The Role of Justice in Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

This article explores social determinants of health (SDH) in the global context and their connection to justice and human rights. Critiquing prevailing top-down approaches, it demonstrates that policy responses can be divorced from local factors necessary for addressing SDH. The authors examine health justice partnerships (HJPs) and how interdisciplinary collaboration between health and legal services can address inequality and health disparities. This discussion is timely given the Hague Declaration on Equal Access to Justice for All by 2030 formulates five pillars of people-centered justice. From the 2023 "Plan of Action" comes a "Joint Statement and Call to Action on the Rule of Law and People-Centered Justice: Renewing a Core Pillar of Democracy," creating alignment between SDH and justice approaches for coordinated action. This article demonstrates how HJPs offer a unique avenue for driving change at the community level, advocating for systemic transformations to address poverty, inequality, and injustice. By driving change from local to international levels, multiple voices provide lenses for problem solving. Using American philosopher Carol C. Gould's theory of human rights, the authors explore how joint-disciplinary perspectives and moving beyond paternalistic intervention through integrating justice, human rights, and democracy can respond to drive outcomes in SDHs.