The Universal Periodic Review: a valuable new procedure for the right to health?

The right to health has been cast in increasingly broad terms in international human rights law, as not only a right to healthcare but also to the underlying and social determinants of health. Drawing on this conception, we undertook an empirical review of how the right to health featured in the first two cycles of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, looking at the quantity of recommendations on the right to health, the distribution of these recommendations between different health issues and the types of action required. A significant proportion of recommendations were relevant to the right to health, but some health issues were neglected, and recommendations were often very vague. Our findings contrast with existing research that had found limited attention to the right to health in UPR recommendations. We argue that existing studies, in their objective to distinguish attention to specific but overlapping rights, cast the right to health in unduly narrow terms. Such methodological choices have significant practical implications, including a seeming reluctance of health stakeholders to engage in the Universal Periodic Review, perhaps because of perceptions of a neglect of health in UN human rights bodies. However, there are initiatives underway to strengthen participation in the UPR. By showing that health is firmly on the agenda, our analysis provides an incentive for health stakeholders to engage in a process that is widely and publicly discussed. This can in itself be important to address the shortcomings noted above – it should help put a broader range of health issues on the table, and support more operational recommendations. It should also help support the implementation of the UPR recommendations

Reducing maternal mortality: the contribution of the right to the highest attainable standard of health

Over half a million women die each year due to complications during pregnancy and birth. The vast majority of these deaths are preventable. Despite longstanding international commitments to reducing maternal mortality, progress to date has been disappointing. This publication introduces the contribution of the right to the highest attainable standard of health to reducing maternal mortality

Conscientious objection: protecting sexual and reproductive health rights

Healthcare providers' conscientious objection to involvement in certain procedures is grounded in the right to freedom of religion, conscience and thought. However, such conscientious objection can have serious implications for the human rights of healthcare users, including their sexual and reproductive health rights. This briefing paper examines the implications of conscientious objection, by healthcare providers, for the protection of sexual and reproductive health rights, and concludes with a set of recommendations for States' policies and laws

Mental Disability and the Human Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health

In the majority of countries, the right to health of persons with mental disabilities has been grossly neglected. Necessary healthcare and support services are frequently unavailable or inaccessible, while human rights abuses are often pervasive within services where they do exist. This article explores the right to health as it relates to persons with mental disabilities. It develops an analytical framework for the right to health, derived from General Comment 14 on the right to health of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and it applies this framework in the context of mental disabilities. Despite progress in developing appropriate services, additional policy and legislative initiatives are a prerequisite for the realization of the right to health for persons with mental disabilities. A human rights approach, including participation, autonomy, dignity, inclusion, monitoring, and accountability, should guide all relevant actions

The rights to sexual and reproductive health

Sexual and reproductive health are among the most sensitive and controversial issues in international human rights law, but they are also among the most important. This publication examines the outcomes of the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 and the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing held in Beijing in 1995 that can be applied alongside international human rights law standards in the context of sexual and reproductive health rights

The Right to Health and the Millennium Development Goals in developing countries: A Right to International Assistance and Cooperation?

The British Medical Association, in collaboration with Medact, provided a grant to support research on the duty of international assistance and cooperation, enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and its relationship to the right to health. The research examined this legal duty, its relationship with the Millennium Goals, jurisprudence, and examples of its practical application by States