An Analysis of the Right to Health for Palestinians

In Fall 2024, the Human Rights at Home Law Profs Blog is excited to feature a series of blog posts focusing on human rights and the environment written by students in the International Human Rights Clinic at UIC Law. This is the sixth post in that series. The first post can be accessed here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here.

By Buthaina Hattab, 2L at UIC Law

For a Palestinian, human rights violations can begin at birth. Palestinians are sometimes born at an Israeli checkpoint, instead of a hospital, because Israeli soldiers restrict Palestinian mothers from crossing the checkpoint and accessing healthcare. The systematic denial of Palestinian’s access to healthcare violates Israel’s responsibility under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In August 2024, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued General Recommendation 37 (GR 37), a written recommendation addressing racial discrimination in the enjoyment of the right to health and clarified State obligations under the CERD. GR 37 reinforces the obligation of Israel, as a signatory to CERD, to ensure that Palestinians have the right to access healthcare without discrimination or excessive state intervention. States are required to prevent discrimination, protect individuals against harm, and promote equality and dignity for all members of society.

The right to health under the CERD is “the right to prevention from health-harming conditions, disease and injury...[and] the right to equal and unhindered access to information and... health facilities, goods, services, including the right to privacy and confidentiality” among other factors. GR 37 affirms people are entitled to the right to be healthy and recognizes how racial discrimination negatively impacts the ability to exercise that right. Explaining the “right to the enjoyment of health” in the struggle against racial discrimination is significant because it advances a legal framework for racial justice.  

GR 37 also explains that toxic environmental exposures and limited access to health care disproportionally impact those that are victims of racial discrimination, like Palestinians. The Israeli government and military systematically deny Palestinians the right to health by restricting and controlling their movements. Israeli settlements are strategically built to isolate Palestinian villages resulting in less access to health care, safe and potable water, adequate sanitation, and overall healthy environmental conditions. As outlined in this map by Visualizing Palestine, Israeli settlers use segregated roads and checkpoints to promote the connection between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Israeli settlement infrastructure makes it very hard for Palestinians to access healthcare-both preventative and advanced-beyond the bounds of their villages and towns. The infrastructure that divides Palestinian land also impacts access to clean water. As a result, Palestinians are unable to update their water system or connect the systems to other towns. GR 37 identifies racial discrimination at the structural level, that can impact the right to health, creating “long-standing health inequities and high rates of poverty and social exclusion.”

In the Occupied West Bank, the web of segregated roads and checkpoints is a form of racism, at a structural level, that negatively impacts Palestinians right to bodily autonomy and physical integrity. According to a report from the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights submitted in 2005, 61 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints between September 2000 and December 2004, and 36 of their babies died as a result. The restriction of reproductive health care services is in direct violation of GR 37, where reproductive health care services are considered an important element of the right to health. GR 37 also recognizes the right to equal unhindered access to healthcare facilities and services, which is directly impacted by Israeli settlements. The segregated roads also show how “racial discrimination operates as a separate health risk and as a structural social determinant of health.” The roads are a physical effect of racial discrimination that hinder people’s right to health.

The right to health also explains that racial discrimination is determined by an individual’s environment. For this reason, adequate quantity, quality and maintenance level of safe drinking water and sanitation is outlined in GR 37 and Article 11 of CERD. According to Amnesty International, Israeli settlements impact water distribution within the West Bank, where Palestinian water intake is heavily regulated by the Israeli government. Additionally, the settlements are routinely constructed on hilltops, allowing wastewater to drain into valleys where Palestinians live (Norwegian Refugee Council). Israeli settlements have unlimited access to water sources, including personal swimming pools, while Palestinians have limited access to water sources and underdeveloped water infrastructure (Amnesty International). This violates Palestinian right to health by creating adverse effects from the exploitation of toxic waste storage.

GR 37 explains the right to health not as a vacuum, but rather as embedded in the surrounding environment, and subjected to surrounding structural racism. This recommendation expands and reinforces State duty under the right to health to ensure access to healthcare and resources necessary for life. A set of guiding principles regarding the right to health is a significant step forward in international law. Reviewing the recommendation alongside longstanding Palestinian human rights violations provide a new framework for advocacy.