Right to Health

Right to Health

Right to Health

Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 25 states that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family".

Theme in the news

Advancing Global Health - A Shared Responsibility

15/05/08

An essay by The Elders' Gro Harlem Brundtland and Mary Robinson

Imagine living in a country in which you share your doctor with 50,000 others: this is Malawi today...


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Novo Nordisk pledges its support for Human Rights

8/04/08

Healthcare Company Novo Nordisk just published a report on the 'right to health' and pledging its support for the aims of the Every Human Has Rights campaign...


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Robinson speaks on right to health talk in Alberta

3/04/08

"I can tell you that for millions of people around the world, health is perhaps the most valuable of all human rights. It is inseparable from the right to life and security. And it is women, children and marginalized populations that continue to suffer by far the worst deal..." - Mary Robinson

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Right to Health

The Universal Declaration as a Foundation

The principles laid out in Article 1 and Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have laid a strong foundation from which to build. Following are some of the institutional tools that build on that foundation, protecting our right to health.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1966)

The convention reaffirms the universal protection of the right to adequate health and proscribes deprivation or rights based upon race.

Consider Article 5, which affirms, regardless of race, "The right to public health, medical care, social security and social service"...

Learn More about the Right to Health in the last 60 Years

Every person can make a difference

Pledge to stand up for the Right to Health




Save the Children - Children's Right to Health

Health is an issue that touches everyone, and those most affected are the most vulnerable among us - children. Sixty years have passed since the UDHR's adoption, yet nearly 10 million children are still dying every year for lack of access to basic healthcare and adequate nutrition.

Save the Children and the Every Human Has Rights campaign are working together to help get the world back on track to drastically reduce the numbers of children dying before they reach their fifth birthday.

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Learn More About our Right to Health

  • The Access to Medicine Index, which measures and compares the efforts of drug companies to help close the gap in health care access around the world.

Living the principles of the Universal Declaration

Here are a few profiles of people who uphold the principles of the Universal Declaration through their work on the right to health. If you have a story about the right to health from your community, please share it with us here.

Ann Mikia

Changing Kenyan Attitudes about HIV/AIDS One Radio Show at a Time - standing up for human rights

Since she started producing her weekly radio program, "A Stitch in Time" in 2004, Ann Mikia has covered a number of HIV/AIDS issues in-depth that had never been covered before or covered only superficially on Kenyan radio. Mikia became interested in reporting on HIV/AIDS when she was in college and became aware of how much stigma there was surrounding people who were infected. Since 2006, she has been sharing her knowledge with other journalists in her role as a Specialist Radio Trainer for Internews.

Chukwumuanya Igboekwu

Medical Activist Fighting HIV/AIDS - standing up for human rights
As a doctor working in Nigeria's remote Niger province, Chukwumuanya Igboekwu confronted the reality of AIDS in rural Africa: In 2003 an estimated 99.5% of the estimated 22,000 people with HIV/AIDS could not afford anti-retroviral medications. He began a local campaign to secure a significant increase in health funds in the provincial budget. The four-hour drive from Igboekwu's home in rural Sahon-rami to the state capital became a regular one.

Daniel Magnus

Kenyan Orphan Project, Protecting Vulnerable Children From Injustice - standing up for human rights
With Rebecca Leslie and Owain Evans, Dan Magnus founded the Kenyan Orphan Project in 2001. Teams of UK medical students now travel to Kenya, using their skills to assist with projects that feed, educate and provide access to healthcare for hundreds of children in the region. They have built facilities so that orphans and street children can leave the streets for safe feeding and school environments. As a result hundreds of children are now educated and healthy, rather than labouring, hungry and vulnerable to substance and physical abuse.