A case for integrating human rights in public health policy

London, Leslie

A case for integrating human rights in public health policy

Journal Article

2006

Journal Title

South African Medical Journal

Link to Journal

http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health

Faculty

Faculty of Health Sciences

Abstract

In a global environment where human rights and well-being are coming under increasing threat, both from the spectre of terrorism and from the counter-reaction to it,1 and where international governance systems continue to pay lip service to poverty reduction while encouraging unbridled private accumulation of wealth resulting in huge inequalities between and within countries,2,3 the need to make human rights considerations an integral part of how public health policies are formulated cannot be overemphasised. Contestation over entitlements to socio-economic rights has troubled health care systems worldwide, from resource-poor settings in Africa, where questions have been raised as to whether human rights approaches are best suited to addressing the problem of AIDS in Africa,4,5 through to the over-consumptive USA where universal access to health care remains a policy objective doomed to unfulfilment under market-fixated economic systems.6,7

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