Why does the right to health matter in global health?
Are you sitting at the table to talk about the right to health and global health programs?
Human rights are part of international law. Therefore, global health professionals must respect the law and work with developed and developing country governments to help them understand that healthcare is a human right. In fact, the “Right to Health” is defined as the right to highest standard of healthcare and the “Declaration on the Right to Development” gives countries the responsibility to develop their health system.
I agree. These are treaties and international legislation do not seem to get to be enforced much. I would encourage you to make 2015 the year we start the conversation about the right to health and the right to development. Meanwhile we must also find innovative ways to help to fulfill both rights through effective global health programs that prevent preventable deaths of malaria, measles, AIDS and TB, etc. and stop epidemics like Ebola at the first signs.
Here is what I believe this conversation about the right to health and global health must be about:
- All human beings have the same rights. That is why we call them universal. Therefore, global health must include global programs to help countries realize the right to health of their citizens
- Those countries that have signed off on human rights treaties and conventions must find ways to implement programs to fulfill them and monitor their progress. The right to development and the millennium declaration set the agenda to do it.
- The right to health is a human right as written in article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other international legislation that have further defined what this right entails. Every global health program, project or initiative must be based on this legislation.
- Only countries that value the lives of their citizens prioritize investments in programs that measure the health needs of their people and progressively meet those needs. I would think that improving the health services of at least 10% of the population is a good measure of how well countries value the health and lives of their citizens. In this way, in 10 years countries will have reached 100% of the population and can measure again their needs and start again to improve programs for at least 10% of the people per year. The cycle never ends as long as there are human beings; they have rights.
- All organizations working in global health must account for their contribution to fulfill the right to health of the people in the countries where they work.
Fulfilling the right to health can be made simple if we follow the international legislation.
Join me for a conversation on Human Rights, the Right to Health and Global Health goals on January 29th, 2015 at 12:00pm EST when I will discuss the topics above and more.
Just click the button below to register.
