Respect for human rights is a distinguishing characteristic of harm reduction. And it is widely defined as a public health movement. Health law and public health law have both served widely as health protection and promotion tools. Yet both remain limited in their effect and scope. And they do not properly cover nor supply a systemic solution. A potential solution to this deficiency can be found in the health care legal approach’s human rights issues. The reframing of international human rights law and constitutional thinking and tools into a cohesive approach to the preservation and advancement of personal and communal health is the definition of human rights inpatient care. It applies human rights discourse and human rights law to patient care settings. At the same time, it moves away from a narrow consumerist view of health care delivery.
Policy makers should apply human rights to health care. Then, courts can act as instruments of policy influencing to protect the rights of the most vulnerable.
Links between Health and Human Rights Issues
The first relationship involves the positive and negative effects on human rights of health policy, laws, programs, and practices. The goal is to negotiate an optimum balance between protecting public health and human rights. To achieve this goal, it will be important for countries to conform to their national health systems, laws, services, and practices to national and international human rights instruments.
The second relationship reflects that abuse or lack of fulfillment with all human rights Issues negatively impacts physical, emotional, and social well-being. This is true in times of peace and conflict and intense political repression.
The third relationship is the unavoidable connection between health and human rights issues.
The central idea of a health and human rights approach is that health and human rights work in synergy. Promoting and protecting health, needs clear and realistic actions to promote and protect human rights and human dignity. Also, greater fulfillment for human rights requires sound attention to health and its social determinants. In other words, the enjoyment of health is important for the exercise of human rights. At the same time, the exercise of human rights makes a positive contribution to health. For example, the enjoyment of health is necessary for the practice of the right to work. Simultaneously, the exercise of the right to work leads positively to physical and mental health.
Developing health-related human rights
Human rights law is central to public health policies, services, and activities. International human rights standards have consistently played a vital role in:
- Public health over the last 70 years
- Framing health issues within the legal context
- Incorporating key values into policy debates
- Facilitating responsibility for achieving the highest attainable level of health
There is a dramatic development of these human rights related to health. So, the human rights system has now moved from the development of human rights under international law to implementing those rights through national governance. Policymakers have been encouraged to implement rights through national policies. It is to ensure that health determinants are available, affordable, and of appropriate quality. Every country has codified a particular set of constitutional obligations, laws, and regulations enforcing international law through national policies. This is to ensure that “health is a human right.”
Operationalizing human rights Issues in public health
Operationalization of these human rights principles has provided regulatory clarification in public health policy and legal accountability for public health results.
The national implementation of human rights in public health provides a basis for facilitating accountability for the progressive implementation of human rights in health. Governments have adopted human rights in health policy, academics, clinicians. And advocates have tried to set up accountability systems to assess the progressive realization of rights. This engaged governments in health-related rights, and maximized available resources through health policy. Also, this improved programmatic outcomes in patient outcomes through:
Political Advocacy. Social movements engage in political advocacy to:
- Assess and review state policy
- Increase public awareness of national policies
- Encourage governments to cooperate with their human rights-related health commitments.
Litigation. For citizens to enforce human rights obligations in the courts, litigation empowers the judiciary to:
- Address violations of human rights—setting legal precedents to establish government health obligations
- Provide rights-based accountability in global and international courts and quasi-judicial authorities
Treaty monitoring. UN human rights treaty bodies control national implementation of treaty obligations by
- Reviewing periodic reports
- Engaging in ‘constructive dialogue’
- Issuing concluding observations
These treaty bodies were complemented in the last decade by the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights. And, the UN Human Rights Council evaluates the human rights performance of all UN members by these.
Mainstreaming human rights through public health practice
International law, national policy, and public health practice developed the links between public health and human rights.
Over the last few decades, academic literature has seen a steady increase in work relating to international human rights law. And the Health and Human Rights Journal is a testimony to the increasing power of the sector.
The APHA Human Rights Forum was launched in 2015. It promotes human rights capacity building through the public health workforce. Also, it provides a model for other health-related professional organizations to incorporate human rights into health practice.
There are several public health professionals working in the field of human rights. But, they cannot engage in the formal legal frameworks required to enforce human rights in public health practices. To develop human rights capacity through APHA membership, the Human Rights Forum accepts members from all 31 APHA sections. Membership has expanded across all professional categories. They include students, early career professionals, regular members, and retirees. The Forum is now made up of more than 1000 APHA participants. This increased engagement has provided professionals with the resources required to realize human rights in public health at this critical time.
A Vital Period for human rights in public health
Human rights has been established, operationalized, and incorporated for 70 years. But, the realization of these rights is now being impeded by a populist extreme right that threatens the protection of human rights and the development of public health. This right-wing populism aims to reverse past struggles’ progress. And it is uncertain how this opposition would impact the ongoing development of human rights in public health.
The Bottom Line
Human rights have increasingly taken the world together in unprecedented public health collaboration over the past 70 years. However, the current populist age casts doubt on all of these governance successes. Also, it raises obstacles to future development. The development of the WHO has changed global governance for public health. The WHO binding the world together around shared rights-based values. But, the counter-revolution threatens to reverse decades of development. Public health professionals have a vital role to play in reacting to the populist radical right. Also, they have to promote political advocacy to ensure the future of human rights in public health.
