scholarly journals Dutifully Defying Death: A Right to Life-saving Emergency Treatment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Lui

Abstract Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides for the right to health. Two questions are considered in this article. Does this right entail a more specific right to life-saving emergency treatment? And if so, should the latter right become justiciable in the domestic courts? Two propositions will be made in this article. First, the right to life-saving emergency treatment is a necessary component of the right to health. Second, the conventional arguments against the justiciability of socio-economic rights do not apply to the right to life-saving emergency treatment. Such a right should be justiciable at the domestic level.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Dinda Izzati

Evidently, a few months after the Jakarta Charter was signed, Christian circles from Eastern Indonesia submitted an ultimatum, if the seven words in the Jakarta Charter were still included in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution, then the consequence was that they would not want to join the Republic of Indonesia. The main reason put forward by Pastor Octavian was that Indonesia was seen from its georaphical interests and structure, Western Indonesia was known as the base of Islamic camouflage, while eastern Indonesia was the basis for Christian communities. Oktavianus added that Christians as an integral part of this nation need to realize that they also have the right to life, religious rights, political rights, economic rights, the same rights to the nation and state as other citizens, who in fact are mostly Muslims. This paper aims to determine and understand the extent to which the basic assumptions of the Indonesian people view the role of Islam as presented in an exclusive format.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-140
Author(s):  
Gabriela Belova ◽  
Stanislav Pavlov

AbstractThe last decades present a significant development of the economic, social and cultural rights and specifically, the right to health. Until 2000, the right to health has not been interpreted officially. By providing international standards, General Comment No.14 on the right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health has led to wider agreement that the right to health includes the social determinants of health such as access to various conditions, services, goods or facilities that are crucial for its implementation. The Reports of the Special Rapporteur on the right to health within the UN human rights system have contributed to the process of gaining the greater clarity about the right to health. It is obvious that achieving the highest attainable level of health depends on the principle of progressive implementation and the availability of the necessary health resources. The possibility individual complaints to be considered by the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights was introduced with the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, entered into force in 2013.


2018 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
MARÍA DALLI

In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the first international text recognising universal human rights for all; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 recognises the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the right to health and medical care. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Declaration, this article presents an overview of the main developments that have been made towards understanding the content and implications of the right to health, as well as an analysis of some specific advancements that aim to facilitate the enforcement thereof. These include: a) the implication of private entities as responsible for right to health obligations; b) the Universal Health Coverage goal, proposed by the World Health Organization and included as one of the Sustainable Development Goals; and c) the individual complaints mechanism introduced by the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (adopted on the 10th December 2008, 60 years after the UDHR).


Author(s):  
Tobin John ◽  
Barrett Damon

This chapter reviews the scope and meaning of the right to health under international law. Drawing on public health discourses and expanding beyond a right to health care, the contours of the right to health have been clarified—to encompass a wide range of social, political, and economic determinants of health—by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in its General Comment 14, by academics in the fields of law and public health, and by national governments in their domestic laws and judicial interpretations. The normative content of the right to health now provides a foundation for state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health; limitations on other rights for public health goals; the right’s essential attributes of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality; the minimum core obligations of the right to health; and the progressive realization of health-related human rights.


Author(s):  
John Tobin ◽  
Damon Barrett

This chapter reviews the scope and meaning of the right to health under international law. Drawing on public health discourses and expanding beyond a right to health care, the contours of the right to health have been clarified—to encompass a wide range of social, political, and economic determinants of health—by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in its General Comment 14, by academics in the fields of law and public health, and by national governments in their domestic laws and judicial interpretations. The normative content of the right to health now provides a foundation for state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health; limitations on other rights for public health goals; the right’s essential attributes of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality; the minimum core obligations of the right to health; and the progressive realization of health-related human rights.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 831-853
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Hoffberger

