Human Rights and Public Health Ethics

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 9-20
Author(s):  
S. Matthew Liao ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Public Health Ethics ◽  
Moral Justification ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Basic Health ◽  
Health Ethics ◽  
The Right

This paper relates human rights to public health ethics and policies by discussing the nature and moral justification of human rights generally, and the right to health in particular. Which features of humanity ground human rights? To answer this question, as an alternative to agency and capabilities approaches, the paper offers the “fundamental conditions approach,” according to which human rights protect the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life. The fundamental conditions approach identifies “basic health”—the adequate functioning of the various parts of our organism needed for the development and exercise of the fundamental capacities—as the object of a human right. A human right to basic health entails human rights to the essential resources for promoting and maintaining basic health, including adequate nutrition, basic health care, and basic education. Duty bearers include every able person in appropriate circumstances, as well as governments and government agencies, private philanthropic foundations, and transnational corporations.

Human Rights and Public Health Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-56
Author(s):  
S. Matthew Liao
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Public Health Ethics ◽  
Moral Justification ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Basic Health ◽  
Health Ethics ◽  
The Right

This chapter relates human rights to public health ethics and policies by discussing the nature and moral justification of human rights generally, and the right to health in particular. Which features of humanity ground human rights? To answer this question, as an alternative to agency and capabilities approaches, the chapter offers the “fundamental conditions approach,” according to which human rights protect the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life. The fundamental conditions approach identifies “basic health”—the adequate functioning of the various parts of our organism needed for the development and exercise of the fundamental capacities—as the object of a human right. A human right to basic health entails human rights to the essential resources for promoting and maintaining basic health, including adequate nutrition, basic health care, and basic education. Dutybearers include every able person in appropriate circumstances, as well as governments and government agencies, private philanthropic foundations, and transnational corporations.

scholarly journals Global Burden of Violence and Other Human Rights Violations Against Sex Workers

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-59
Author(s):  
Elena Argento ◽  
Kay Thi Win ◽  
Bronwyn McBride ◽  
Kate Shannon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Health And Human Rights ◽  
The Right

AbstractGlobally, sex workers experience a disproportionate burden of violence and human rights violations linked to criminalisation, punitive law enforcement, and lack of labour protections. Social injustices including poor working conditions, violence and victimisation, police harassment, and discrimination constitute severe violations of sex workers’ health, labour and human rights, and abuses of their freedom and dignity. Policymakers, researchers, and international bodies increasingly recognise violence as a critical public health and human rights concern among the general population; however, human rights violations against sex workers remain largely overlooked within international agendas on violence prevention and in human rights conventions. This chapter provides an overview of the global literature on violence against sex workers, other human rights violations, and drivers of elevated violence and rights inequities across settings. In addition to synthesising global research findings, this chapter features contributions and case studies from community partners in Asia Pacific. Guided by a structural determinants framework, and in recognising the right to live and work free from violence as a human right, this chapter provides an evidence base pertaining to violence against sex workers towards that informs the development of policy and public health interventions to uphold human rights among sex workers worldwide.

scholarly journals A Human Right Approach of Right to Health During Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 176-179
Author(s):  
Dr. Prakruthi A R
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
The Right

The right to live isn’t the absence of death; it’s living a life with good health and human dignity.’ Human rights are fundamentally linked to global health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Human rights law guarantees everyone the right to the highest attainable standard of health and obligates governments to take steps to prevent threats to public health and to provide medical care to those who need it. The language and principles of human rights relate to the rights that support the survival and basic wellbeing of communities and individuals, including their rights to life, health and an adequate standard of living. Human rights law also recognizes that in the context of serious public health threats and public emergencies threatening the life of the Nation, restrictions on some rights can be justified when they have a legal basis, are strictly necessary, based on scientific evidence and neither arbitrary nor discriminatory in application, of limited duration, respectful of human dignity, subject to review, and proportionate to achieve the objective. The scale and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic clearly rises to the level of a public health threat that could justify restrictions on certain rights, such as those that result from the imposition of quarantine or isolation limiting freedom of movement. At the same time, careful attention to human rights such as non-discrimination and human rights principles such as transparency and respect for human dignity can foster an effective response amidst the turmoil and disruption that inevitably results in times of crisis and limit the harms that can come from the imposition of overly broad measures that do not meet the criteria.

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