Alicia Ely Yamin and Paola Bergallo Context As this special section of Health and Human Rights goes to press, women’s access to sexual and reproductive health, including safe and legal abortion, faces both old and new threats in many corners of the world. Among other things, the US government under Donald Trump decided to defund the United Nations Population Fund and to reinstate and expand the so-called Global Gag Rule…
Editorial – Narratives of Essentialism and Exceptionalism: The Challenges and Possibilities of Using Human Rights to Improve Access to Safe Abortion
Alicia Ely Yamin and Paola Bergallo Context As this special section of Health and Human Rights goes to press, women’s access to sexual and reproductive health, including safe and legal abortion, faces both old and new threats in many corners of the world. Among other things, the US government under Donald Trump decided to defund the United Nations Population Fund and to reinstate and expand the so-called Global Gag Rule…
Drug Policies and Indigenous Peoples
Julian Burger and Mary Kapron Abstract This paper identifies the principal concerns of indigenous peoples with regard to current international treaties on certain psychoactive substances and policies to control and eradicate their production, trafficking, and sale. Indigenous peoples have a specific interest in the issue since their traditional lands have become integrated over time into the large-scale production of coca, opium poppy, and cannabis crops, in response to high demand…
International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Control: A Tool for Securing Women’s Rights in Drug Control Policy
Rebecca Schleifer and Luciana Pol Abstract Discrimination and inequality shape women’s experiences of drug use and in the drug trade and the impact of drug control efforts on them, with disproportionate burdens faced by poor and otherwise marginalized women. In recent years, UN member states and UN drug control and human rights entities have recognised this issue and made commitments to integrate a “gender perspective” into drug control policies, with…
Mechanisms of Accountability for the Realization of the Right to Health in China
Shengnan Qiu and Gillian MacNaughton Abstract China ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2001. It thus bears obligations under Article 12 of the covenant to take appropriate measures at the domestic level to realize the right to health in China. Accountability is an important component of the right to health. This article examines whether the Western concept of accountability, recently imported into China, has the…
Continue reading “Mechanisms of Accountability for the Realization of the Right to Health in China”
Mechanisms of Accountability for the Realization of the Right to Health in China
Shengnan Qiu and Gillian MacNaughton Abstract China ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2001. It thus bears obligations under Article 12 of the covenant to take appropriate measures at the domestic level to realize the right to health in China. Accountability is an important component of the right to health. This article examines whether the Western concept of accountability, recently imported into China, has the…
Continue reading “Mechanisms of Accountability for the Realization of the Right to Health in China”
Closing the Gap Between Formal and Material Health Care Coverage in Colombia
Everaldo Lamprea and Johnattan García Abstract This paper explores Colombia’s road toward universal health care coverage. Using a policy-based approach, we show how, in Colombia, the legal expansion of health coverage is not sufficient and requires the development of appropriate and effective institutions. We distinguish between formal and material health coverage in order to underscore that, despite the rapid legal expansion of health care coverage, a considerable number of Colombians—especially…
Continue reading “Closing the Gap Between Formal and Material Health Care Coverage in Colombia”
Closing the Gap Between Formal and Material Health Care Coverage in Colombia
Everaldo Lamprea and Johnattan García Abstract This paper explores Colombia’s road toward universal health care coverage. Using a policy-based approach, we show how, in Colombia, the legal expansion of health coverage is not sufficient and requires the development of appropriate and effective institutions. We distinguish between formal and material health coverage in order to underscore that, despite the rapid legal expansion of health care coverage, a considerable number of Colombians—especially…
Continue reading “Closing the Gap Between Formal and Material Health Care Coverage in Colombia”
Human Rights and the Political Economy of Universal Health Care: Designing Equitable Financing
Anja Rudiger Abstract Health system financing is a critical factor in securing universal health care and achieving equity in access and payment. The human rights framework offers valuable guidance for designing a financing strategy that meets these goals. This article presents a rights-based approach to health care financing developed by the human right to health care movement in the United States. Grounded in a human rights analysis of private, market-based…
What Do Core Obligations Under the Right to Health Bring to Universal Health Coverage?
Lisa Forman, Claudia Beiersmann, Claire E. Brolan, Martin McKee, Rachel Hammonds, and Gorik Ooms Abstract Can the right to health, and particularly the core obligations of states specified under this right, assist in formulating and implementing universal health coverage (UHC), now included in the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals? In this paper, we examine how core obligations under the right to health could lead to a version of UHC that is…