If thinking about weapons, one generally thinks about lethal technology. However, an abundance of so-called non-lethal weapons, a technology not aimed at killing but merely incapacitating the human target or military objective, is also being deployed both within and outside the ambit of armed conflict. Since non-lethal weapons do not necessarily implicate a zero chance of mortality, but often lead to severe wounds and tremendous suffering, the use and deployment of such weapons raise strong humanitarian and human rights concerns. The prohibition to cause superfluous injuries and unnecessary suffering, as well as the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks are, amongst others, one of the most relevant provisions potentially having an influence on the deployment of nonlethal technology in armed conflict. However, the invocation of the principle of proportionality may lead to the justification of the use of non-lethal weapons on the grounds that the military advantage anticipated was greater than the human suffering caused. Insofar, one must ask whether there is a “red-line”; where the almost inflationary invocation of the principle of proportionality may defeat the object and purpose of the Geneva Conventions and therefore render the deployment and use of non-lethal technology illegal. Apart from the battlefield, non-lethal weapons are also being deployed in lawenforcement scenarios, where human rights law plays a pivotal role. In this regard, one must not look merely at the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading suffering and the right to life but also at the right to health, a presumably underestimated principle curbing and shaping the use of non-lethal technology outside the ambit of armed conflict.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Grover ◽  
Brian Citro ◽  
Mihir Mankad ◽  
Fiona Lander

Approximately two billion people lack access to medicines globally. People living with HIV, cancer patients, those suffering from tuberculosis or malaria, and other populations in desperate need of life-saving medicines are increasingly unable to access existing preventative, curative, and life-prolonging treatments. In many cases, treatment may be unavailable or inaccessible for even some of the most common and readily treatable health concerns, such as hypertension. In the developing world, many of the factors that contribute to making the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized populations particularly susceptible to illness also operate to restrict their access to medicines. As a result of dramatic economic inequities and widespread poverty, it is not profitable for most originator pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines for sale in developing markets or to lower the cost of existing drugs so that they are affordable for the majority of these populations.


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justice C. Nwobike

AbstractThis article argues that the decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the Ogoni case represents a giant stride towards the protection and promotion of economic, social and cultural rights of Africans. This is predicated on the African Commission's finding that the Nigerian Government's failure to protect the Ogoni people from the activities of oil companies operating in the Niger Delta is contrary to international human rights law and is in fact a step backwards since Nigeria had earlier adopted legislation to fulfill its obligation towards the progressive realization of these rights. The findings of the African Commission demonstrate that economic, social and cultural rights are not vague or incapable of judicial enforcement. They also illustrate how the Charter can be interpreted generously to ensure the effective enjoyment of rights. Novel and commendable as the decision is, it is not without its shortcomings. These shortcomings lie in the failure of the Commission to pronounce on the right to development, its silence on the desirability of holding transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations, and the institutional weakness of the Commission in enforcing its decisions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavlos Eleftheriadis

Do we have a legal and moral right to health care against others? There are international conventions and institutions that say emphatically yes, and they summarize this in the expression of “the right to health,” which is an established part of the international human rights canon. The International Covenant on Social and Economic Rights outlines this as “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,” but declarations such as this remain tragically unfulfilled. According to recent figures, roughly two billion people lack access to essential drugs or to primary health care. Millions are afflicted by infections and illnesses that are easily avoidable or treatable. In the developing world many children die or grow stunted and damaged for lack of available treatments. Tropical diseases receive little or no attention by the major pharmaceutical companies’ research departments. Is this a massive violation of the right to health? And if so, why does it attract so little attention? Is it because our supposed commitment to human rights and the rule of law is hypocritical and hollow? Or is it because the right to health is a special case of a right, so that these tragedies are no violation at all? Jennifer Prah Ruger summarized this puzzle when she wrote: “one would be hard pressed to find a more controversial or nebulous human right than the right to health.” In this essay I discuss three different theories of a right to health care. I conclude by offering my own reconstruction of one such theory.


Author(s):  
Gorik Ooms ◽  
Rachel Hammonds

This chapter explores the future of multilateral funding to realize the right to health by exploring two options: a single Global Fund for Health or international assistance for health through only bilateral arrangements. This analysis first examines a Global Fund for Health, based on Article 2(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, guidance provided by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and features of the existing Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The chapter then examines the alternative option, comparing the likely qualities of both options in terms of being aligned with national priorities (if appropriately set), additional (i.e., incentivizing domestic mobilization of financial resources), reliable in the long run, coordinated, and sufficient. The chapter concludes by analyzing the political feasibility of both options.


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