Transcending Available Resources: Improving Public Health Through the Right to Development Ashley M.

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Transcending Available Resources Improving
Public Health Through the Right to
DevelopmentAshley M. Fox, MA Benjamin Mason
Meier, JD, LLM, MPhil IGERT-International
Development Globalization Fellows, PhD
Candidates, Department of Sociomedical Sciences,
Columbia University
The States Parties to the present Covenant
recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment
of the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health - International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Art. 12(1)
(1966).
States have the right and the duty to formulate
appropriate national development policies that
aim at the constant improvement of the well-being
of the entire population and of all individuals
- Declaration on the Right to
Development, Art. 2(3) (1986).

• The Globalization of Disease
• Modernization has markedly improved health
  throughout the world, including increased life
  expectancies at birth and decreased infant and
  maternal mortality.
• Despite this, contemporary neoliberal economic
  policies (e.g., trade liberalization and state
  privatization) have led to insalubrious
  development and exacerbated inequality.
• Increased poverty and inequality is responsible
  for injurious health consequences, resulting in
  the rise of non-communicable and communicable
  diseases.
• Structural adjustment programs have reduced the
  capacity of states to provide medical care and
  diminished state public health systems.
• Rights-based economic development has failed to
  improve public health.
• Working through rights-based approaches to
  health, public health advocates have employed
  the individual human right to health in
  development discourses.
• However, this individual rightburdened by the
  principle of progressive realizationhas been
  ineffective in addressing underlying determinants
  of health, marginalizing public health actors in
  development.
• A right to health, if framed as part of a right
  to development, would allow states to challenge
  harmful development conditionalities.

• Introduction
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social
  and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) codified into
  international law an individual human right to
  health but limited this right only to the maximum
  of a states available resources, with a view to
  achieving progressively full realization of the
  right.
• Without development, states will be unable to
  increase their available resources to realize
  progressively the right to health however,
  neoliberal development policies have led to
  increasing poverty and inequality within and
  among states.
• Although the United Nations adopted the
  Declaration on the Right to Development, this
  collective human right was not initially linked
  to health outcomes, stymieing attempts to protect
  public health during structural adjustment.

• An Evolving Right to Development
• The adverse impact of neoliberal policies on
  public health in the developing world
  necessitates state responses through collective
  human rights.
• This collective human righta right to
  development, inhering in developing states
  themselvesobligates states and international
  organizations to address underlying determinants
  of health and the public health systems that
  structure them.

• A Synergy of Rights
• The collective right to development, as a vector
  of rights, should be viewed as both encompassing
  and incorporating an individual right to health.
• Without a right to development, less developed
  countries will be unable to progressively realize
  the highest attainable standard of health.
• Without health rights, the public health needs of
  the state will not be prioritized.
• This enhanced right to development could empower
  states and public health advocates to promote
  public health systems during development
  processes.

• Objectives
• To assess the human right to health as a means of
  ameliorating global disparities in public health
  outcomes.
• To compare the human rights implications of
  targeted health interventions with socio-economic
  interventions that influence underlying
  determinants of health.
• To analyze the role of the right to health in
  development discourses and the right to
  development in public health systems.

• Conclusions
• Acknowledging this synergy of rights would ensure
  that policies implemented to enhance development
  will not do so at the expense of public health.
• By creating a framework for discussing health
  within development discourses, international
  legal bodies could operationalize the right to
  development through concrete, measurable public
  health indicators for development policies.

• Methods
• Through legal and political analyses, this
  research examines whether modern processes of
  globalization necessitate incorporation of health
  rights in the right to development.