HIFA2015 and human rights
“The challenge is to ensure that everyone in the world can have access to clean, clear knowledge - a basic human right, and a public health need as important as access to clean, clear water, and much more easily achievable.” Pang T et al. A 15th grand challenge for global public health. Lancet 2006; 367:284-286 (this links to a free Lancet registration page which provides direct access to the paper by Pang et al).
“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.” Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
The HIFA2015 campaign is grounded in the right to health and the right to receive safe, effective healthcare.
Today, 1.3 billion people lack access to basic health care services. And many more are at risk of receiving poor quality care. A major contributing factor is lack of access to relevant, reliable healthcare information.
New York Law School/HIFA2015 Human Rights and Healthcare Information Project
This project will evaluate the right to access healthcare information under international law and will describe what such a right would entail and what obligations it would impose on states in practical terms. The project will promote and draw from dialogue on the HIFA2015 forum. It is led by law students at the New York Law School, with input from experts in human rights and intellectual property law.
What HIFA2015 members say
This is a summary of an email discussion on HIFA2015:
Human rights and healthcare information
New York Law School/HIFA2015 White Paper: Access to Health Information Under International Human Rights Law (draft)
Full text (18 pages, PDF 355kb)
Summary: ‘The Institute for Information Law and Policy and the Justice Action Center at New York Law School (NYLS) are collaborating with Healthcare Information for All by 2015 (HIFA2015) (www.hifa2015.org), a project administered by the Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based non-profit organisation, to explore the use of a human rights model to approach the problem of access to health information. In the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009, NYLS students surveyed international legal authority in order to evaluate the status of health information under human rights law and prepared the following briefing paper. The purpose of this briefing paper is to discuss whether and, if so, to what extent states are obligated under international treaty law to provide health education and ensure that healthcare providers (both lay and professional) have access to health information.
‘The paper concludes that health information (as defined below) is an essential component of many identified and established human rights. Health information plays an important role in securing the rights to health and education, the rights of women and children, and the right to exchange and impart information. These rights are protected under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and other international and regional human rights treaties. States party to these treaties must provide health information and guarantee access to such information in order to achieve compliance with these enumerated rights. Health information fosters meaningful social and political participation and ensures that individuals achieve and enjoy the rights afforded to them by international human rights law.
‘The right to health information carries with it specific state obligations. States must not only refrain from actions that would interfere with access to health information, but also affirmatively take steps to provide individuals with health information. States must ensure that heath information is accessible and available to the most vulnerable segments of society and on a non-discriminatory basis. The right to health also requires states to affirmatively provide health information both to individuals and to medical professionals. States are also obligated to provide women with accurate information so as to ensure that children and adolescents have appropriate care. They are obligated to ensure that health workers receive adequate training and adequate access to relevant and medically accurate health information and to regulate interference by third parties.’
Invitation: We invite everyone with an interest in human rights and quality of health care in developing countries to join the HIFA2015 forum, which is now looking at the following questions:
1. How might the NYLS/HIFA2015 White Paper be improved?
2. Are you aware of any examples of what countries have done to distribute information to healthcare providers?
3. How might this paper be used, or adapted, for example to raise maximum awareness about health information and human rights?
4. What action can be taken now to advocate for countries to recognise and act on their obligations in relation to health information and human rights?
HIFA2015 is open to anyone with an interest in improving healthcare and membership is free.
