By Cliff Montgomery – June 22nd, 2009
A U.N. legal interpretation released in 2000 states that health care is a basic human right recognized by international law, declaring that “the right to health [is] an inclusive right that extends…to timely and appropriate health care.”
A World Health Organization (WHO) report first published in February 2003 provides several excellent points on this matter, declaring that every person has a recognized human right to the “highest attainable standard of health.” The WHO report discusses the U.N. legal interpretation from 2000, as well as other conventions, declarations and comments that recognize health as a basic human right.
The WHO study’s primary focus is on every human being’s natural right to clean drinking-water. But one notices that the report’s wider argument–the natural right to health–also entails every person’s fundamental right to adequate and affordable medical care.
Thus it seems that the only matter an American political representative may rightfully discuss regarding public health care is how it may best be provided to all U.S. citizens.
Keep that in mind as you read a number of quotes below from the WHO report:
“Water is the essence of life. Without water, human beings cannot live for more than a few days. It plays a vital role in nearly every function of the body, protecting the immune system – the body’s natural defenses – and helping remove waste matter.
“But to do this effectively, water must be accessible and safe. Lack of safe water is a cause of serious illnesses such as diarrheal diseases, which kill over 2 million people every year (the vast majority children, mostly in developing countries). Contaminated water, whether drunk or used to cook food, harms people’s health.”
“Access to a regular supply of safe water is a basic human right, as is access to unadulterated food. But as with other human rights, too many people miss out.”
“Human rights are protected by internationally guaranteed standards that ensure the fundamental freedoms and dignity of individuals and communities. They include civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.”
“The range of human rights has been enshrined in a number of international conventions and declarations. The right to health was recognized as early as 1946, when the Constitution of the World Health Organization stated that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being (WHO, 1946).
“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (UN, 1948) adopted two years later guaranteed all people a right to a standard of living adequate for their health and well-being.
“Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes ‘the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.'”
“In 2000, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights–the Covenant’s supervisory body–adopted a General Comment on the right to health that provides a normative interpretation of the right to health as enshrined in Article 12 of the Covenant. This General Comment interprets the right to health as an inclusive right that extends not only to timely and appropriate health care but also to those [other] factors that determine good health [italics added].”
