Derecho fundamental a la salud: ¿Nuevos escenarios?. Hernando Torres Corredor
including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependents, appropriate social assistance. The same article states that government must take reasonable and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve a progressive realization of each of these rights, as well as no one may be refused emergency medical treatment (Cooper, 2011).
In Russia, the article 41.2 determines that the Russian Federation federal programmes for protecting and improving the health of the population shall be financed by the State. The Russian constitution also determines that measures shall be adopted to develop state, municipal and private health services and that activities shall be promoted in order to facilitate the improvement of health, the development of physical culture and sport, ecological and sanitary-epidemiological well-being. In Article 41.3 of Russian Federation’s Constitution there is the prevision that the concealment by officials of facts and circumstances posing a threat to the life and health of people shall entail responsibility according to federal law. These constitutional guidelines pushed Russian legal system to guarantee the right to health, including the right to access public medical assistance offered by the State.
The right to health is recognized as legal right in China by Article 33 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the State must respect and protect human rights. Article 21 of the PRC Constitution stipulates that the state must develop medical and health services to protect people’s health, and article 45 determines that citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the right to material assistance from the State and society when they are old, ill or disabled. Therefore, the State must develop social insurance, social relief and medical and health services that are required for citizens to enjoy this right. This constitutional article imposes a legal obligation to governments and recognize health as a right of citizens.
As seen, BRICS have some sort of constitutional and legal protection to right to health, but the way that these different countries protect their people’s health is far too different. The recognition of heath as a right is the same important step to the creation of a legal and administrative structure able to offer good and efficient basic health services to population.
The protection of health services depends on public social and economic policies willing to reduce inequity and to promote a good standard of living. In health sector, primary health care services are fundamental to initiate the right to health protection, as well as to guarantee universal basic health services.
In this context, health democracy plays a central role in the construction of health systems, in the measure that it will allow countries to understand better their real health needs and orient governments towards good and efficient public policies.
This article showed some partial results of the research Right to Health and Health Democracy: Bridges to Citizenship, and the comprehension of the actual legal structure of the right to health protection in BRICS, as well as the understanding about the different possibilities of people’s participation in public policies decisions on health, will certainly contributes to a better effectiveness of the protection to health to right given to all global population. These countries represent half of global humanity today and give us a nice figure about how right to health is being really treated in the world nowadays.
Acknowledgements
This study was made possible through funding provided by the University of São Paulo – USP, Brazil. We acknowedege the support given by the researchers of the academic partners in BRICS: Wang Chenguang, Tsinghua University Law School, China; Maulik Rajnikant Chokshi, Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi (IIPHD), Public Health Foundation of India, India; Anju Vali Tikoo, University: National Law Uniersity Delhi, India; Elena Tarasenko, High School of Economics, Russia; Charles Ngwena, University of Free State, South Africa.
References
Brazil (1988). Brazilian Constitution of 1988. Retrieved from http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/constituicao/ConstituicaoCompilado.htm
Clavier, C., Gendron, S., Lamontagne, L., Potvin, L. (2012). Understanding similarities in the local implementation of a healthy environment programme: Insights from policy studies. Bethesda: U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Cooper, C. (2011). Health Rights Litigation: Cautious Constitutionalism. In Litigating Health Rights: Can Courts Bring More Justice to Health? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ferraz O.L.M., (2011). Health Inequalities, Rights and Courts: The social impact of the judicialization of health. In Litigating Health Rights: ¿Can Courts Bring More Justice to Health?, ed. Yamin AE and Gloppen S. Harvard University Press. Pages 76-102.
Gargarella, R. Should Deliberative democrats defend the judicial enforecement of social rights? In Deliberative democracy and its discontents, ed. S. Besson and J.L. Marti, 233-52. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Gauri, V. and D. Brinks, (2008). Courting social justice: Judicial enforcement of social and economic rights in the developing world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gloppen, S.; Roseman, M.J. 2011. Introduction: Can Litigation Bring Justice to Health? In Litigating Health Rights: Can Courts Bring More Justice to Health? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Jong-wook, L (2005). Public Health is a social issue. Lancet 365:1005-1006.
Langford, M. (2008). Social rights jurisprudence: Emerging trends in international and comparative law. New York: Cambridge University Press.
PAHO (Pan American Health Organization). (1978). Declaration of Alma Ata, 1978. Retrieved from http://www.paho.org/english/dd/pin/alma-ata_declaration.htm.
Paim, J; Travassos, C; Almeida, C; Bahia, L; Macinko, J. (2011). The Brazilian Health System: history, advances and challenges. The Lancet, 377, 9779, pp. 1778-1797.
Parmar, S, Wahi, N. (2011). Citizens, Courts, and the Right to Health: Between Promise and Progress? In Litigating Health Rights: Can Courts Bring More Justice to Health? Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Public Health Agency of Canada and World Health Organization WHO. (2008). Health equity through intersectoral action: an analisys of 18 country studies. Minister of Health of Canada, Ottawa.
Ramanadhan, S, Salhi C, Achille E, et al. (2012). Addressing cancer disparities via community network mobilization and intersectoral partnerships: a social network analysis. Plos One 7(2): on line
United Nations. (1966). International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Retrieved from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm
United Nations. (2012). Habitat, Estado de Las Ciudades de América Latina Y El Caribe. Retrieved from http://www.onuhabitat.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=859:onu-habitat-presenta-el-estado-de-las-ciudades-de-america-latina-y-el-caribe&catid=32:genero&Itemid=210. Access in March 17, 2013.
World Health Organization WHO. (1946). Constitution of the World Health Organization, 1946. Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/constitution-en.pdf.
World Health Organization WHO. (1986) The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/en/.
World Health Organization WHO. (2005). International Health Regulations. Retrieved from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241580410_eng.pdf.
World