Facilitating Safe Access to Health Care through Legislative Reform - The Australian Experience.

The realisation of the right to health is vulnerable to the interventions of strangers, acting on the belief that certain health care should not be permissible under the law or accessible in practice. In Australia, the key arena for such interventions has been abortion services. Drawing on empirical research undertaken by the authors, this article examines the impact of these interventions and the effectiveness of "safe access zone" laws that now operate nationwide to constrain them. After examining the unsuccessful constitutional challenge to these laws in the High Court of Australia, it considers whether safe access zones may have utility in other health care contexts.

Obstacles to Care Mount 1 Year After Dobbs Decision.

This Viewpoint discusses the ramifications of the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision by the US Supreme Court and the state of reproductive health care in the US.

Impetrações judiciais de mães de crianças com síndrome congênita do vírus zika: das motivações aos desfechos / Impetracciones judiciales de madres de personas menores con síndrome congénito del virus zika: De las motivaciones a los resultados / Judicial impetractions of mothers of children with congenital zika virus syndrome: From motivations to outcomes

Introdução: As famílias de crianças com Síndrome Congênita do Zika (SCZ) convivem com dificuldades para suprir suas necessidades de saúde, portanto acionam o poder judiciário para gozar do seu direito à saúde. Objetivo: Apreender as principais motivações das impetrações judiciais requeridas por mães de crianças com SCZ e seus desfechos. Metodologia: Estudo exploratório documental com abordagem qualitativa, realizado no sítio eletrônico JusBrasil e coleta procedida em março de 2020. Foram incluídas 15 impetrações judiciais publicadas entre janeiro de 2016 e junho de 2019. A análise lexical através do software IRaMuTeQ e a análise de conteúdo temática foram realizadas. Resultados: O acesso às tecnologias assistivas é a principal motivação para impetrações judiciais, com vistas a assegurar melhora no desenvolvimento da criança e consequente independência da criança. As decisões judiciais beneficiaram as crianças com SCZ, fundamentadas no direito à saúde, direito à vida e proteção, e o direito de ir e vir. Conclusão: Para mitigar os impactos da judicialização da saúde as autoridades sanitárias e judiciárias podem investir em melhor vigilância e monitoramento dos fatores de risco e morbidades; rigor nos protocolos sanitários que envolvem migração de pessoas em zonas fronteiriças; ofertas de condições ambientais e de moradia dignas; realização de cuidados preventivos com destaque para a eficiência da imunização; além da organização e funcionamento de uma rede de atenção à saúde eficaz com abordagem interdisciplinar.

Introducción: Las familias de personas menores con síndrome de zika congénito (SZC) viven con dificultades para satisfacer sus necesidades de salud, por lo que hacen un llamado al Poder Judicial para gozar de este derecho. Objetivo: Conocer las principales motivaciones de las demandas presentadas por madres de niños y niñas con SZC y sus desenlaces. Metodología: Estudio documental exploratorio con enfoque cualitativo, realizado en el sitio web de JusBrasil y recogido en marzo de 2020. Se incluyeron 15 juicios publicados entre enero de 2016 y junio de 2019 en JusBrasil. Se realizó el análisis léxico a través del software IRaMuTeQ y el análisis de contenido temático. Resultados: El acceso a las tecnologías asistenciales es la principal motivación de las demandas, con el fin de asegurar la mejora en el desarrollo de la persona menor y su consecuente independencia. Las decisiones judiciales beneficiaron a niñas y niños con SZC, basadas en los derechos a la salud, a la vida y protección y a ir y venir. Conclusiones: Para mitigar los impactos de la judicialización en salud, las autoridades sanitarias y judiciales pueden invertir en una mejor vigilancia y seguimiento de los factores de riesgo y morbilidades, rigor en los protocolos sanitarios que implican la migración de personas en zonas fronterizas, ofrecer condiciones ambientales y habitacionales dignas, realizar cuidados preventivos, con énfasis en la eficiencia de la inmunización, además de la organización y operación de una red de atención de salud efectiva con enfoque interdisciplinario.

