Right to Health in International Law

The link between health and human rights has been recognised for many years, but the increasing visibility of the right to health in international law has been a distinct feature of the last decade. It has been embraced by actors within civil society, academics, health professionals, lawyers and courts in several jurisdictions as a tool to address health inequalities at the local and global level, in matters ranging from access to medicines and the availability ofaffordable health care to sexual and reproductive health. But it has equally been the subject of derision and scorn by human rights sceptics who have described it as lacking foundation, nebulous, and incapable of implementation. This book seeks to offer a comprehensive discussion of the status and meaning of the right to health in international law. It traces the history of this right to reveal its nexus with public health and the long-standing recognition that a State has a responsibility to attend to the health needs of its population. It also offers a theoretical account of its conceptual foundations which challenges the position held by many philosophers that health is undeserving of the status of a human right. Bydeveloping an interpretative methodology, the book provides a persuasive account of the meaning of the right to health and the obligations it imposes on States. This process reveals an understanding of the right to health that, while challenging, remains practical and capable of guiding States thatare genuinely committed to addressing the health needs of their population.

While the amount of scholarship on the right to health has grown over the years, John Tobins book The Right to Health in International Law stands as a valuable addition as it constitutes an ambitious, careful, critical and objective assessment of our current understanding of the international right to health and its implementation., The book is thoroughly researched, drawing extensively on international, regional and domestic jurisprudence, and written in a mannerthat is clear and accessible. It will be a valuable resource for policy makers, public health practitioners, human rights advocates and jurists interested in implementing and monitoring the right to health., Tobin offers readers a thorough and necessary discussion of the current meanings and legal obligations that stem from the global responsibility to "respect, protect, and fulfill" one's right to health. He artfully explains the evolution of the concept of health as a human right in historical, theoretical, and philosophical terms in order to describe its nature and understand its implications in a global context. The text provides a rich history of health rights based in international law and its conceptual foundations., Tobin's book...certainly deserves to be among the important contributions to the literature that are happily becoming more frequent in the field of social and economic rights.

John Tobin is an Associate Professor in the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. He has also been a Visiting Professor at New York University Law School and the American Academy of Human Rights and International Law, Washington College of Law, American University.