What is meant by “the right to health”?

The right to the highest attainable standard of health (referred to as “the right to health”) was
first reflected in the WHO Constitution (1946) and reiterated in the 1978 Declaration of Alma
Ata and in the World Health Declaration adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1998. It has been firmly endorsed in a wide range of international and regional human rights instruments.
The right to the highest attainable standard of health in international human rights law is a
claim to a set of social arrangements – norms, institutions, laws, an enabling environment –
that can best secure the enjoyment of this right.
The most authoritative interpretation of the right to health is outlined in Article 12 of the ICESCR, which has been ratified by 145 countries (as of May 2002). In May 2000, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors the Covenant, adopted a General Comment on the right to health. General Comments serve to clarify the nature and content of individual rights and States Parties’ (those states that have ratified) obligations. The General Comment recognized that the right to health is closely related to and dependent upon the realization of other human rights, including the right to food, housing, work, education, participation, the enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, life, non-discrimination, equality, the prohibition against torture, privacy, access to information and the freedoms of association,assembly and movement.

Further, the Committee interpreted the right to health as an inclusive right extending not only
to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such
as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe
food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions and access to health-related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health.

The General Comment sets out four criteria by which to evaluate the right to health:
(a) Availability. Functioning public health and health-care facilities, goods and services, as
well as programmes, have to be available in sufficient quantity.
(b) Accessibility. Health facilities, goods and services have to be accessible to everyone without
discrimination, within the jurisdiction of the State party. Accessibility has four overlapping
dimensions:
• Non-discrimination;
• Physical accessibility;
• Economic accessibility (affordability);
• Information accessibility.
(c) Acceptability. All health facilities, goods and services must be respectful of medical
ethics and culturally appropriate, sensitive to gender and life-cycle requirements, as well
as designed to respect confidentiality and improve the health status of those concerned.
(d) Quality. Health facilities, goods and services must be scientifically and medically appropriate
and of good quality.