Introduction: Families of children with Congenital Zika Syndrome (CSZ) live with difficulties to meet their health needs; therefore, they resort to the law system in order claim their right to health. Objective: To apprehend the main motivations and outcomes of the lawsuits filed by mothers of children with CSZ. Methodology: Exploratory documentary study with a qualitative approach carried out on the JusBrasil website and collected in March 2020. The study included 15 lawsuits published between January 2016 and June 2019 in JusBrasil. A lexical analysis through the IRaMuTeQ software and a thematic content analysis were performed. Results: The access to assistive technologies is the main motivation for the lawsuits; these are issued with the objective to ensure improvement in the child's development and further independence of the child. Court decisions benefited children with CSZ based on the right to health, the right to life and protection, and the right to come and go. Conclusion: To mitigate the impacts of health judicialization, health and judicial authorities can invest in better surveillance and monitoring of the risk factors and morbidities, strictness in the health protocols that involve migration of people in border areas, offering of decent environmental and housing conditions, execution of preventive care with emphasis on the efficiency of immunization, as well as the organization and execution of an effective health care network with an interdisciplinary approach.

A critique of the Rajasthan Right to Health Bill, 2022 and suggestions for the way forward.

This article discusses a brief history of the concept of Right to Health, the concepts of rights and duties and why both are important and how, in healthcare, one's duty is another's right. The Rajasthan Right to Health Bill, 2022 is analysed and the shortcomings and issues in the Act are discussed. Suggestions to modify the Act and how the same can be implemented are given. In addition, a brief introduction to a successful scheme, the Tamil Nadu Innuyir Kapom Thittam- Nammai Kaakum 48 Scheme, with a similar aim is given. The article concludes that though the Right to Health Act is a noble initiative and is a necessary one; the Act, in its current version, has serious shortcomings and needs to be corrected.

Relações entre políticas sociais e o direito ao lazer: desafios frente à pandemia e o agravamento da "questão social" / Between social policies and the right to leisure: challenges in the face of the pandemic and the worsening of "social issues"

A Pandemia da COVID-19, doença infecciosa causada pelo vírus SARSCoV-2, ampliou desigualdades e assimetrias, agravando a "questão social", cujas expressões contemporâneas condensam as múltiplas desigualdades e expressões desta ordem capitalista. A luz deste contexto pandêmico, este ensaio apresenta como objeto a relação entre as políticas sociais e o direito ao lazer. O texto se propõe a refletir e compreender esta relação na América Latina e, mais profunda e especificamente, na realidade contemporânea brasileira. Conclui-se que, frente à omissão estatal, o lazer ocupa uma não-lugar na agenda governamental, cenário que, somado à ampliação das desigualdades, consubstancia o lazer como um não-direito.

The COVID-19 Pandemic, an infectious disease caused by the SARSCoV-2 virus, has increased inequalities and asymmetries, worsening "social issues" whose contemporary expressions compress multiple inequalities and expressions in the current capitalist order. In light of the pandemic context, this essay presents the relationship between social policies and the right to leisure as its research object. In this work, I propose to reflect on and understand the dynamics in Latin America and, more deeply and specifically, in the contemporary Brazilian scenario. I conclude that, in the face of state omission, leisure occupies a non-place in the governmental agenda ­ a scenario that, added to the expansion of inequalities, consubstantiate leisure as a nonright.

La interculturalidad vacía: derecho a la salud intercultural de los pueblos indígenas y personas migrantes en Chile / Empty interculturality: the right to intercultural health of indigenous peoples and migrants in Chile / A interculturalidade vazia: direito à saúde intercultural dos povos indígenas e pessoas migrantes no Chile

Resumen: Este trabajo analiza el desarrollo de la perspectiva intercultural en la protección y garantía del derecho a la salud en pueblos indígenas y población migrante en Chile desde el punto de vista jurídico. Revisa las prácticas y experiencias prevalentes en el ámbito de la salud pública en Chile, para establecer la forma y alcance de la interculturalidad en la protección del derecho a la salud y la manera en que tributa a la interculturalidad. La perspectiva intercultural en el acceso a la justicia en Chile es débil, formal, se trata de iniciativas incipientes en el caso de los pueblos indígenas, mientras en el caso de las personas migrantes apenas abordan barreras idiomáticas.

