Yes / Laying claim to highest attainable standard of health is a human right. Support for this
right is provided by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations
[UN], 1948) and a small number of legally binding international treaties. Among the
most important of these for health are the International Covenant on Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (UN, 1966a) and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC) (UN, 1989). Both these human rights treaties are legally binding for those
countries that have ratified them. The ICESCR, in particular, articulates a comprehensive
view of the obligations of state members of the United Nations (UN) to respect, protect
and fulfil the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and
mental health – known as ‘the right to health’. It provides for both freedoms, such as
the right to be free from non-consensual and uninformed medical treatment, medical
experimentation, or forced HIV testing, as well as entitlements. These entitlements
include the right to a system of protection on an equal basis for all, a system of prevention,
treatments and control of disease, access to essential medicines, and services for sexual
and reproductive health; and access to information and education about health for
everyone. The Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ECSCR) monitors
compliance with these provisions. Most states have ratified the ICESCR, and all but two
(Somalia and the US) have ratified the CRC.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/16533 |
| Date | 25 February 2016 |
| Creators | Solas, John |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book chapter, Accepted Manuscript |
| Rights | (c) 2016 OUP. Full-text reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. |
| Relation | https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inclusive-practice-for-health-professionals-9780195593952?q=9780195593952&lang=en&cc=gb |
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