The Rights to Life, Dignity and the Highest Attainable Standard of Health: Internationally Influential African Jurisprudence.
J Law Med
; 28(1): 9-20, 2020 Dec.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1013719
ABSTRACT
The right to the highest attainable standard of health, existing under a number of international human rights instruments, including Art 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, has been incorporated in local law and in the constitutions of many countries. An important body of jurisprudence interpreting such rights and applying them in particular factual health scenarios is developing. Against the background of the South African Constitutional Court's 2002 landmark decision in Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign (No 2) (2002) 5 SA 721 in relation to access to HIV medications, this editorial reviews significant decisions in 2012 by Ngugi J of the Kenya High Court in PAO v Attorney General [2012] eKLR and by the Uganda Constitutional Court in 2020 in Center for Health, Human Rights and Development v Attorney General [2020] UGCC 12. It contends that this combination of high-profile judgments has breathed substance and significance into the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the entitlement to be treated with dignity and the right to life at a time when these rights may assume additional importance in the context of the availability and accessibility of vaccines for the COVID-19 virus.
Keywords
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Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Respect
/
COVID-19
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Law Med
Journal subject:
Jurisprudence
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States
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