Governments 'must include human rights in health policy'
Study says governments 'must include human rights in health policy'
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Wednesday, 10, Dec 2008 04:01
A new study has urged global governments to include legally binding right-to-health features in their health policies.
A special report published online today - Human Rights day and the 60-year anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - said governments must be held to account over their health systems' adherence to international human rights law.
The right to health, enshrined in the UDHR, is integral to subsequent human rights treaties but is frequently overlooked by health sectors around the world, the researchers found.
And though the majority of countries have ratified three major human rights treaties that include the right to health, only 56 have the right included in their constitution or statute book.
The US has not ratified the aforementioned treaties and the UK is not one of the 56 nations (though it was credited with having commissioned an assessment of the efficacy of a human rights approach to health and social care).
Published in the Lancet medical journal, the report urges the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the high commissioner for human rights to steward national governments' inclusion of right-to-health features in their constitution.
"Those with responsibilities for health systems are giving inadequate attention to the right-to-health analysis," writes study leader Paul Hunt, former United Nations special rapporteur for the right to health and professor of human rights at the University of Essex.
"Our main overarching recommendation is that all those with health-related responsibilities explicitly consider the right-to-health analysis and integrate this human right into their policies and practices with a view to strengthening health systems."
He added: "This project rests on the conviction that an equitable health system is a core social institution, no less than a fair court system or a democratic political system."
An accompanying editorial stressed that on the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, there is "no longer an excuse" for neglecting to include right-to-health requirements in national health policy.