Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2017
ISSN
1526-5161
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Language
en-US
Abstract
Responding to President Trump's anti-Muslim executive order restricting immigration, the American Public Health Association (APHA) issued a press release recommitting the organization to human rights, noting that "health and human rights are inextricably linked." The organization underlined the basic human rights norm of nondiscrimination, noting that "all people should be valued equally, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, immigration status, income or geographic region" and that whenever any groups of people are prevented from "experiencing basic human rights, all of our communities suffer" (APHA 2017). Human rights, especially the right to health, have also been at the core of the work of global public health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) 1948 Constitution, for example, enshrines "the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right of every human being." Achieving the right to health is broader than health care, and includes the right to food, clean water, housing, work, education, nondiscrimination, access to information, and political participation. The right to health also includes individual freedoms (e.g., bodily integrity, sexual and reproductive freedom, freedom from torture and nonconsensual medical experimentation) (WHO 2015).
Recommended Citation
George J. Annas,
(Public) Health and Human Rights: Of Bridges and Matrixes
,
in
17
The American Journal of Bioethics
13
(2017).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3500
