scholarly journals Evidence ν. rights-based decision making for nutrition

2003 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 553-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Shrimpton

The need for an evidence base for human nutrition action is analysed in the context of human rights. Over the last 50 years the twin tracks of development, economical needs based and normative rights based, have come progressively closer in terms of goals and objectives, even if they do maintain different orientations and origins. The international human rights machinery is described, together with those parts that are of relevance to the right to food and nutrition. The role of the State in respecting, protecting and facilitating these rights is further described. The evidence base for the benefit of nutrition interventions during the fetal and infant period to the health and well-being of populations throughout life's course is briefly reviewed, and reasons why such a large body of evidence has not been acted upon are discussed. The power of nutrition is in prevention more than cure, and the prevention of nutritional deficiency is best suited to radical population-wide strategies rather than high-risk strategies targeted at individuals. The population-wide distribution of benefits of nutrition is in congruence with universality of human rights. In the UK much remains to be done to ensure that food and nutrition rights are realised, especially during the critical period of fetal and infant growth. What role the Nutrition Society might play in the realisation of these rights, including the creation of a robust evidence base for nutrition action, is further discussed.

Author(s):  
Ian Cummins ◽  
Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano

AbstractThis paper presents a comparative analysis of two reports by the UN Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, one for Spain and one for the UK. In both countries, austerity policies were introduced following the banking crisis of 2008. The UN Rapporteur reports highlight the damage that was done by welfare retrenchment. In particular, the reports document the impact of austerity on the most vulnerable individuals and communities. The paper uses Somers' (2008) conceptual model of citizenship as the basis for a comparative analysis of two reports. Somers' (2008) model of citizenship is a triadic one which sees the state, market and civil society as competing elements. Each one can serve to regulate and limit the influence or excesses of the other two. Somers argues that neoliberalism has seen the dominance of the market at the expense of the role of the state and the institutions of civil society. Austerity policies saw the market dominating. Having examined the context of the two reports and their conclusions, the paper discussed the implications for individual social workers’ practice and the role of social work as a profession in tackling poverty and marginalisation.


Author(s):  
Ann Marie Gray

This chapter explores the relationship between human rights and health and social care. It begins by setting out the main international mechanisms, at UN, EU and ECHR levels, and the obligations they place on governments. It then discusses the impact of international and domestic human rights instruments through an examination of developments in social care policy, and with regard to reproductive health care rights in Northern Ireland. It also highlights issues relating to devolution and the implementation of human rights in the UK and in particular the role of the Human Rights Act (1998).


2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daragh Murray

As a result of the ‘War on Terror’ domestic governments and the international community have paid increasing attention to counter-terrorism legislation. Given the meteoric rise in prominence of the Internet, and the ever-expanding ‘terrorist’ use of this entity, it is unsurprising that the Internet has now become the focus of legislative attention. However, what does this mean for one of the most fundamental of human rights, the right to freedom of expression? This article will analyse the concepts of incitement, glorification and dissemination as they relate to the Internet, and evaluate their place within the broader framework of the right to freedom of expression. Consequently, ‘context’, the quantifiable circulation of content, and other relevant issues are evaluated through the prism of the Internet. Similarly, the role of the ‘blogger’ is discussed as it relates to the dissemination of information, and the overarching concept of participatory democracy. For illustrative purposes, the United Kingdom's Terrorist Act 2006, and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights will be of primary interest.


Author(s):  
Dryden-Peterson Sarah ◽  
Mariën Hania

This chapter examines the right to education of refugees. International human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Refugee Convention, provide a framework for the right to education for refugees. As a social right, and as reflected in the ICESCR, the right to education is to be progressively realized and requires positive action and allocation of funding. Like all human rights, it is dependent on action by government, the availability of public resources, and enforcement mechanisms. The devolution of responsibility for the education of refugees to States through recent policy further entrenches the role of the State in respecting, protecting, and fulfilling refugees’ right to education. The chapter then explores the intersection of global and national frameworks for the right to education for refugees and its realization in the form of access to schools. Despite the widely embraced global articulation of the right to education for all refugee children, the realization of the right to education is highly variable, being largely dependent upon their State of asylum.


