A Right to Health-Based Approach to Dental Caries: Toward a Comprehensive Control Strategy.

BACKGROUND: Health is a matter of human rights, and dental caries is the most common noncommunicable disease globally. Consequently, dental caries is a matter of human rights and its control, particularly prevention, must be a priority. Although largely preventable, this is too often neglected, both in the literature of human rights and health law, and in dental research. The right to oral health has recently been acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO), but it is insufficiently clear what this right entails. SUMMARY: This article introduces a right to health-based narrative in the context of dental caries. The right to health is stipulated in human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). States that are parties to these treaties, which are virtually all States globally, are mandated to ensure the enjoyment of individuals' right to the highest attainable standard of health, including oral health. KEY MESSAGES: Dental caries is a matter of human rights. States have binding obligations to address dental caries: they require the regulation of the healthcare system, i.e., the traditional focus on operative care, but also put the regulation of other risk factors on an equal footing, such as the regulation of the living environment and access to fluoride. A right to health-based approach to dental caries thus offers a comprehensive approach to dental caries control, particularly prevention.

Navigating equity in global access to genome therapy expanding access to potentially transformative therapies and benefiting those in need requires global policy changes.

In December 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration and the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency granted the first regulatory approval for genome therapy for sickle cell disease. This approval brings hope to those suffering from this debilitating genetic disease. However, several barriers may hinder global patient access, including high treatment costs, obtaining informed consent for minors, inadequate public health infrastructure, and insufficient regulatory oversight. These barriers reflect the structural inequalities inherent in global health governance, where patient access often depends on social and institutional arrangements. This article addresses concerns around informed consent, treatment costs, and patient access, and proposes corresponding policy reforms. We argue that these discussions should be framed within a broader global context that considers social and institutional structures, global research priorities, and a commitment to health equity.

Parsing human rights, promoting health equity: reflections on Colombia's response to Venezuelan migration.

Over the last 7 years, a multidimensional crisis in Venezuela has resulted in massive emigration. Over 7 million have fled the country, with more than 2.4 million seeking to settle in Colombia. Of these, as of 2021, more than 1 million were undocumented, but the situation has started to change with the implementation of an ambitious migrant regularisation scheme. Regularisation promises access to comprehensive healthcare, full educational opportunities and the formal labour market. Securing these social determinants of health is critical because social inequalities produce health inequalities-that is, systematic health differences that are preventable and thus unjust. Social medicine, social epidemiology and international human rights law agree on this, yet law-focused studies of health equity initiatives remain rare. Aiming to reverse this, we examine Colombia's response to Venezuelan migration, including its recent migrant regularisation initiative, which was introduced in part to comply with the country's obligations under international human rights law. The examination foregrounds what we are calling 'legal literacy', testing the hypothesis that advancing health equity involves asking more and better questions about international human rights law.

Regulating private medical institutions: a case study of China.

The expansion of privatisation in health care has been discussed extensively in most European countries and remains a hot topic nowadays. In China, privatisation results in considerable changes in its health care system, especially accelerating the ever-growing private medical institutions (PMIs). The rapid growth of PMIs raises the question of regulation for the Chinese government. Given the fact that few studies are available on the regulation of PMIs in China, I attempted to fill that gap by discussing the development of PMIs with a special focus on legal-regulatory strategies. After assessing current legal-regulatory strategies concerning PMIs, the paper identifies three major concerns regarding effective legal rules (i.e. weak coherence, inconsistency and legislative vacancy) and three difficult issues regarding government capacity (i.e. the negative effects of decentralised political structure, the low professionalism of bureaucrats and lack of reliability) that impede the well-functioning of regulatory agencies in China. As a plausible response, the paper recommends that the newly drafted basic health law should assign a separate chapter to regulate PMIs and also an independent regulatory body should be established to manage the issues of PMIs in China. Detailed recommendations are the practical implications of ICESCR General Comment No. 14.

Global frameworks, local strategies: Women's rights, health, and the tobacco control movement in Argentina.

The article examines how civil society organisations in Argentina used the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to frame the country's failure to enact strong national tobacco control legislation as a violation of women's rights in the late 2000s. We analyze this case study through the politics of scale, namely the social processes that produce, reproduce, and contest the boundaries of policies and socio-economic relations. This approach understands how multiple scales overlap and connect to obstruct or enhance the right to health in Latin America. In Argentina, the global organisation of tobacco companies, the reach of international financial institutions and the national dynamics of economic austerity and export-orientation promoted the local production and use of tobacco (leaf and cigarettes) and reproduced health inequalities in the country throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. Yet, the visible legacy of local and national human rights struggles in the adoption of international human rights treaties into Argentina's national constitution allowed the tobacco control movement to link the scale of women's bodies to the right to health through the use of CEDAW to change national legislation, tackling the social determinants of the tobacco epidemic.

