“Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, race, religion, language or other status.” (http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/human-rights-basics) An example of a human right is that “all humans are born free.” (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/) Human rights are important to public health and public health is important to human rights, because without both people will have neither. As such, the right is in protected in the Declaration and without that, it may not be honoured.
A certain standard of living is necessary to be healthy and therefore is included in Article 25 of the UDHR. If a person has no money, they are unable to buy proper food and clean water and are subsequently more susceptible to diseases. According to Dr. John Butterfly, executive director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, “chronic malnutrition often leads to a compromised immune system and makes a person unable to fight off organisms ‘that a normally fed human would barely notice’.” (Wall Street Journal. “Starving in India: The Forgotten Problem”) This is not just a problem in other countries. The University of Wisconsin did a study of 3,000 counties in the USA. “The five least-healthy counties generally had more than twice the teenage birth rate of the five healthiest counties, and more than twice the share of poor children.” (The Economist. “Beyond the mandate: Improving America’s health will take more than universal insurance”) Clearly there is a link between a good standard of living and one’s health As the Wall Street Journal article points out, without a basic standard of living people die, thus it is a major human right.
States must guarantee “women of all racial and economic backgrounds timely and non-discriminatory access to appropriate maternal health services”. (Maternal mortality and human rights: Landmark decision by United Nations human rights body) A committee made some recommendations on how to provide “appropriate maternal health services”. There should be emergency obstetric care, professional training for healthcare providers, ensure that facilities are up to standards, and monitoring of maternal deaths.
Motherhood is specifically mentioned in the UDHR and addressed by the Committee of the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women simply because mothers are very vulnerable. Furthermore, because pregnancy is a cumbersome, long, and risky condition, women must be given further protection. Obviously, pregnant women have more physical limitations than they would have otherwise. Any risk that a pregnant woman faces also could harm the baby. Mothers are also specifically mentioned because women are generally the primary caregivers. Protecting the mother is protecting the children. For example, in countries where there are not a lot of infant food options, infants rely on breastfeeding. If the mother has died or is unable to care for her child, that child’s risk of mortality would be higher and their development would also be hindered which will impact their lifelong well-being.
Hi Kat – thank you for this blog – you did a really nice job!
ReplyDeleteYou had a very nice definition of human rights. I agree that human rights and public health are intertwined, in that public health helps to inform human rights and human rights help to enforce public health measures. Many people have made public health advances using a human rights framework. These types of arguments (due largely to multinational agreements such as the UDHR) make it difficult for countries to avoid taking some sort of action.
Your explanation of the UDHR’s inclusion of standard of living is excellent. It’s important to recognize all of the ways that our environment and ability to support ourselves affects our health, and sobering to realize that this is a problem worldwide, even in developed countries like our own (though you didn’t bring up Canada!). Great use of outside resources!
Nice job also on the third question regarding state guarantees. I have nothing to add except the caveat that if the government outsources the required medical services, they are still responsible for its adequate provision.
You also hit the nail on the head with the last question – mothers, especially when pregnant, are considered a vulnerable population. They are also generally the primary caregivers as you point out and so are responsible for more than one person for longer than the actual pregnancy and breastfeeding stages.
Great job on this blog – keep up the strong work!