HEALTH RIGHTS
3
Among the more widely used are: the European Social Charter, and the Revised Charter (Art.
11); the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Art. 16), the American Declaration on
the Rights and Duties of Man (Art. 11), the Additional Protocol to the American Convention
on Human Rights In the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Matters (Protocol of San
Salvador, Art. 10), and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and
Eradication of Violence Against Women (Convention “Belém do Pará”).
4
CESCR General Comment No. 14, The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of
Health, UN doc. E/C.12/2000/4, para. 11.
5
Hunt, P., Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health The Right of Everyone
to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Physical and Mental Health, UN
doc. A/59/27 Sept. 2004 (advance edited version), para. 58.
6
Hunt, op. cit., para 58.
7
Social and Economic Rights Action Center and Center for Economic and Social Rights v.
8
CESCR General Comment No. 15, on The Right to Water, UN doc. E/C.12/2002/11,
Nigeria (Communication No. 155/96, 30th Ordinary Session, October 2001) paras 51–5.
para. 16.
9
For ‘special measures,’ see, e.g., ICERD, Article 2.
10
See CESCR General Comment No. 3, The Nature of States Parties’ Obligations, UN doc.
E/1991/23, Annex III, 1990, para. 10.
11
Ibid., para. 10; see also ‘Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and
12
E.g. Cortez et al. v. Instituto Venezolano de Seguros Sociales, Supreme Court of Venezuela,
Cultural Rights’, para. 9, reprinted in Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 2, 1998, p. 694.
Constitutional Chamber, 2001. Available at; www.tsj.gov.ve/decisiones/scon/Mayo/
881-080502-00-0995.htm (some prescribed ARV triple cocktail drugs removed and not
provided consistently); Jofre Mendoza et al. v. Ministerio de Salud, Constitutional Tribunal
of Ecuador, Third Court, Decision No. 0749-2003-RA (2004) (one prescribed ARV triple
cocktail drug not given to patient).
13
ICESCR Art. 2.
14
E.g. Ogoni case, op. cit.
15
E.g. Minister of Health v. Treatment Action Campaign, CCT 8/02, July 2002, Constitutional
Court of South Africa. (Government programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission
of HIV/AIDS ordered expanded from 18 pilot sites.)
16
CESCR General Comment No. 14, op. cit., para. 52.
17
Traditional practices that have been shown to be harmful, such as female genital cutting,
should be abolished in keeping with international human rights law (ICEDAW, Arts. 5 and 12).
18
CESCR General Comment No. 14, op. cit., para. 65.
19
See www.un.org/millenniumgoals
20
Hunt, op. cit., para. 11. The following goals are directly related to health: reduction of
child mortality (goal 4); improvement of maternal health (goal 5); combating HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases (goal 6); and ensuring environmental sustainability (goal 7).
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