Abstract: This work analyzes the development of the intercultural perspective in the protection and guarantee of the right to health in indigenous peoples and migrant population in Chile from the legal point of view. It reviews the prevalent practices and experiences in the field of public health in Chile, to establish the shape and scope of interculturality in the protection of the right to health, and the way in which it contributes to interculturality. The intercultural perspective on access to justice in Chile is weak, formal, these are incipient initiatives in the case of indigenous peoples while in the case of migrants, they hardly address language barriers.

Resumo: Este trabalho analisa o desenvolvimento da perspectiva intercultural na proteção e garantia do direito à saúde nos povos indígenas e população migrante no Chile do ponto de vista jurídico. Revisa as práticas e experiências prevalentes no âmbito da saúde pública no Chile, para estabelecer a forma e alcance da interculturalidade na proteção do direito à saúde e à forma com que contribui à interculturalidade. A perspectiva intercultural no acesso à justiça no Chile é débil, formal, tratando-se de iniciativas incipientes no caso dos povos indígenas, enquanto que no caso das pessoas migrantes apenas abordam barreiras idiomáticas.

Dutifully Defying Death: A Right to Life-saving Emergency Treatment.

Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides for the right to health. Two questions are considered in this article. Does this right entail a more specific right to life-saving emergency treatment? And if so, should the latter right become justiciable in the domestic courts? Two propositions will be made in this article. First, the right to life-saving emergency treatment is a necessary component of the right to health. Second, the conventional arguments against the justiciability of socio-economic rights do not apply to the right to life-saving emergency treatment. Such a right should be justiciable at the domestic level.

Disability Rights During COVID-19: Emergency Law and Guidelines in England.

Disabled people may be disproportionately impacted by the response to the COVID-19 outbreak because of the kinds of countermeasures needed to tackle it, and serious disruptions to the services on which they rely. There are reports from the disability community in England and elsewhere that measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 impact negatively on their human rights and experiences. This commentary focuses on the healthcare and social care systems in England and describes how laws and practices have changed under the COVID-19 pandemic, and how these changes affect the rights of disabled people.

'We all have the same right to have health services': a case study of Namati's legal empowerment program in Mozambique.

BACKGROUND: Legal empowerment and social accountability are two strategies that are increasingly used to address gaps in healthcare in low- and middle-income countries, including failure to provide services that should be available and poor clinical and interpersonal quality of care. This paper is an explanatory case study of a legal empowerment effort that employs community paralegals and trains Village Health Committees (VHCs) in Mozambique. The research objective was to explore how community paralegals solved cases, the impact paralegals had on health services, and how their work affected the relationship between the community and the health sector at the local level. METHODS: The case study had two components: (1) a retrospective review of 24 cases of patient/community grievances about the health system, and (2) qualitative investigation of the program and program context. The case reviews were accomplished by conducting structured in-depth interviews (IDIs) with those directly involved in the case. The qualitative investigation entailed semi-structured Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with district, provincial, and national health managers and Namati staff. In addition, focus group discussions (FGDs) were held with Health Advocates and VHC members. RESULTS: Case resolution conferred a sense of empowerment to clients, brought immediate, concrete improvements in health service quality at the health facilities concerned, and seemingly instigated a virtuous circle of rights-claiming. The program also engendered incipient improvements in relations between clients and the health system. We identified three key mechanisms underlying case resolution, including: bolstered administrative capacity within the health sector, reduced transaction and political costs for health providers, and provider fear of administrative sanction. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to the limited literature regarding the mechanisms of legal empowerment case resolution in health systems and the impact of hybrid legal empowerment and social accountability approaches. Future research might assess the sustainability of case resolution; how governance at central, provincial, and district level is affected by similar programs; and to what extent the mix of different cases addressed by legal empowerment influences the success of the program.

