Access to Medicines and Human Rights

This chapter will introduce you to key issues and resources in access to medicines and human rights. In addition, this chapter will help you understand why, more now than ever, access to medicines must be understood and approached as a human rights issue. Some of these issues are also addressed in Chapter 1 on Patient Care, Chapter 2 on HIV/AIDS, Chapter 3 on Tuberculosis and Human Rights, and Chapter 5 on Palliative Care and Human Rights. The chapter is organized into ve sections that answer the following questions: 1. How is access to medicines a human rights issue? 2. What is a human rights-based approach to advocacy, litigation, and programming? 3. What are some examples of effective human rights-based work in the area of access to medicines? 4. Where can I nd additional resources on human rights-based approach to access to medicines? 5. What are key terms related to a human rights-based approach to access to medicines