Legal duties, professional obligations or notional guidelines? Screening, treatment and referral of domestic violence cases in primary health care settings in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Since 2013, approximately 4400 women have been murdered by their partners in South Africa. This is five times higher than the per capita global average. Domestic violence is known to be cyclical, endemic and frequently involves multiple victims. It also becomes progressively more dangerous over time and may lead to fatalities. In 2012, the Health Professions Council of South Africa released a domestic violence protocol for emergency service providers. This protocol, or screening guidelines, includes assessing future risk to domestic violence, providing physical and psychosocial care, documentation of evidence of abuse and informing patients of their rights and the services available to them. The extent to which these guidelines have been circulated and implemented, particularly by general health care practitioners (HCPs), is unknown. AIM: We review international treaties to which South Africa is a signatory, as well as national legislation and policies that reinforce the right to care for victims of domestic violence, to delineate the implication of these laws and policies for HCPs. METHOD: We reviewed literature and analysed national and international legislation and policies. RESULTS: The 'norms' contained in existing guidelines and currently practiced in an ad hoc manner are not only compatible with existing statutory duties of HCPs but are in fact a natural extension of them. CONCLUSION: Proactive interventions such as the use of guidelines for working with victims of domestic violence enable suspected cases of domestic violence to be systematically identified, appropriately managed, properly referred, and should be adopted by all South African HCPs.

La Sentencia Rol N.° 9.031-2013 de la Corte Suprema de Chile. ¿Una aplicación del control de convencionalidad en el análisis de la extradición pasiva por el delito de transporte de estupefacientes? / Judgment Rol N.° 9.031-2013 of The Supreme Court of Chile. Is it an appliation of conventionality control in the analysis of passive extradition for the crime of narcotics transportation? / A Sentênça Rol N.° 9.031-2013 do Tribunal Supremo do Chile. Uma aplicação do controle da convencionalidade na análise da extradição passiva pelo crime do transporte de estupefacientes?

Resumen El trabajo presenta analíticamente los significados atribuibles al concepto de "control de convencionalidad", a partir del análisis de la jurisprudencia emanada de la Corte Interamericana. Asimismo, busca establecer si en los casos de extradición pasiva la Corte Suprema chilena aplica el control de convencionalidad, y examinar cuál es el significado y alcances que el máximo tribunal nacional le atribuye al mencionado examen, contrastándolo con los sentidos propuestos pretorianamente por la Corte Interamericana. Lo anterior, en el contexto del único fallo en que la Corte Suprema de Chile afirma haber ejercido el control de convencionalidad, esto es, en la resolución de un caso de extradición pasiva de un ciudadano boliviano, a quien se le atribuyó participación como autor en el delito de transporte de estupefacientes, Rol N.° 9.031-2013. La conclusión a la que se llega es que el máximo tribunal no ejerció propiamente el control de convencionalidad, ni siguió el significado y efectos asignados por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en su jurisprudencia dominante, que lo concibe fundamentalmente como control normativo entre las normas internas y el corpus iuris interamericano. Todo lo anterior en el marco de un análisis conforme al método crítico de casos.

Abstract This work offers in an analytical manner the meanings attributable to the "conventionality control" from the study of the jurisprudence emanating from the Inter-American Court. Likewise, it attempts to establish whether or not in passive extradition cases the Chilean Supreme Court applies this "conventionality control", while examining what are the meaning and scope that the highest national court attributes to the above-mentioned exam in contrast with the senses suggested in a praetorian manner by the Inter-American Court. The above, in the context of the only judgment where the Supreme Court of Chile affirms having exercised this conventionality control, i.e. in the resolution of the passive extradition of a Bolivian citizen charged with taking part as an author in the crime of narcotics trafficking, Rol N.° 9.031-2013. The conclusión reached is that it was not exercised properly by the highest court which, in addition, did not follow the meaning and effects assigned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in its did not exercise in a proper manner that control in its prevailing jurisprudence that fundamentally conceives it as a normative control between internal rules and the inter-American corpus iuris, all the foregoing within the framework of an analysis of cases made according to the critical method.