Examining the impact of occupational health and safety vulnerability on injury claim reporting in three Canadian provinces.

INTRODUCTION: The workers' compensation system covers wages and health care costs associated with work-related injuries or illnesses. We explore if dimensions of occupational health and safety vulnerability are associated with differences in reporting work-related injuries to workers' compensation boards (WCBs). METHODS: We examined data from adults reporting physical workplace injuries requiring time off or health care. We explored relationships between exposure to nine hazards, risk from inadequate policies and procedures, inadequate occupational health and safety (OHS) awareness, inadequate empowerment, and reporting to provincial WCBs. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated to assess risk from dimensions of workplace vulnerability for not reporting an injury to WCBs. RESULTS: Of 326 participants, 64% did not report injuries to WCBs. Reporting was higher among those with hazardous workplace exposures compared to those without (40% vs 22%, P = .01), lower among those with inadequate policy and procedures and inadequate awareness protections. Inadequate OHS awareness protection was related to not reporting to WCBs in logistic regression models. Women, those working part-time, workers in education, health, and public administration, and non-unionized workers were less likely to report injuries (nonsignificant), while workers with postgraduate educations were significantly less likely to report an injury compared to referent (OR = 3.89, 95% CI: 1.57-9.62). CONCLUSION: A general lack of knowledge about OHS rights and responsibilities was associated with low levels of reporting. This suggests there is a knowledge deficit among some workers, possibly amenable to joint efforts to increase rights and responsibilities related to OHS with the dissemination of information about rights to workers' compensation.

Litigation to Access Health Services: Ally or Enemy of Global Public Health?

Background: Some scholars and global health advocates argue that litigation is a strategy to advance public health care, especially in those countries that do not have specific legislation to guarantee access to basic health care services. However, strategic litigation has another side, known as judicialization of the right to health, particularly present in the Latin American region where most countries incorporate the right to health into their constitutions, but their citizens still struggle with health disparities. Objectives: Considering these two perspectives on litigation in health care, this paper examines the phenomenon of litigation in health care and its impact on public health in Brazil, where there is an ambiguous process of litigation in health care. Methods: Comparing the literature of both the use of strategic litigation for advancing public health and the judicialization of the right to health, this paper develops an ethical analysis of the impacts of strategic litigation for individuals and societies, using Brazil's public health care system and its policies as case-study of the impact of court decisions on the management of the system. Findings: Supporters of strategic litigation present experiences in African countries using this strategy to access a specific medical service led to enforce the creation of health-related policies by authorities and policymakers. However, in Brazil, a country with the right to health guaranteed by its Constitution, strategic litigation creates access to health care for some individuals, but also results in complex sociomedical challenges with significant impact for public administration and distributive justice. Conclusions: Strategic litigation can lead to ambiguous results, which will depend on the local context and the existence or not of public health services and health-related policies. When this strategy is considered, ethical analysis helps to understand how litigation can both benefit and damage individuals' health and the public health system in the complex context and diverse reality of Brazil. As a result, strategic litigation must be considered from an ethical perspective of prudence and discernment in a close interaction with the local reality, its particular circumstances, culture, policies, and laws.

Access to treatment and the constitutional right to health in Germany: a triumph of hope over evidence?

Health technology assessment is frequently credited with making difficult resource allocation decisions in health care fairer, more rational and more transparent. In Germany, a constitutional 'right to health' allows patients to challenge decisions by sickness funds to withhold reimbursement of treatment excluded from public funding because of insufficient evidence of effectiveness. The ability to litigate was qualified by the Constitutional Court in its 2005 'Nikolaus decision' that sets out criteria to be applied to these cases. Treatment must be made available if (1) the condition is life-threatening, (2) no alternative treatment is available and (3) there is an indication that the treatment could benefit the patient. This paper examines how courts struggled to apply these criteria based on an analysis of cases of patients who sought treatment for cancer between 2005 and 2015, and explores the implications of applying a constitutional 'right to health' to treatment decisions.