This chapter begins by discussing the emergence of health in the corpus of international human rights. It covers health in the World Health Organization (WHO) constitution, the right to health in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), health in the United Nations human rights treaty system, and the right to health in the regional treaty system. It then turns to the scope of the right to health, which covers both specific elements of the health system (obligations) and the realization of other human rights that contribute to health (specific health-related human rights). The final section discusses the means and methods implementing the right to health.
This chapter examines the issue of access to medical products, vaccines, and medical technologies from the perspective of a human right predicated upon two other rights: the right to health and the right to benefit from scientific progress. In addition to discussing evolving international human rights standards, it addresses domestic implementation and litigation related to incentivizing research into and development of means through which to treat and prevent diseases that have a disproportionate burden in developing countries, as well as strategies aimed at improving universal access to medical products, vaccines, and medical technologies.