Resumo O trabalho apresenta analíticamente significados atribuíveis ao conceito do "controle da convencionalidade", da análise da jurisprudencia emanda da corte interamericana. Também, procura estabelecer se nos casos da extradicão passiva a corte suprema chilena aplica o controle da convencionalidade, e examinar qual é o significado e os alcances que o máximo tribunal nacional atribuí ao exame mencionado, fazendo um contraste com os sentidos propostos pretorianamente pela corte interamericana. A coisa precedente, no contexto da única sentença em que a corte suprema do chile, afirma ter exercido o controle da convencionalidade, ou seja, na resolução de um caso de extradição passiva de um cidadão boliviano, quem foi atribuída a participação como o autor no crime de transporte de estupefacientes, Rol N.° 9.031-2013. A conclusão é que o máximo tribunal não exerceu adequadamente o controle da convencionalidade, nem seguiu o significado e os efeitos atribuídos pela Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos em sua jurisprudencia dominante, que concebê-lo fundamentalmente como o controle normativo entre as normas internas e o corpus iuris interamericano. Todo o anterior dentro do marco de uma análise de acordo com o método crítico dos casos.

Human rights and correctional health policy: a view from Europe.

Purpose Correctional healthcare should promote the protection of human rights. The purpose of this paper is to bring a discussion of human rights into debates on how such policy should be best organized. Design/methodology/approach The paper achieves its aim by providing an analysis of European prison law and policy in the area of prison health, through assessing decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as policies created by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. Findings The paper describes the position of the European Court of Human Rights on the topics of access to healthcare, ill health and release from prison, mental illness in prison, and the duty to provide rehabilitative programming for those seeking to reduce their level of "risk." It also argues that human rights law can be a source of practical reform, and that legal frameworks have much to offer healthcare leaders seeking to uphold the dignity of those in their care. Originality/value This paper will provide a rare example of the engagement of human rights law with correctional health policy. It provides practical recommendations arising out of an analysis of European human rights law in the area of prisons.

Human rights and proactive displacement: determining the appropriate balance between the duty to protect and the right to remain.

The proactive displacement by public authorities of populations from areas perceived to be exposed to a high risk of disaster presents complex human rights challenges. Provided that no ulterior motive is at play, the use of compulsory evacuations and relocations as policy responses to such risk is mandated by the duty to protect the right to life. However, proactive displacement in the interest of saving lives can be problematic as such measures can lead to the limitation of other human rights, resulting in an intricate assessment of whether compulsory evacuation or permanent relocation is proportional in any given circumstance. Such an analysis demands critical attention by public authorities to the perception of the disaster risk in question and problematises claims to objectivity of official risk assessments. Furthermore, it poses the question as to whether measures designed to address the disaster risk in question that are less intrusive than relocation may be available to public authorities.

Human Rights Discourse in the Sustainable Development Agenda Avoids Obligations and Entitlements Comment on "Rights Language in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Has Right to Health Discourse and Norms Shaped Health Goals?".

Our commentary on Forman et al paper explores their thesis that right to health language can frame global health policy responses. We examined human rights discourse in the outcome documents from three 2015 United Nations (UN) summits and found rights-related terms are used in all three. However, a deeper examination of the discourse finds the documents do not convey the obligations and entitlements of human rights and international human rights law. The documents contain little that can be used to empower the participation of those already left behind and to hold States and the private sector to account for their human rights duties. This is especially worrying in a neoliberal era.

"The ladder of the law has no top and no bottom": how therapeutic jurisprudence can give life to international human rights.

In the past two decades, therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) has become one of the most important theoretical approaches to the law. But, there has, as of yet, been puzzlingly little written about the relationship between TJ and international human rights law. To be sure, there has been some preliminary and exploratory work on the relationship between TJ and international law in general, but virtually nothing on its relationship to international human rights law in a mental disability law context. This paper seeks to focus on this lack of consideration, to speculate as to why that might be, and to offer some suggestions as to how to infuse some new vitality and vigor into this important area of law and social policy. In this article, first, I offer a brief explanation of TJ. Next, I discuss, also briefly, the impact (and the potential future greater impact) of the recently-ratified United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on this area. Then, I consider the sparse commentary currently available on the intersection between TJ and international law in general, and will speculate as to why this is so sparse. Then, I offer some thoughts as to the TJ/international human rights law connection, looking specifically at three questions that require far more attention from this perspective (access to counsel, the use of state-sanctioned psychiatry as a tool of political oppression, and the potential redemptive power of the CRPD), and describe a research agenda that scholars might turn to in furtherance of the investigation of the relationships between therapeutic jurisprudence, international human rights law and mental disability law. I conclude by calling on scholars, activists, advocates and practitioners to begin to take this connection seriously in their future work.