Global Health and Human Rights

Most people can probably agree that it is a right to be free of torture and inhumane degrading treatment and violence. How about the right to food and nutrition, and the right to information? If you find yourself agreeing with the fact that these are human rights, then you can probably agree with the statement that human rights are explicitly connected with health care. Health goes beyond eating the right foods or getting enough exercises. Health is about reducing ill health with the promotion of education and access to information, especially having the ability to inform one's self. It is allowing everyone to actively participate in the health of their families as well as their communities. It is about being free from discrimination, and the ability for movement; the promotion of human rights through health development. Health care is about not only keeping people healthy but protecting and assuring their well being is safe. Protecting them from inhumane torture and slavery, as well as having the ability to prevent preventable deaths; diarrheal diseases, malaria, childbirth complications etc. Once delving into the issue, it is evident that healthcare are human right.
 

"Tens of millions of Americans don't have access to basic care for prevention and treatment of Illness"

~Atul Gawande

Health and human rights is a massive topic with many different point of views. One point of view on this topic is that of the healthcare providers.Atul Gawande is an American surgeon as well as a journalist. He is known in the Public Health world as an expert on reducing medical errors, improving saving and increasing efficiency in surgery.In his article "Something Wicked This Way Comes”, he discusses the issue of human rights and access to healthcare. What sparked his article was Supreme Court passing the "Obamacare" act. Which is an interesting point of view on this issue of human rights and health care. Patients come to doctors with often-preventable diseases but due to lack of insurance they have to turn them away. That insurance companies are the ones deciding who gets what treatment (or treated at all) instead of the healthcare providers. With the insurance companies dictating who gets what treat or even treated at all, we have insurance companies running our healthcare system here in the states. Gawande makes a key point that due to the lack of access of healthcare there are millions of Americans are dying from preventable diseases. 

50 Milligrams Is Not Enough is a piece that was filmed in Ukraine and follows Vlad as he suffers daily in pain from cancer. Upon diagnosis, the doctor to told him, “Go home and live as much as God will grant you.” It has been over three months since he was last seen for care.Dr. Irina Shlyaga with Oncology provides palliative care for other cancer patients and states that she believes there to be over one million Ukrainian patients that are in need of palliative care. (Palliative care is health care that focuses on relieving pain and the prevention of suffering.) The number is large enough to affect every family in the Ukraine.

The government limits the amount of daily pain medication to injections and the amount is not sufficient to relieve pain until the next dose.  There is access to over the counter pain relievers, but this is not an adequate supplement. In addition, the family becomes the sole caregiver – forcing them to use their limited medical knowledge and places additional burden on an already difficult circumstances.Two questions that are elicited from this film are: Is it humane to deny patients sufficient palliative treatment?  Is it the government’s responsibility to ensure that each individual lives and dies without suffering?

UN Human Rights Council has opened an interesting topic amongst the necessities of the world. That is the access to medicines, which in turn are part of the access to primary health care. In the article, Mr. Kelly mentions that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution that aims to consult with an expert to exchange views on human rights. A problem that seems to appear is that with this, it might jeopardize the private property rights of multinational pharmaceutical companies. Multinational pharmaceutical companies will not easily give up their private property rights. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) mentions “ Right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” This to be true in developing countries and developed countries as well.The World Health Organization is in charge of directing authority for health within the UN systems. This means that the WHO would work in a committee base, where they get ideas from experts, in order to have a worldwide standard or plan for the provision of medication and health care. By providing guidelines that support the realization of the right of access to medicines in context of national health security. Also providing leadership on Global Health matters. 

The results is:

a.) The shaping the health research agenda

b.) Setting norms and standards

c.) Articulating evidence-based policy options

d.) Providing technical support to countries

e.) Monitoring and assessing health trends.

The future steps are based on the results of the provision of leadership within the global health matters. The committee will be able to better monitor whether state parties have taken the necessary steps to provide access to medicines, also they will dedicate sufficient public resources to providing access to medicines, and to coarse pharmaceutical companies into providing free or low cost access to medicines both nationally and abroad.

“Made in China”. Everything from Iphones and notebooks to shoes and clothes are partially or entirely assembled in China. High-end luxury brands are also jumping on the bandwagon and paying for labor overseas. (Moleskine planners are designed in Italy and made in China). The recent surge in economic growth has not occurred without cost and consequences. In order to continue (growth) and increase production, the Chinese Communist party has been evicting Chinese residents from their homes with little or no warning. In one incident, a 70-year-old woman was buried alive in her home as they demolished it to ruins. Land and resources are essential to keep money flowing. People’s health and the social determinants that are affected by abrupt eviction are of no concern to a communist party that rewards officials for adding to that wealth by whatever means necessary. 

Not Just a Tragedy: Access to Medications as a Right Under International Law

Alicia Yamin starts the article talking about the burden of HIV/AIDS in the world, affecting those countries that are low in resources and those who lack the access to medications that control and help manage this disease. Countries such as Sub-Sahara, where 29.4 million adults and children are living with HIV/AIDS. They are dying everyday due to the lack of access to those medications that could save their lives. As for in the West there has been, more resources offered for HIV infected people. The author lists the public perspective on the access to medications: Rational selection and use of medications, sustainable adequate financing, affordable prices, and reliable health and supply systems. Human Right Principles include the access to health care facilities and trained personnel, non-discriminatory access including race, ethnic group, color, sex, language, religion, political or national or social origin, property, birth or other. It is difficult sometimes for people of the West to think about these principles, because there is not obvious discriminatory access to health care, while in other countries, especially those at civil war, they consider religion, race, etc to determine the access of the person to health care including medications. “Discrimination implies enjoyment of people’s rights to life and to health which violate International Law.” (Yamin) Discrimination is the violation of International Law, because it does not allow the right of people to health and life.The right to life is the inclusion of conditions that promote and sustain life with dignity, in order to people and their nations to progressively realize their right to health. The obligations that are included in these Human rights provisions, provides practical basis for policymaking. But one thing's for sure; handouts that are provided by pharmaceutical companies do not address affordability in long term. Because handouts do not have a strategic plan nor an implementation of progress to the provision of health care and medications. 

This blog post was brought to you by Group 9, Asia, Camille, Dominique, Shannon and Valery.