2
Government’s Obligations
The Government has 3 types of obligations with
regards to human rights. These are to respect, protect and fulfil.
Respecting the Right to Health
The State should refrain from interfering with or
blocking people’s ability to enjoy the right to
health such as introducing policies or programmes
that are likely to result in unnecessary morbidity
and preventable mortality or undertaking actions
that cause physical or mental harm.
Protecting the Right to Health
This requires the government to make effort to
minimize risks to health and to take measures that
safeguard the population from infringements of
the right to health. The government should thus
ensure that private enterprises refrain from violating the right of individuals and communities.
Fulfilling the Right to Health
The government is obliged to take legal, administrative and other measures to ensure the progressive provision of health care and development of
infrastructure to support this.
that immediate action be taken to remedy the situation.
Outcomes of a Rights-Based Approach
to Health
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What Can the Rights-Based Approach
Contribute?
The rights-based approach re-frames basic health
needs as health rights. Establishing the conditions
that enable one to become healthy and to remain
so is not regarded merely as a medical, technical
or economic problem, but as a question of concrete government obligations and entitlements of
the population.
ZADHR News
Increased accountability for health by the government;
Increased attention to the health needs of the
poor and other vulnerable and disadvantaged
groups;
The correction of imbalances between the
health status of different population groups;
More participatory approaches to the provision
of health services and the determinants of
health;
Cessation in imposition of retrogressive measures (take-backs) in health-related legislation
and budgetary and administrative practices;
Honouring of concrete obligations by government to immediately provide the minimum
standards that are essential for enjoyment of
the right to health; and
Setting of goals, targets and indicators that
will allow for monitoring of progress.
Possibilities for Zimbabwe
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The rights-based approach can and should be
applied to all planning that is currently taking
place around resuscitation and rebuilding of
the health system. There needs to be community participation in setting of priorities and
making of decisions.
For example child immunization within the health
rights framework is not just a medical requirement for children and a responsible public health
measure; it becomes a right of all children, with
corresponding government obligations that cannot
be reasoned away because of financial constraints
or other priorities as to how money should be
spent in the health or other sectors.
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The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare
should endeavour to increase transparency and
accountability by informing the population of
its targets and allowing monitoring of progress
by health workers and other members of the
community so that violations of the right to
health do not go unnoticed and without being
put right.
The right to health helps answer the question
‘how can we best allocate scarce resources?’. A
rights-based approach ensures that the available
resources are allocated to those who have the
greatest needs or have been excluded the most. It
exposes situations where public funds are being
used to refurbish hospitals in a capital city, or
where expensive equipment is being purchased
for elective procedures that only benefit a few
while, at the same time, rural populations or vulnerable groups are failing to access minimum
standards of health care. It subsequently requires
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There is a general lack of perception that
health as a human right in Zimbabwe. The
right to health must be enshrined in the new
Zimbabwean constitution that is to be drafted
under Global Political Agreement. There
should also be a review of all health related
legislation to ensure that it is in line with human rights principles.