health goals for 2024

 The right to health is the economic, social and cultural right to the minimum standards of public health to which all individuals are entitled. The concept of the right to health is mentioned in many international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. There is controversy over the interpretation and application of the right to health due to considerations such as the definition of health, the minimum entitlements covered by the right to health, and which institutions are responsible for ensuring the right to health.

the definition

Constitution of the World Health Organization (1946)

The preamble to the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization defines health broadly as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of infirmity or disease,” and the Constitution defines the right to health as “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health.” It also enumerates some of the principles of this right, such as the healthy development of the child, the fair dissemination of medical knowledge and its benefits, and the social measures provided by the government to ensure appropriate health status.

The writer Frank B. describes The WHO Constitution “calls for securing the full scope of contemporary international public health,” establishing the right to health as a “fundamental and inalienable human right” that governments cannot deprive their citizens of, but on the contrary, they are obligated to protect and support. . The WHO Constitution's definition of the right to health is the first formal definition of this right in international law.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights issued in 1948 by the United Nations states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate to ensure the health and well-being of himself and of his family, especially food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also provides additional facilities for safety in cases of physical frailty or disability, and refers in particular to care for those in maternity or childhood.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is considered the first international declaration concerned with basic human rights, whether freedoms or entitlements. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay wrote that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “contains a vision that requires all civil, political, economic, social or cultural rights of the human being to be taken as an integrated, organic, interconnected and indivisible entity.” Likewise, Sophia Graskin, a health researcher, has asserted and Human Rights, with other researchers, “The interconnected nature of the rights expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has gone beyond the responsibility to provide basic health services to include factors determining health such as the provision of adequate education, housing, food, and favorable working conditions,” noting also that these factors are essentially Human rights, and necessary for the safety of his health.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965)

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted in 1965 and entering into force in 1969, addresses health briefly, calling on states “to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of every human being, without distinction as to race, colour, National or ethnic origin, equality before the law,” and under this clause refers to “the right to enjoy public health services, medical care, social security, and social services.”

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)

The United Nations also defines the right to health in Article XII of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which states:

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. The measures that States Parties to the present Covenant must take to secure the full exercise of this right include those necessary to:

Working to reduce the neonatal mortality rate and infant mortality rate and ensure healthy child development,

Improving all aspects of environmental and industrial health,

Prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases,

Creating conditions that would ensure medical services and medical care for everyone in the event of illness.

General Comment No. 14 (2000)

In 2000, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued General Comment No. 14, entitled “Critical issues arising in the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” in relation to article 12 and “the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health.” “. The General Comment provides clearer operational language on the freedoms and entitlements covered under the right to health.

The General Comment makes a direct comment that: “The right to health should not be understood solely as the right to good health. The right to health includes both freedoms and rights. As for freedoms, they include a person’s right to control his health and body according to the resources available to the state, and both of them may prevent a person’s right to be healthy for reasons that go beyond the influence or authority of the state. Article 12 mandates the State to recognize the right of every individual to the enjoyment of the best possible standards of health, and defines (at least in part) “the freedoms from...”, and the “rights to...” that accompany this right. However, it does not mandate the State to ensure All individuals shall enjoy full health, and individuals shall recognize the rights and opportunities mentioned in the right to health.