The Right to Health in the United States of America: What Does it Mean?
In October 2004, CESR published The Right to Health in the United States of America: What Does it Mean?, a report on how the U.S. health care system falls short of international standards for the right to health.
Resources and Links on the Right to Health
ACORN
ACORN, the Association of CommunityOrganizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest communityorganization of low and moderate-income families, with over 150,000member families organized into 750 neighborhood chapters in more than60 cities across the country.
CESR Work on Health
THE U.S. HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
In October 2004, CESR published The Right to Health in the United States of America: What Does it Mean?, a report on how the U.S. health care system falls short of international standards for the right to health. The report demonstrates that the U.S. healthcare delivery system is structurally flawed in ways that compromise thequality, adequacy, availability, and accessibility of people's healthin the United States. The report argues for a rights-based system ofhealthcare in the U.S.: instead of reducingmedical services to their profitability, a rights-based approachcalculates success by the care provided to patients.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
click here for the UDHR in other languages
Preamble
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of theequal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is thefoundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights haveresulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience ofmankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoyfreedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has beenproclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled tohave recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny andoppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in theCharter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in thedignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of menand women and have determined to promote social progress and betterstandards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve,in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universalrespect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, therefore,
The General Assembly,
Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a commonstandard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the endthat every individual and every organ of society, keeping thisDeclaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and educationto promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressivemeasures, national and international, to secure their universal andeffective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of MemberStates themselves and among the peoples of territories under theirjurisdiction.
Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights General Comment 14
THE RIGHT TO THE HIGHEST ATTAINABLE STANDARD OF HEALTH (ARTICLE 12)
SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES ARISING IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL
COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
Right to Health
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What is the Right to Health? Health is one of the components of an adequate standard of living.Historically, the protection of public health has been accompanied bylegal regulation - health law is as old as law itself. Its developmentdemonstrates that the state of an individual's health is oftendetermined by factors beyond a person's medical condition. The right to health includes access to adequate health care(medical, preventative, and mental), nutrition, sanitation, and toclean water and air. It also includes occupational health consequencessuch as chronic injuries and diseases resulting from unhealthy andhazardous working conditions. This does not mean that an individual hasthe right to be healthy since no government can assure a specific stateof health. The state of health depends on the person's genetic makeup,and is molded by environment and health interventions. CESR Work on Health |
International Instruments on the Right to Health
LEGAL INSTRUMENTS
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 25: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequatefor the health and well-being of himself and of his family, includingfood, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services,and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness,disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood incircumstances beyond his control."
CESR Op Ed: Stifled in the Loya Jirga, by Omar Zakhilwal (The Washington Post)
Kabul, Afghanistan - I am a member of the loya jirga'ssilent majority -- or rather, silenced majority -- who came here toAfghanistan's capital expecting to shape our nation's future butinstead find ourselves being dragged back into the past.
Human Rights Assessment Mission to Afghanistan
Human Rights Conditions
Over twenty years of successive armed conflicts and massive humanrights violations have killed at least 1.5 million Afghans and rendered6 million homeless. Even prior to 11 September and 7 October, theAfghan population suffered severe destitution and hardship: a ruinedinfrastructure, abysmal socio-economic indicators, the world???s largestpopulation of refugees and internally displaced persons, the world???shighest concentration of land mines, three years of worsening drought,a repressive government and international isolation marked by economicsanctions.