Rights Based Approaches to Public Health Systems

RIGHTS-BASED APPROACHES TO PUBLIC HEALTH, p. 19, Elvira Beracochea, Corey Weinstein & Dabney Evans, eds, November 2010

8 Pages Posted: 26 Dec 2011

See all articles by Benjamin Mason Meier

Benjamin Mason Meier

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lance Gable

Wayne State University Law School

Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Leslie London

University of Cape Town (UCT)

Date Written: 2010

Abstract

A rights-based approach to public health systems focuses on underlying determinants of health - the economic, political, and social systems that determine health status and have far greater impact on health than the provision of medicine. With an understanding that health vulnerability is societally structured, public health systems can be seen to protect and promote the health of entire societies, employing multidisciplinary interventions to address the underlying causes of health and disease. By employing the language of human rights in health-related issues such as equity, discrimination, and social marginalization, public health advocates can achieve tangible health policy gains. However, it is necessary that public health scholars first gain a deeper understanding of the language of human rights and how these legal obligations can be applied in alleviating underlying determinants of health at the societal level through public health systems.

This chapter reviews the terms of the human rights debate, assesses the evolution of human rights for the public's health, and applies the normative frameworks of the right to health to reform the public health systems necessary to address underlying determinants of health through national and global health policy.

Keywords: right to health, determinants of health, global health policy, national health policy, human rights

Suggested Citation

Meier, Benjamin Mason and Gable, Lance and Getgen Kestenbaum, Jocelyn and London, Leslie, Rights Based Approaches to Public Health Systems (2010). RIGHTS-BASED APPROACHES TO PUBLIC HEALTH, p. 19, Elvira Beracochea, Corey Weinstein & Dabney Evans, eds, November 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1977083

Benjamin Mason Meier (Contact Author)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( email )

CB 3435
103 Abernethy Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
United States
919-962-0542 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.benjaminmasonmeier.com/

Lance Gable

Wayne State University Law School ( email )

471 Palmer
Detroit, MI 48202
United States

Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Yeshiva University - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law ( email )

55 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10003
United States
212-790-0860 (Phone)

Leslie London

University of Cape Town (UCT) ( email )

Private Bag X3
Rondebosch, Western Cape 7701
South Africa

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