Constitutional Law and International Law

This interdisciplinary study analyses how the internationally guaranteed human ‘right to health’ is realized by States at a national level. It brings together scholars from more than ten different countries, each of them analyzing the right to health in his or her country or region. They all focus on particular themes that are important in their country, such as health inequalities, the Millennium Development Goals, or the privatization of healthcare. And despite the differences in context, lessons can be learned from the rich experiences of the others, to learn how different countries implement (or not) health-related rights.
In this book scholars, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of human rights law, health law, public health and their intersections will find a rich source of information, giving a boost to the international debate on propagation and implementation of the universal Right to Health.

Many countries have national health systems that cover all or part of the population. An aging population and advances in medical technology are making health insurance increasingly expensive, and governments are left seeking cost-effective options. The Dutch government is reorganizing its health care system and seeking to combine economic competition with a right to health in order to improve the health of its population. This article addresses privatization in terms of a right to health and asks whether governments can privatize their health care systems while also guaranteeing the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of health care services. It is suggested that a "right to health impact assessment" can be a useful tool applicable also to the privatization processes in other countries.

ABSTRACT: Sex selection embraces attempts to choose or influence the sex of a child before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after birth (infanticide). This paper examines these issues from an international human rights perspective and considers whether human rights laws ...

ABSTRACT This paper reflects a Keynote lecture held at the Conference of the European Association of Health Law, Riga, 28 April 2014. The paper discusses the legal milestones when it comes to access to health services. The legal contours of fair access to health services are clearly defined, and we now also have a number of helpful guideposts to implement the right, including the so-called 'AAAQ'. At the level of implementation and enforcement of this right, however, multiple complications arise.

ABSTRACT This paper explores the legal contours of the field of ‘health and human rights’ as a new and emerging field of human rights law. After an analysis of its conceptual foundations, it illustrates how health and human rights evolved from a phase of standard-setting to a field that was primarily addressed by public health experts, to a field that is haphazardly, but increasingly, addressed by legal scholars and practitioners. Subsequently, it briefly analyses the practice of judicial and quasi-judicial international bodies, in particular in the context of the UN and the Council of Europe, and it explores the legal perspectives of two important health and human rights-related topics: reproductive health, including the issue of abortion, and socio-economic health inequalities.

ABSTRACT This working paper discusses the nature and scope of international health law as an emerging field of public international law. It identifies and maps the sources of international health law, varying from human rights law, the standards adopted by the WHO, international humanitarian law, medical ethical standards, and trade-related standards. It asserts that the internationally recognized human 'right to health' is a core norm in this field which has an important unifying role to play. Subsequently it pays attention to a number of issues that arise in terms of global and national health governance, requiring a more effective implementation of these standards. It attempts to illustrate these problems by discussing a number of important health-related themes, including health security threats, access to healthcare services and the social determinants of health, and the tensions between fostering trade and protecting health, in light of the existing standards. The conclusion is that while international health law is an important field with a huge potential, enormous challenges lie ahead, especially in terms of strengthening the existing standards and addressing the responsibilities of non-state actors in the health field which are not directly bound by the standards.

Despite the fact that the right to health is solidly embedded in various international human rights documents, there remains widespread confusion about the precise meaning of this right and its legal ramifications. It is widely believed that the absence of a universal definition, together with the lack of clarity about the nature and scope of corresponding State obligations, impede States from realising the aspirations enshrined in the right to health. In fact, conceptual unclearness is also likely to discourage national judges and treaty monitoring bodies from critically measuring--and if necessary, enforcing--State compliance and to deter Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO'S) from using the existing national and international system to monitor compliance, to report violations and to engage in other activities typically performed by human rights advocacy groups. This article seeks to articulate the meaning of the right to health, by focusing on its core content and the obligat...

22.8. 4 Obligation to Protect..................................................... 451 22.8. 5 Accountability................. ............................................... 451 22.8. 6 Protection of Privacy...................................................... 452 22.9 Conclusions........ ... ... 22.4 Trends in Healthcare Commercialization Healthcare ...

This Commentary forms a response to Nikogosian's and Kickbusch's forward-looking perspective about the legal strength of international health instruments. Building on their arguments, in this commentary we consider what we can learn from the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) for the adoption of new legal international health instruments.

Social determinants of health are major contributors to population health as well as health inequalities. The public perception that health inequalities that arise from these social determinants are unjust seems to be widespread across societies. Nevertheless, there is also scepticism about the progress in the implementation of actual policies to reduce health inequalities. Scholars, activists and policy makers from various disciplinary backgrounds increasingly stress the value of the human rights approach to support policies addressing health inequalities, and to hold actors in policies to address social determinants accountable for these inequalities. The 'right to health' , in conjunction with the other health-related human rights, captures most elements of social determinants of health, and makes clear appeals to the governmental authorities at all levels to take action when social injustices occur. Existing judicial and non-judicial cases show us how human rights can be instrumental in addressing inequalities in health.