Category: Issues

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 103-104  PDF LETTER TO THE EDITOR Juliette Duffy In their recent paper “Food Security as a Social Determinant of Health: Tackling Inequalities in Primary Health Care in Spain,” Mireia Campanera, Mercè Gasull, and Mabel Gracia-Arnaiz explore the role that primary health centers play in addressing food insecurity in the Catalonia region of Spain and how food security is inextricably linked with the social determinants of health.[1]…

Continue reading “Climate Change as a Risk Factor for Food Insecurity in Spain”

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 177-189  PDF Michael G. Marcondes Smith Abstract Economic policies that concentrate wealth and aggravate socioeconomic inequalities often have negative impacts on human rights. For example, evidence points to the unequal impact of austerity measures—such as the defunding and privatizing of health care—on already disadvantaged groups and individuals. Despite its detrimental impacts, austerity often appears as a necessary evil in times when difficult choices must be made.…

Continue reading “Equality Restricted: The Problematic Compatibility between Austerity Measures and Human Rights Law”

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 191-197  PDF PERSPECTIVE Thalia Viveros-Uehara Introduction As climate change increases the prevalence of diseases, morbidity, and mortality, the half of the world’s population that still lacks access to quality, affordable, and resilient health care finds it more difficult to prevent, treat, and rehabilitate from such impacts.[1] They, who bear the least responsibility for the greenhouse gas emissions currently warming the Earth’s atmosphere—unlike the global richest 10%…

Continue reading “Climate Change and Economic Inequality: Are We Responding to Health Injustices?    “

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 205-217  PDF Luciano Bottini Filho Abstract Recognizing law as a determinant of scarcity in health care is vital. This paper underscores the need for a comprehensive approach to manage scarcity beyond intellectual property, using targeted regulations to promote affordability and counter market distortions. I argue that relying on law solely to ensure democratic deliberations for resource allocation overlooks market failures and economic inequalities that contribute to…

Continue reading “The Legal Determinants of Scarcity: Expanding Human Rights Advocacy for Affordability of Health Technologies”

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 53-65  PDF Zohar Lederman and Ryan Essex Abstract Thousands of Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli prisons without trial. For some of them, engaging in hunger strikes is the last resort in opposing unlawful detention and inhumane prison conditions. While mainstream bioethics deliberation, reasonable arguments, and international legal and medical professional declarations prohibit force-feeding, local ethical deliberations, professional medical guidelines, and legislation allow the use of…

Continue reading “Using Ethics Committees to Justify Force-Feeding Political Prisoners in Israel”

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 83-89  PDF PERSPECTIVE Lucas Miotto and Himani Bhakuni Introduction There is a proliferation of “justice” talk in health—and perhaps rightly so. We often hear about climate, distributive, epistemic, gender, racial, reproductive, and other forms of justice. This essay adds another form of justice to the list: transitional health justice. “Transitional health justice” derives its core from “transitional justice.” The latter is used by human rights scholars,…

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Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 125-139  PDF Rossella De Falco, Timothy Fish Hodgson, Matt McConnell, and A. Kayum Ahmed Abstract Private actors’ involvement in health care financing, provision, and governance contributes to economic inequality. This paper provides an overview of emerging normative trends regarding private actors’ involvement in health care by reviewing and critically analyzing international and regional human rights standards on the right to the highest attainable standard of physical…

Continue reading “Assessing the Human Rights Framework on Private Health Care Actors and Economic Inequality”

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 105-110  PDF EDITORIAL Gillian MacNaughton and A. Kayum Ahmed The emergence of neoliberalism 50 years ago has led to a marked increase in economic inequality and an undermining of economic, social, and cultural rights. The papers in this special section examine the role of neoliberal policies in exacerbating economic inequality, while at the same time considering how these policies deliberately prevent efforts to progressively realize the…

Continue reading “Economic Inequality and the Right to Health: On Neoliberalism, Corporatization, and Coloniality”

Vol 25/2, 2023, pp. 1-14  PDF EDITORIAL Joseph J. Amon Introduction Where are we, in this moment, in our efforts to realize a right to health for all? As I take on the role of editor-in-chief of Health and Human Rights Journal, this question preoccupies me. I began thinking about it while reflecting on the legacies of the editors who preceded me—Jonathan Mann, Sofia Gruskin, and Paul Farmer—towering figures, pioneering…

Continue reading “Realizing the Right to Health: A Long and Winding Road”

Vol 25/1, 2023, pp. 207-212  PDF PERSPECTIVE A. Kayum Ahmed, Joe Baker, and Hadrien Coumans Introduction Human rights have historically advanced an anthropocentric world view that reinforces the right to health of human beings, disconnected from the health of nonhuman nature and what the Lenape people refer to as Kahèsëna Hàki (Mother Earth).[1] For the Lenape and other American Indian nations, as well as many Indigenous communities globally, the border…

Continue reading “Wëlamàlsëwakàn (Good Health): Reimagining the Right to Health through Lenape Epistemologies”