"One-third of all human lives end in early death from poverty-related causes. Most of these premature deaths are avoidable through global institutional reforms that would eradicate extreme poverty...The rules should be redesigned so that the development of any new drug is rewarded in proportion to its impact on the global disease burden...The existing medical-patent regime (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights - TRIPS - as supplemented by bilateral agreements) is severely unjust - and its imposition a human-rights violation on account of the avoidable mortality and morbidity it foreseeably produces."
Values, Policies and Rights
Human rights and global health
Pogge, Thomas W. (2005), Metaphilosophy 36 (1-2), 182-209
Human rights and Health Equity
This bibliography pulls together recent articles that speak to the relationship between human rights and health, particularly focused on health equity, poverty and community agency. The bibliography was prepared for the EQUINET Health Rights theme and the articles described in the bibliography have informed much of the conceptual approaches developed in EQUINET to harnessing rights approaches to build health equity. The bibliography overlaps to some extent with other bibliographies held by EQUINET on health equity themes. It should prove useful for researchers exploring issues of human rights in relation to equity. The intention is to keep this bibliography updated in future, to support EQUINET’s activities in this area.
Human rights and health go hand-in-hand: An interview with Savitri Goonesekere
Bulletin of the World Health Organization 88(2), February 2010
This paper reports on an interview with Professor Savitri Goonesekere, an international expert on the rights of women and children and a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women between 1999 and 2002. In the interview she notes ‘a cynicism about rights and what they can do, especially in developing countries. This just encourages states not to implement the treaties they have signed'. She notes that human rights laws create a culture of support for implementing health policies by helping the community to monitor the state’s actions and programmes. She notes that some argue that if health policies are in place, health rights do not need to be put in the constitution and other laws. However she suggests that political systems are very fragile and a change in a health minister can bring in someone with a different attitude, leading everything to change. 'If a right is not in place in a law or constitution, it’s very easy to pull it back.’
Human Rights and HIV/AIDS: Now More Than Ever
Jürgens R and Cohen J: Public Health Program, Open Society Foundation, September 2007
This publication covers ten reasons why human rights should occupy the centre of the global AIDS struggle. This declaration, endorsed by 24 nongovernmental organisations and networks around the world, affirms that, now more than ever, human rights should occupy the center of the global struggle against HIV and AIDS.
Human rights and other provisions in the revised International Health Regulations (2005)
Public Health 121(11): 840-845, November 2007
In May 2005, the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the revised International Health Regulations (2005), which have now entered into force for WHO Member States across the globe. These Regulations contain a broad range of binding provisions to address the risks of international disease spread in international travel, trade and transportation. Important elements include multiple provisions, whether denominated in terms of human rights or other terminology, that are protective of interests of individuals who may be subject to public health measures in this international context. With the vast (and increasing) numbers of persons undertaking international voyages and the global coverage of these revised Regulations, they are an important development in this area. This article describes a number of these key provisions and some of the related issues they present.
Human rights and technology: A conflictual relationship? Assessing private research and the right to adequate food
Haugen HM: Journal of Human Rights 7(3) 224 – 244, July 2008
Human rights provisions addressing technology have been much ignored but are starting to receive renewed interest, mainly regarding patent disputes, stagnation in publicly funded research, and the role of technology in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. This study analyses articles 11.2(a) and 15.1(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as well as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, neither of which assume any conflict between technology and the environment. International cooperation for the realisation of the right to food is widely acknowledged, including technological efforts to produce more high-yielding varieties. Human rights treaties, especially in the ICESCR, can help guide the formulation and implementation of technology policies.
Human rights commitments relevant to heath made by states in Southern Africa: Implications for health equity
The audit aims to 1. conduct a review of the regional and international human rights instruments relevant to health; and 2. review the national commitments that have been made under these human rights instruments.
Human rights guidelines for pharmaceutical companies in relation to access to medicines: The sexual and reproductive health context
Khosla R and Hunt P: Human Rights Centre, University of Essex,
Access to medicines forms an indispensable part of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Numerous court cases, as well as resolutions of the United Nations (UN) Commission on Human Rights, confirm that access to essential medicines is a fundamental element of the right to health. This briefing examines the issue of access to medicines in the context of sexual and reproductive health. Sexual and reproductive health are key elements of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. The briefing considers the responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies for enhancing access to medicines. The briefing also introduces the background and content of the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in Relation to Access to Medicines ('the Guidelines'). Based on the right to health responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies, the Guidelines provide a framework for enhancing access to medicines.
Human rights guidelines for pharmaceutical companies in relation to access to medicines: The sexual and reproductive health context
Khosla R and Hunt P: University of Essex, 3 March 3, 2009
This briefing considers the responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies for enhancing access to medicines in the context of sexual and reproductive health. To provide some substance with which to shape the responsibilities of the pharmaceutical industry, the briefing first examines the issue of access to medicine in the context of both HIV/AIDS and the human papillomavirus (HPV). Various statistics are provided to convey the severity of the situation, and the intersection with the fundamental rights to sexual and reproductive health. Having provided this context, the authors outline the responsibilities of States to ensure that medicines are available, accessible, culturally acceptable, and of good quality. However, they stress that the pharmaceutical sector has an indispensable role to play in relation to the right to health and access to medicines; this is a shared responsibility.
Human rights threatened by anti-HIV laws
Affiliated Network for Social Accountability Africa: 3 December 2008
More than 40 national, regional and international human rights, gender and HIV organisations convened in Cape Town on 27-28 November to discuss trends, implications and realities of HIV criminalisation. Recent global and regional legislative trends indicate a strong call for criminalisation of HIV transmission as one of the measures in response to the growing HIV and Aids pandemics. Whereas supporters of criminalisation reason that it is the only possible response to halt the HIV pandemic, since ‘reckless’ behaviour needs to be ‘criminalised’, opponents of these legislative changes are united in the view that any form of criminalising the transmission of HIV is a gross human rights violation. Moreover, the criminalisation of HIV transmission will further deter people, particularly from vulnerable and marginalised groups, from using HIV testing services.