Social Work Interventions and Strategies to promote Health Rights – A Panel Discussion
Ragland Remo Paul*
Introduction:
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 10th December 1948 states as follows;
“(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”
This is the basis on which the concept note of this conference has been formulated. People’s Health Assembly on the 8th December 2000 endorsed the People’s Charter for Health, which states as follows,
“HEALTH AS A HUMAN RIGHT – Health is a reflection of a society’s commitment to equity and justice. Health and human rights should prevail over economic and political concerns. This Charter calls on people of the world to:
9. Support all attempts to implement the right to health.
10. Demand that governments and international organizations reformulate, implement and enforce policies and practices, which respect the right to health.
11. Build broad-based popular movements to pressure governments to incorporate health and human rights into national constitutions and legislation.
12. Fight the exploitation of people’s health needs for purposes of profit.”
Violations or non-existence of human rights and in specific in health rights is not a result of any single factor. Health is not merely a physical issue. It is a social, economic and political issue and above all a fundamental human right. Inequality, poverty, exploitation, violence and injustice have been instrumental in the violation of health rights for the poor and marginalized (and in some cases the rich and those with access to health care.)
Here today at this panel discussion we are going to try and explore the interventions and strategies that we as social workers can do to promote health rights. This paper does not claim to provide for the entire list of interventions and strategies to promote health rights, but will certainly look at some critical areas. The main attempt of this paper is to set our minds thinking in this critical area of human rights, to innovate and formulate strategies to promote health rights.
Human rights are the rights in which all the human beings are entitled by virtue of their being as a human (Manchester University Press, 2001). The concept of the human rights itself is an abstract. However, when it is applied, it has the direct and enormous impact on the daily life of the people in the world. How the human rights applied in the broader circumstance is really having a long journey. Until in 1945, after the World War II, the United Nations (UN) was established as one of the effort to uphold the human rights to encourage the governments in promoting and guarding the human rights. Human rights are a central element of international law and also the UN Charter’s broad approach for the international peace and security
Equality in health implies that ideally everyone should have a fair opportunity to attain his or her full health potential and, more reasonably, that no one should be disadvantaged from achieving this potential. Based on this definition, the aim of policy for equity and health is not to eliminate all health differences so that everyone has the same level and quality of health, but rather to reduce or eliminate those which result from factors which are considered to be avoidable and unfair. To appreciate the importance of striving for equity in relation to health, it is necessary to be aware of just how extensive are the differences in health found in the world today. In every part of the region, and in every type of political and social system, differences in health have been noted between different social groups and between different geographical areas in the same country (Whitehead 2000). There is consistent evidence that inequalities in health result in disadvantaged groups having poorer survival chances, suffering a heavier burden of illness, and sharing a similar pattern of low quality of life
Charter of Rights and Freedoms s. 7 “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and should not be discriminated or segregated from the fundamental freedom principles.” (All About Law).
A human rights based approach is used to look at the inequalities which are created within development problems, this happens when there is a biased distributions of power that slow development progress. The human rights based approach is used to ensure that the dignity of every individual is centre to decision making. The importance of adopting a human rights approach to care is that it helps to involve the service user to know what their human rights are and it guarantees that every service user is receiving a good quality service and have a feeling of safety within their care environment. Adopting a human rights approach within a care setting means that the services should always be promoting equality and respecting diversity to every individual within the service and it helps to ensure that no one is being favorited or left ignored. The human rights based approach lets individual’s voices be heard and allows for anyone who feels mistreated or unhappy with a service to make a complaint or have an formal investigation carried out. The human rights based approach is important within care as it provides staff with the resources and tools to try and help service users to strengthen their abilities which can make a huge impact
Declaration of Human Rights: Dignity and Justice for All of Us. Accessed on October 29,
Before any legislation could be implemented, a definition of human rights had to be compiled and accepted. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was approved in 1948 by th...
Some of the realizations of other human rights are not possible if an individual cannot maintain his/her own health. Most crucial health needs includes the prevention of stillbirths and infant mortality; the improvement of environmental and industrial hygiene, the prevention treatment, and control of diseases, with the provision of medical care to the sick.
Yamin, Alicia Ely. "The Right to Health Under International Law and Its Relevance to the United States." American Journal of Public Health 95.7 (2005): 1156-1161. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
In the United States, many would believe that all individuals have a right to health care. These citizens believe that everyone should have access to health care and that everyone should have an equal opportunity to get the care they need for themselves and their family. The United States of America has been built with many documents that can be interpreted to support the belief that health care should be a right for everyone.
“The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights - for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture - is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights is not defended with maximum determination.” -- Pope John Paul II
There are many inequities in this global world; should there be such gross inequities in the health of people around the world? We hear words like health gap, health care inequality and sustainability. What can be done to eliminate the health gap, health care inequities and maintain sustainability? The World Health Organization (WHO) and other organizations, private and public are working towards eliminating these disparities. Healthy People 2020 are one such goal that has achieved considerable progress in attaining sustainability in the pursuit of global health goals (Gostin et al., 2013). The health gap can be minimized through health strategies. Among them are essentials for all in this global world; clean air, water, healthy food and adequate housing with hygienic living conditions. Primary, secondary, tertiary prevention and care services should be available to all who seek health care services.
Declaration of Human Rights: Dignity and Justice for All of Us. Accessed on October 29,
Undoubtedly, health provides quality of life and freedom for everyone. For example, health is a very vital component in children’s life as it provides proper growth and development to their mind and body. Children require enough energy to spend the entire day in school and fully participate in the activities on the field. However as we speak, the right to health
Primary Health Care is crucial or vital care made globally attainable to individuals and families in the community by means they approve to, through their full contribution and at a cost that the community and country can manage. It forms a basic part both of the country’s health system of which it is the core and the inclusive of social and economic evaluation of the community. In other words primary health care targets on providing affordable, attainable and suitable services for the obstructive treatment and management of disease procedure. In 1978, the dispute of public health that is shielding the greatest level of health for the highest number of people formed the agenda for a meeting of public health representatives from 134 countries, universally . It was held in Alma Ata ( A city in the former USSR ) to build new ideas and new mottos in public health. Their focus was to authorize people to have command over decisions that affected their own health, families and communities. Also to reduce inequities. The promising statement for World Health Organization was “ Health for All ” (HFA). The paramount of Primary Health Care was aiding of proper nutrition and an adequate supply of safe water, basic sanitation, child and maternal care, including family planning, immunization against the major infectious diseases, prevention and stabilizing of endemic diseases, education empowerment, conquering health problems and methods of preventing and controlling them, and suitab...
The UDHR was adopted in 1948, however in 1966 the division of these rights materialized under two documents; the International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The foundation of the separation of civil/political and economic and social rights can be s...