HRBA Portal

• Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health
  
• General Comment No. 14 on the Right to the highest attainable standard of Health
  
• Key International & Regional Instruments – Right to Health (WHO)
  
• Fact Sheet on the Right to Health (OHCHR /WHO)
  
• World Health Organization (WHO): Resource Page on Health & Human Rights
  
• Health and Human Rights: International Journal (Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Centre)

Relevant International Standards

The right to health is an inclusive right, extending not only to timely and appropriate health care, but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health-related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health.

The right to health contains both freedoms and entitlements. Freedoms include the right to control one’s health, including the right to be free from non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation. Entitlements include the right to a system of health protection (i.e. health care and the underlying determinants of health) that provides equality of opportunity for people to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health.

The right to health is a broad concept that can be broken down into more specific entitlements such as the rights to: maternal, child and reproductive health; healthy workplace and natural environments; the prevention, treatment and control of diseases, including access to essential medicines; access to safe and potable water.

General Comment No. 14 on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health

General Comment No. 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  contains additional information on the definition of the right to health including:

Normative Content of the Right to Health.

For instance, the right to health in all its forms and at all levels contains the following interrelated and essential elements:

(a) Availability. Functioning public health and health-care facilities, goods and services, as well as programmes, have to be available in sufficient quantity within the State party. The precise nature of the facilities, goods and services will vary depending on numerous factors, including the State party’s developmental level. They will include, however, the underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities, hospitals, clinics and other health-related buildings, trained medical and professional personnel receiving domestically competitive salaries, and essential drugs.

(b) Accessibility. Health facilities, goods and services have to be accessible to everyone without discrimination, within the jurisdiction of the State party. Accessibility has four overlapping dimensions:

• Non-discrimination: health facilities, goods and services must be accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable or marginalized sections of the population, in law and in fact, without discrimination on any of the prohibited grounds.
• Physical accessibility: health facilities, goods and services must be within safe physical reach for all sections of the population, especially vulnerable or marginalized groups, such as ethnic minorities and indigenous populations, women, children, adolescents, older persons, persons with disabilities and persons with HIV/AIDS. Accessibility also implies that medical services and underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable water and adequate sanitation facilities, are within safe physical reach, including in rural areas. Accessibility further includes adequate access to buildings for persons with disabilities.
• Economic accessibility (affordability): health facilities, goods and services must be affordable for all. Payment for health-care services, as well as services related to the underlying determinants of health, has to be based on the principle of equity, ensuring that these services, whether privately or publicly provided, are affordable for all, including socially disadvantaged groups. Equity demands that poorer households should not be disproportionately burdened with health expenses as compared to richer households.
• Information accessibility: accessibility includes the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas concerning health issues. However, accessibility of information should not impair the right to have personal health data treated with confidentiality.

(c) Acceptability. All health facilities, goods and services must be respectful of medical ethics and culturally appropriate, i.e. respectful of the culture of individuals, minorities, peoples and communities, sensitive to gender and life-cycle requirements, as well as being designed to respect confidentiality and improve the health status of those concerned.

(d) Quality. As well as being culturally acceptable, health facilities, goods and services must also be scientifically and medically appropriate and of good quality. This requires, inter alia, skilled medical personnel, scientifically approved and unexpired drugs and hospital equipment, safe and potable water, and adequate sanitation.

General Comment No. 14 on the Right to Health also contains the following interpretations and clarifications of the provisions of the ICESCR on Right to Health:

Specific Aspects of Health

• The right to maternal, child and reproductive health
• The right to healthy natural and workplace environments
• The right to prevention, treatment and control of diseases
• The right to health facilities, goods and services

Special topics of broad application

• Non-discrimination and equal treatment
• Gender perspective
• Women and the right to health
• Children and adolescents
• Older persons
• Persons with disabilities
• Indigenous peoples
• Limitations

State Parties Obligations

• General legal obligations
• Specific legal obligations
• International obligations
• Core obligations

Violations

• Violations of the obligation to respect
• Violations of the obligation to protect
• Violations of the obligation to fulfil

Implementation at the National Level

• Framework legislation
• Right to health indicators and benchmarks
• Remedies and accountability

Obligations of Actors other than States Parties

Refer to full text of General Comment No. 14 on the Right to the highest attainable standard of Health

Other Relevant Standards

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

Article 25 (1)
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, 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 in circumstances beyond his control.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

Article 12
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for:

(a) The provision for the reduction of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development of the child;

(b) The improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene;

(c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases;

(d) The creation of conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)

Article 5
In compliance with the fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights:

[…] (e) Economic, social and cultural rights, in particular:

[…] (iv) The right to public health, medical care, social security and social services; […]

Constitution of the World Health Organization

[…] The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition. […]

Refer to the OHCHR website for additional information on universal and regional standards pertaining to the right to health as well as information on the meaning of the right to health as it applies to specific groups.  View full list of standards.

Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

The Special Rapporteur was appointed by the Human Rights Commission to focus on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, as reflected in article 25 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,  article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and article 12 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, as well as on the right to non-discrimination as reflected in article 5 (e) (iv) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The Special Rapporteur is requested to:

(a) gather, request, receive and exchange right to health information from all relevant sources;

(b) dialogue and discuss possible areas of cooperation with all relevant actors, including Governments, relevant United Nations bodies, specialized agencies and programmes, in particular the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international financial institutions;

(c) report on the status, throughout the world, of the right to health, including laws, policies, good practices and obstacles;

(d) make recommendations on appropriate measures that promote and protect the right to health.

The Special Rapporteur is further asked to apply a gender perspective and to pay special attention to the needs of children in the realization of the right to health, to take into account the relevant provisions, inter alia, of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and to bear in mind in particular General Comment No. 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and General Recommendation No. 24 (Women and health) of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

View the website of the Special Rapporteur.

View the annual reports of the Special Rapporteur to the General Assembly, or the country reports.

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