Right to Health under International Human Rights Law

Alan S. Gutterrman (Independent), Right to Health under International Human Rights Law (2023):

The right to health has been provided for and/or recognized in most of the core international human rights treaties as well as other international and regional instruments and declarations. While the right to health is recognized as an independent and fundamental right, it is closely related to and dependent upon the realization of other human rights such as the rights to food, housing, work, education, human dignity, life, non-discrimination, equality, privacy and access to information. Health is also one of the primary targets included in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, with SDG 3 calling for ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing for all at all ages. In addition, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has noted that “the treaty bodies that monitor the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child have adopted general comments or generation recommendations on the right to health and health-related issues” and “[n]umerous conferences and declarations … have also helped clarify various aspects of public health relevant to the right to health and have affirmed commitments to its realization.