Health Care and Health Laws

The right to health is a fundamental part of our human rights and of our understanding of a life in dignity. The right to health is the economic, social and cultural right to a universal minimum standard of health to which all individuals are entitled. The two decades witnessed the end of the 20th century promising to some the end of the world and human life, or at the least a massive collapse of electronic communication networks, while foretelling to others a 21st century and a new millennium of peace, security, justice and equitable global economic opportunities. The right to health, i.e. the right to the highest attainable standard of health, makes governments responsible for prevention, treatment and control of diseases and the creation of conditions to ensure access to health facilities, goods and services required to be healthy. Primarily located within legal frameworks that focus on civil and political rights, to right to health is more frequently being used to challenge abuses of health by invoking social and intemationally accepted as civil and political right. Understanding health as a human right creates a legal obligation on states to ensure access to timely, acceptable, and affordable health care of appropriate quality as well as to providing for the underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable water, sanitation, food, housing, health-related information and education, and gender equality.