Rooted in WHO and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the right to health now covers sanitation, reproductive health, and essential medicines.
Author
Stephen P. Marks, Professor, Jindal School of Public Health and Human Development (JSPH), O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India
Summary
This chapter traces the emergence and normative expansion of the right to health within the body of international human rights law. Building on the definition of health in the WHO Constitution (1946) as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being,’ the normative content of the right to health was defined in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and clarified by General Comment No. 14, issued by the ICESCR Committee, which developed the principles of availability, accessibility, affordability, and quality of care. The chapter then explores other human rights relevant to the right to health and further normative expansion of the rights to health, including the rights to water and sanitation, sexual and reproductive health, tobacco control, and essential medicines and devices. Finally, it reviews the means and methods of implementation of the right to health through promotion and protection measures.
Published in: Research Handbook on Human Rights Law and Health
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