The right to health includes not only the right to timely and appropriate health care services, but also the basic determinants of health. These include:
- An adequate supply of safe food, adequate nutrition, and adequate housing;
- Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation;
- Safe working conditions and a healthy environment; and
- access to health education and information, including sexual and reproductive health.
The right to health includes both freedoms and rights. Freedoms include the right to control one’s health, including the right not to be subjected without free consent to medical treatment or experimentation. Rights include the right to a health care system (health care and the underlying social determinants of health) that gives people equal opportunity to achieve the highest attainable standard of health.
The right to physical and mental health is a broad concept that can be divided into the following separate rights:
- maternal, child, and reproductive health;
- informed consent, personal integrity, freedom from torture, abuse, the right not to be subjected to harmful practices;
- safe working conditions and a healthy environment;
- prevention, treatment and control of diseases, including access to life-saving medicines;
- Access to safe drinking water.
Read more about the right to health in General Comment 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
State obligations
Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) defines the nature of States parties’ legal obligations.
General Comment 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights defines the obligations of states parties to ensure the right to health at the national level. These include the following obligations:
The obligation to respect the right to health requires states to refrain, among other things, from prohibiting or limiting equal access for all, including prisoners or detainees, minorities, asylum seekers and irregular migrants, to preventive, curative and palliative health services; from establishing discriminatory practices as a state practice; and from discriminatory practices in relation to women’s health and their needs.
The obligation to protect entails, among other things, the obligation of states to enact legislation or take other steps to ensure equal access to health care and health services provided by third parties. States must also ensure that third parties do not limit public access to health information and services.
The obligation to fulfil requires States parties, among other things, to give due place to the right to health in national political and legal systems, preferably by enshrining it in law, and to adopt a national health policy with a detailed right to health plan. The obligation also includes the adoption of positive measures by the State to enable and assist individuals and communities to enjoy the right to health.
While the realization of all Covenant rights must be achieved progressively, States have minimum core obligations that must be met without delay. These immediate obligations include guarantees of non-discrimination and equal treatment, as well as the obligation to take deliberate and concrete steps towards full realization of the right to health, such as the preparation of a nationwide public health strategy and action plan. Consistent implementation means that States parties have a specific continuing obligation to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible towards achieving full realization of the right to health.