2021 ◽  
pp. 300-327
Author(s):  
Florabel Quispe Remón

The article begins by analyzing the origin and evolution of the concept "transitional justice", determining its characteristics, the context in which it was born and developed, as well as the role of the State in this process. Then it focuses attention on analyzing the development of this figure in the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights System, through the work that the Inter-American Court has been carrying out since its operation, interpreting in a broad way and always pro homini, the American Convention of Human Rights. Throughout its years of operation, it has ruled on the State’s obligation to protect and guarantee human rights and to carry out the pertinent investigations in the event of their violation; as well as the recognition of the status of victims to the victims’ families and their pronouncement of the right to the truth, not as an autonomous human right, but rather as a right of the victims and their next of kin. Undoubtedly, these are aspects that have gone beyond the American Convention.


Author(s):  
Magda Yadira Robles Garza ◽  

Protection for people or social groups that do not have a home or who have it lost because of wars, internal or external displacement, violence and insecurity, require special attention from States. To address this approach, the criterion or standard established in the Inter-American System of Human Rights with respect to the protection of this right through the connection of rights will then be analyzed. The judgments could set out the standard of protection that from national governments must be afforded to people who lose their homes in these contexts and, on the other hand, the role of the State in complying with these claims, in order to conjecture the autonomous declaration of the right to housing in the judicial headquarters of the region of the Americas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-7

The right of health is one of the most fundamental human rights, which is emphasized in human rights documents. The spread of the corona virus has posed major challenges to the various dimensions of human rights, the most important of which is the right of being health. There are basically two perspectives about the belief in the role of government and international law in general. The first view is the realists view, who see the behavior of governments based on their benefits the and question the implementation of international law. The second group is the liberals, who place great emphasis on the application of international law. According to the beliefs of this group, governments also generally have certain responsibilities in relation to securing and guaranteeing this right. It is clear that governments cannot fully guarantee the health and well-being of individuals, but governments can provide conditions in which the health of individuals is protected and access to health is possible for individuals. This obligation is driven from the obligations of governments to implement human rights in accordance with international law.


Author(s):  
Irina V. Bogdashina

The article reveals the measures undertaken by the Soviet state during the “thaw” in the fi eld of reproductive behaviour, the protection of motherhood and childhood. Compilations, manuals and magazines intended for women were the most important regulators of behaviour, determining acceptable norms and rules. Materials from sources of personal origin and oral history make it possible to clearly demonstrate the real feelings of women. The study of women’s everyday and daily life in the aspect related to pregnancy planning, bearing and raising children will allow us to compare the real situation and the course of implementation of tasks in the fi eld of maternal and child health. The demographic surge in the conditions of the economy reviving after the war, the lack of preschool institutions, as well as the low material wealth of most families, forced women to adapt to the situation. In the conditions of combining the roles of mother, wife and female worker, women entrusted themselves with almost overwork, which affected the health and well-being of the family. The procedure for legalising abortion gave women not only the right to decide the issue of motherhood themselves, but also made open the already necessary, but harmful to health, habitual way of birth control. Maternal care in diffi cult material and housing conditions became the concern of women and the older generation, who helped young women to combine the role of a working mother, which the country’s leadership confi dently assigned to women.


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.”


Author(s):  
Janne Rothmar Herrmann

This chapter discusses the right to avoid procreation and the regulation of pregnancy from a European perspective. The legal basis for a right to avoid procreation can be said to fall within the scope of several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), an instrument that is binding for all European countries. Here, Article 12 of the ECHR gives men and women of marriageable age the right to marry and found a family in accordance with the national laws governing this right. However, Article 12 protects some elements of the right not to procreate, but for couples only. The lack of common European consensus in this area highlights how matters relating to the right to decide on the number and spacing of children touch on aspects that differ from country to country even in what could appear to be a homogenous region. In fact, the cultural, moral, and historical milieus that surround these rights differ considerably with diverse national perceptions of the role of the family, gender equality, religious and moral obligations, and so on.


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