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Chapter 8 - International Human Rights Law and the Social Determinants of Health

from Section 2 - Global Health Ethics, Responsibilities, and Justice: Some Central Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2021

By
Lisa Forman
Edited by
Solomon Benatar  and
Gillian Brock
Solomon Benatar
Affiliation:
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Cape Town
Gillian Brock
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, University of Auckland
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Summary

In its proclamation that “social injustice is killing people on a grand scale,” the 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) squarely locates the achievement of global health equity within the realm of ethics, social justice, and human rights (WHO, 2008: 26). The report is explicit about the human rights aspect of this injustice, continuing that while “[t]he right to the highest attainable standard of health is enshrined in the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) and numerous international treaties … the degree to which these rights are met from one place to another around the world is glaringly unequal” (WHO, 2008: 26). Links between human rights and the social determinants of health have been reiterated in subsequent global health policies, including the 2011 Rio Declaration on the Social Determinants of Health and the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Type
Chapter
Information
Global Health
Ethical Challenges
 , pp. 122 - 135
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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