institutions are responsible for ensuring a right to health.The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for:Article 12: The right to health is the economic, social, and cultural right to a universal minimum standard of health to which all individuals are entitled. The concept of a right to health has been enumerated in international agreements which include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. There is debate on the interpretation and application of the right to health due to considerations such as how health is defined, what minimum entitlements are encompassed in a right to health, and which institutions are responsible for ensuring a right to health. The preamble of the 1946 World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution defines health broadly as 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.' The Constitution defines the right to health as 'the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health,' and enumerates some principles of this right as healthy child development; equitable dissemination of medical knowledge and its benefits; and government-provided social measures to ensure adequate health. Frank P. Grad credits the WHO Constitution as 'claiming ... the full area of contemporary international public health,' establishing the right to health as a 'fundamental, inalienable human right' that governments cannot abridge, and are rather obligated to protect and uphold. The WHO Constitution, notably, marks the first formal demarcation of a right to health in international law. Article 25 of the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that '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 social services.' The Universal Declaration makes additional accommodations for security in case of physical debilitation or disability, and makes special mention of care given to those in motherhood or childhood. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is noted as the first international declaration of fundamental human rights, both freedoms and entitlements alike. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay writes that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 'enshrines a vision that requires taking all human rights—civil, political, economic, social, or cultural—as an indivisible and organic whole, inseparable and interdependent.' Likewise, Gruskin et al. contend that the interrelated nature of the rights expressed in the Universal Declaration establishes a 'responsibility extends beyond the provision of essential health services to tackling the determinants of health such as, provision of adequate education, housing, food, and favourable working conditions,' further stating that these provisions 'are human rights themselves and are necessary for health.' Health is briefly addressed in the United Nations' International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted in 1965 and entered into effect in 1969. The Convention calls upon States to 'Prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law,' and references under this provision 'The right to public health, medical care, social security and social services.' The United Nations further defines the right to health in Article 12 of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which states: In 2000, the United Nations' Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued General Comment No. 14, which addresses 'substantive issues arising in the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' with respect to Article 12 and 'the right to the highest attainable standard of health.' The General Comment provides more explicit, operational language on the freedoms and entitlements included under a right to health. The General Comment makes the direct clarification that 'the right to health is not to be understood as a right to be healthy.' Instead, the right to health is articulated as a set of both freedoms and entitlements which accommodate the individual's biological and social conditions as well as the State's available resources, both of which may preclude a right to be healthy for reasons beyond the influence or control of the State. Article 12 tasks the State with recognizing that each individual holds an inherent right to the best feasible standard of health, and itemizes (at least in part) the 'freedoms from' and 'entitlements to' that accompany such a right; however, it does not charge the State with ensuring that all individuals, in fact, are fully healthy, nor that all individuals have made full recognition of the rights and opportunities enumerated in the right to health.