A/HRC/4/28
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responsibility of saying that the State could be doing better and requiring it to try again. Of
course, courts are not a panacea; for example, sometimes authorities are slow to comply with
court orders. Nonetheless, as one form of accountability, courts have a significant role to play in
the promotion and protection of health-related rights.
89.
While this section signals only a few of the many health-related cases that have been
decided in recent years, in early 2007 WHO, with the support of the Emory University Institute
of Human Rights in the United States, will launch a database that will include information on
many other national and international health-related cases concerning human rights.74
IV. CONCLUSIONS
90.
In 2006, the Special Rapporteur explained to the Human Rights Council that,
working in close collaboration with others, he hoped to have sufficient resources to identify
and examine the key features of a health system that were reflective of the international
human right to health (see E/CN.4/2006/48, para. 21). In the interactive dialogue following
the presentation of his report, the Special Rapporteur was encouraged to take this idea
forward. Although the subject is extremely ambitious and his resources equally limited,
the Special Rapporteur is trying to respond to this interest by beginning to explore this
challenging issue.
91.
The right to the highest attainable standard of health can be understood as a right
to an effective and integrated health system, encompassing health care and the underlying
determinants of health, which is responsive to national and local priorities, and accessible
to all (see ibid., para. 4). More specifically, however, when looking at a health system from
the right-to-health perspective, what are the key components that need to be present? For
example, from a human rights perspective a health system will have to include an adequate
system for the collection of health data; otherwise, it will be impossible for the State, or any
other interested party, to monitor the progressive realization of the right to health.
Moreover, the data must be disaggregated on certain grounds, such as sex, age and
urban/rural, otherwise it will be impossible to monitor the progressive realization of the
right to health in relation to vulnerable populations, such as women, children and those
living in remote rural communities (see ibid., para. 49 (b)).
92.
Also, from the right-to-health perspective, a health system will have to include a
national capacity to produce a sufficient number of well-trained health workers who enjoy
good terms and conditions of employment; a process for the preparation of right-to-health
impact assessments before major health-related policies are finalized; arrangements for
ensuring, as much as possible, “bottom-up” participation in the formulation of health
policies; effective, transparent and accessible mechanisms of accountability; and so on.
93.
These are some of the issues that the Special Rapporteur is beginning to explore
with a view to identifying some of the key features of a health system from the
right-to-health perspective. He invites others to support and collaborate with him in this
very major undertaking and he hopes to have the opportunity to report further to the
Council as this work unfolds.
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