Health and Human Rights

The concepts of human rights and health are not alien to any nation that has endeavored to free itself of political oppression, sometimes at extremely high costs, while striving to provide medical services to its populace. Within free nations, however, the degree of individual freedom is extremely variable. At one extreme, there are countries in which individuals have very limited abilities to exercise their freedom; they may even be unaware of the basic human rights they have and from whom they can claim them. In states in which such situations prevail, structures to protect human rights are narrowly defined and inaccessible to most. At the other end of this continuum are nations whose citizens have knowledge and a high degree of enjoyment of their basic rights, with structures in place to intervene in, or at least monitor, cases where individual rights are violated. A majority of the world's developing countries fall at the lower end of this continuum and it will take international cooperation to improve this situation. The intricate relationship between health and human rights embraces not only civil and political rights but-perhaps first and foremost-the right to health. This right is relentlessly threatened by economic, geopolitical and social inequities. It takes an educated nation, or at least a nation with an adquate communications infrastructure, to get the information individuals need to articulate, exercise and enjoy the right to health

Environmental ethics · Human rights · Political science · Human Rights and Development · International Human Rights and Reproductive Law · Law · Philosophy · Torture, Ethics, and Law