scholarly journals Chile’s New Constitution: What Right to Health?

Author(s):  
Eduardo Arenas Catalán

AbstractChile is a country crossed by economic inequalities. The constitutional process has opened a space to problematize the institutions that reproduce these inequalities. This paper joins into this discussion arguing that a nuanced focus on the right of access to healthcare under international law would fit the future Constitution better. I label this focus ‘nuanced’, in reaction to international law’s limited ability to address justice claims located at the core of Chile’s social and constitutional discontent. I argue that the right to health under international law is unlikely to address the problem of unequal enjoyment of healthcare services. The paper argues that a better approach would be to integrate a solidaristic understanding to this human right. The added value of solidarity translates in a more substantive conceptualization of social rights where they become at the service of the liberty of all. Through a critical discussion about the inception of the right to health under Chile’s current Constitution, the paper shows the limitations of today’s understanding and the underlying reasons for the transformation it proposes.

JAHR ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-85
Author(s):  
Sonja Trgovčić

The concept of international solidarity has been developing since the second half of the 20th century within the scope of international charters, conventions and declarations of protection of human rights. It has earned the qualities of the principle of international law and has been given a meaning of the key human right which binds together human rights of the first, second and third generation. With this work the author provides an explanation and gives a postulate to the legal nature of international solidarity and its legal feasibility. Furthermore, the author speaks about international cooperation, shared responsibility and the prevention of factors of climate change, hunger, inadequate health care, polarity in the economic development, and achieving equality. The author dedicates special attention to the right to health, its aspects and connections with international solidarity in protection of vulnerable groups.


2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 1210-1259
Author(s):  
Branko Rakić

In international human rights law established after World War Two, one of cultural rights that has been traditionally most neglected out of five categories of human rights (civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights), is the right to participation in cultural life, while its segment, by the nature of things, is also the right of access to and enjoyment of cultural heritage. Although international human rights law thus establishes the basis for treating the right of access to and enjoyment of cultural heritage as a human right, international acts dealing with the matters of cultural heritage protection have had a long-prevailing approach in which cultural goods were protected because of their inherent value. It was only recently, with the emerging needs and interests in respect of the safeguarding of cultural diversity and protection of intangible cultural heritage, that the emphasis began to be placed on the relationship, including the legal one, between cultural heritage and human communities, groups and individuals with a special subjective attitude towards it. That is how the human-rights based system of cultural heritage protection was gradually established and the segment of international law dealing with human rights was brought closer to the segment dealing with cultural heritage. In order to consider a right as a human right, apart from the will of law-makers to be like that, it also requires the existence of certain values which constitute the basis for it and which should be safeguarded through the protection of that human right. An understanding deriving from a series of international legal acts and being widespread in theory is that, when it comes to cultural rights, including the right of access to and enjoyment of cultural heritage, such basis is constituted by identity, first of all cultural identity, and human dignity. Therefore, although the foundation is laid for the right of access to and enjoyment of cultural heritage to be treated as a human right, it is necessary to clarify and elaborate, at the legal level, a number of questions which should ensure effective enjoyment of this right. The task is in the hands of states, either as participants in the adoption of international law acts or as national law-makers, so the question remains open as to the nature of their attitude to further development of the human-rights based system of cultural heritage protection.


Author(s):  
Luis Henrique Almeida Castro ◽  
Cristiane Martins Viegas de Oliveira ◽  
Diego Bezerra de Souza ◽  
Geanlucas Mendes Monteiro ◽  
Gildiney Penaves de Alencar ◽  
...  

The consecration of the right to physical and mental integrity at the time of the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1946 and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN) in 1948 established the human right of access to health. Conversely, the practical guarantee of this right has gone through many nuances since then, so that today the process of its implementation is closely related to the political, historical and social aspects of each country, demanding from the administrative power an interdisciplinary look for this issue. The problem that involves this conjuncture drives the researchers of this field to question themselves: what is the role of the State in this right? What is the performance of health professionals in fact? Is it possible to achieve the universality of human rights in an economically and culturally globalized world? In the light of the above, this narrative review aimed to collect in the literature the scenarios that permeate this reality providing tacit examples of how the human right to health is shaped according to the conjunctures of insertion of each community that tries to implement it


Author(s):  
Devi Triasari

Sanitation is a basic human right which shows that someone is dignified and deserves to be respected as a human being. The international community has recognized the importance of this right. However, this right has not been explicitly recognized. This is because the legal status of the right to sanitation is unclear. The right to sanitation is derived from the "right to health" and "right to a decent standard of living". The results concluded that the fact that Indonesia is the 4th country with the largest population in the world puts Indonesia in the top 10 of the category of "country with the longest queue order of toilets" and "the country with the number of defecating in open area". International law which is often criticized for its weak enforcement in reality has been able to respond to the issue of the right to sanitation in Indonesia, mainly through 3 main mechanisms, namely reporting, country missions, and cooperation with civil Societies and NGOS. However, there are still some challenges from the three international human rights law capacities. By improving this capacity, his expectation of Goal 6 on sanitation rights can be realized by 2030.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-93
Author(s):  
Gustav Muller

In this article an attempt is made to put forward a convincing case for giving substantive content to the right of access to adequate housing and looks towards relevant international law elaborations on the meaning of this right as contained in the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It does so while being aware of the Constitutional Court’s prior rejection of an international law-based minimum core interpretation of the right and opting, instead, for the so-called model of reasonableness breview. Given that the court has so expressly taken and stuck to this stance, it is argued in the article that an international law-based substantive interpretation of the right is possible – given that South Africa has recently ratified the ICESCR – and that it is preferable given the shortfalls of the model of reasonableness review. The article further highlights what difference the preferred reading of section 26(1) would make as to how courts ‘interpret’ reasonableness, that is, how courts review compliance with section 26 at present if ‘adequate’ housing is understood as having security of tenure and access to basic municipal services; is affordable, habitable and accessible; is located in close proximity to social facilities; and is culturally adequate.


Author(s):  
Gillian MacNaughton ◽  
Mariah McGill

For over two decades, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has taken a leading role in promoting human rights globally by building the capacity of people to claim their rights and governments to fulfill their obligations. This chapter examines the extent to which the right to health has evolved in the work of the OHCHR since 1994, drawing on archival records of OHCHR publications and initiatives, as well as interviews with OHCHR staff and external experts on the right to health. Analyzing this history, the chapter then points to factors that have facilitated or inhibited the mainstreaming of the right to health within the OHCHR, including (1) an increasing acceptance of economic and social rights as real human rights, (2) right-to-health champions among the leadership, (3) limited capacity and resources, and (4) challenges in moving beyond conceptualization to implementation of the right to health.


Author(s):  
Lawrence O. Gostin ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier

This chapter introduces the foundational importance of human rights for global health, providing a theoretical basis for the edited volume by laying out the role of human rights under international law as a normative basis for public health. By addressing public health harms as human rights violations, international law has offered global standards by which to frame government responsibilities and evaluate health practices, providing legal accountability in global health policy. The authors trace the historical foundations for understanding the development of human rights and the role of human rights in protecting and promoting health since the end of World War II and the birth of the United Nations. Examining the development of human rights under international law, the authors introduce the right to health as an encompassing right to health care and underlying determinants of health, exploring this right alongside other “health-related human rights.”


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