scholarly journals Stigmatisation as a Public Health Tool against Obesity — A Health and Human Rights Perspective

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mette Hartlev
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Disease Patterns ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
National Public Health ◽  
The Right ◽  
Lifestyle Diseases

The right to health is recognised in human rights law and is also part of the catalogue of patients’ rights. It imposes a duty on governments to put in place a system of health protection making it possible for individuals to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health. However, disease patterns are constantly changing, and more and more attention is being paid to so-called lifestyle diseases. Individuals may expose themselves to health threats due to personal choices like eating and smoking habits, and this raises the issue of the individual’s obligation with regard to ill health. Hence, is there not only a right to health but also a duty to be healthy? Using obesity as an example, and based on a cross-disciplinary research project, the article analyses selected European and national public health policy papers to see how individual rights and duties are framed and to analyse the use of stigmatisation as a public-health strategy from a health and human rights perspective.

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 8 Justiciability of Human Rights for Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flood Colleen M ◽  
Thomas Bryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines both the power and limitations of litigation as a means of facilitating accountability for the advancement of public health. While almost half of the world’s constitutions now contain a justiciable right to health, the impact of litigation has been mixed. Judicial accountability has, in some cases, advanced state obligations to realize the highest attainable standard of health, but in other cases, litigation has threatened the solidarity undergirding public health systems. There is significant country-to-country variation in interpreting health-related human rights, as well as differing views of the proper role of courts in interpreting and enforcing these rights. Surveying regional human rights systems and national judicial efforts to address health and human rights, it is necessary to analyze how courts have approached—and how they should approach—litigation of the right to health and health-related human rights to improve health for all.

Justiciability of Human Rights for Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 177-196
Author(s):  
Colleen M. Flood ◽  
Bryan Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines both the power and limitations of litigation as a means of facilitating accountability for the advancement of public health. While almost half of the world’s constitutions now contain a justiciable right to health, the impact of litigation has been mixed. Judicial accountability has, in some cases, advanced state obligations to realize the highest attainable standard of health, but in other cases, litigation has threatened the solidarity undergirding public health systems. There is significant country-to-country variation in interpreting health-related human rights, as well as differing views of the proper role of courts in interpreting and enforcing these rights. Surveying regional human rights systems and national judicial efforts to address health and human rights, it is necessary to analyze how courts have approached—and how they should approach—litigation of the right to health and health-related human rights to improve health for all.

The Origins of Human Rights in Global Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence O. Gostin ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Law ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
The Right

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.”

s.One Norms and Principles, 3 The Right to Health and Health-Related Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobin John ◽  
Barrett Damon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right

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.

The right to health supports global public health

2021 ◽  
pp. 273-290
Author(s):  
Carmel Williams ◽  
Alison Blaiklock ◽  
Paul Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Supportive Relationship ◽  
The Right ◽  
Overseas Development

In this chapter, we explain how human rights, including the right to health, are important for global public health. We introduce key human rights concepts and principles, and illustrate three approaches to the right to health: judicial, policy, and empowerment. We propose that human rights and public health are natural allies with a complementary and supportive relationship. We describe the meaning of the right to the highest attainable standard of health and its place in international, regional, and national laws. We outline ten key elements of the right to health and how the right can be operationalized in public health practice. We demonstrate this with two case studies of critically important global public health issues—climate change and children’s health, and overseas development assistance—as well as one of an emerging challenge in health, the digitization of health through Big Data.

Human Rights Advocacy in Global Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 133-154
Author(s):  
Joseph J. Amon ◽  
Eric Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Advocacy Strategies ◽  
The Right

This chapter presents an overview of health and human rights advocacy and describes a broad framework and the diverse strategies used by human rights advocates to advance their goals. Based upon documenting abuses, raising awareness, building coalitions, and engaging communities, human rights advocacy seeks to ensure that government laws, policies, and practices respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health of all. These rights arguments and advocacy strategies, first developed in response to the HIV epidemic, have become the basis for broader right to health campaigns. Health-related human rights advocacy, beyond specific strategies, seeks to elevate the voices of people affected by human rights violations, analyze structural barriers, and identify obligations and responsibilities. Focusing on the strategies and tools that human rights advocates use in documenting rights abuses, raising awareness, and seeking change, it is necessary to examine new advocacy partnerships and approaches for evaluating advocacy efforts.

The Right to Health and Health-Related Human Rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-88
Author(s):  
John Tobin ◽  
Damon Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Economic Determinants ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Health Related ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
The Right

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.

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 6 Human Rights Advocacy in Global Health

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amon Joseph J ◽  
Friedman Eric
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
Advocacy Strategies ◽  
The Right

This chapter presents an overview of health and human rights advocacy and describes a broad framework and the diverse strategies used by human rights advocates to advance their goals. Based upon documenting abuses, raising awareness, building coalitions, and engaging communities, human rights advocacy seeks to ensure that government laws, policies, and practices respect, protect, and fulfill the right to health of all. These rights arguments and advocacy strategies, first developed in response to the HIV epidemic, have become the basis for broader right to health campaigns. Health-related human rights advocacy, beyond specific strategies, seeks to elevate the voices of people affected by human rights violations, analyze structural barriers, and identify obligations and responsibilities. Focusing on the strategies and tools that human rights advocates use in documenting rights abuses, raising awareness, and seeking change, it is necessary to examine new advocacy partnerships and approaches for evaluating advocacy efforts.

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