History, principles and practice of health and human rights

Series, Health and Human Rights
History, principles, and practice of health and human rights
Sofia Gruskin JD a , Edward J Mills PhD b and Daniel Tarantola MD c
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Summary
Introduction
A brief history of health and human rights
Human rights and health policy
Applying human rights to health
Concerns for the future
Steps forward
References
Summary
Individuals and populations suffer violations of their rights that affect health and wellbeing. Health professionals have a part to play in reduction and prevention of these violations and ensuring that health-related policies and practices promote rights. This needs efforts in terms of advocacy, application of legal standards, and public-health programming. We discuss the changing views of human rights in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and propose further development of the right to health by increased practice, evidence, and action.Back to top
This is the first in a Series of four papers about health and human rights
Introduction
Blatant violation of human rights affecting the health of both individuals and populations continues. Examples include the torture of detainees in Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq;1 systematic rapes and murders in the Balkans,2 Rwanda,3 Chechnya,4 and Darfur;5 physician involvement in torture,6 botched executions;7 inhumane experimentation;8 and questionable interrogation techniques in the so-called war on terror.1,9,10 Such violations of human rights can be engineered by or endorsed by governments, institutions of power, and individuals. These deplorable violations exist alongside more subtle activities that also have severe and longlasting effects on health and human rights such as absence of basic health-care systems;11 policies keeping medicines unaffordable;12 and tolerance of discrimination against groups such as injecting drug users,13 people with mental-health disorders,14,15 illegal immigrants,16 or homeless people.17 The continuing and foreseeable absence of access to effective care for most people living with most diseases in poor countries can also be viewed as a violation of human rights.18 Therefore human rights should be imperative in delivery of care and implementation of public-health programmes.
Three main relations between health and human rights exist: the positive and negative effects on health of promotion, neglect, or violation of human rights; the effect of health on the delivery of human rights; and the effects of public-health policies and programmes on human rights.19 Despite the advances in the study and advocacy of health and human rights we still do not fully understand the nature of these relationships, how they interact, or their value to medicine and public-health practice. In this article we address the public health aspects of these relations, and highlight where further research and action are needed./.../