COMMENTARY: Public health ethics and the Kerala Public Health Act, 2023.

This commentary looks at the Kerala Public Health Act (KPHA), passed on November 28, 2023, through the lens of public health ethics. While the Act recognises the importance of prevention and strengthening of social systems, it falters in the public health ethics and human rights framework, ignoring international public health principles such as the Siracusa Principles and guidelines for individual diseases such as tuberculosis. The Covid-19 pandemic in India itself offers ample learnings, which have been disregarded, on the need for caution against state overreach. Principles such as autonomy, privacy/confidentiality, transparency, accountability, rule of law, least harm etc have not even been given token consideration, making this law a potential tool of abuse, particularly against already vulnerable communities.

Addressing a Human Rights Crisis: Health Care for Prisoners in Australia.

People are sent to prison as punishment and not to experience additional punishment. Nevertheless, this principle is habitually violated in Australia: prisoners frequently receive health care that is inferior to health care that is available in the general community. Numerous official inquiries have identified deficiencies in prisoner health services, notwithstanding the apparent intention of legislative provisions and non-statutory guidelines and policies in various jurisdictions to ensure prisoners receive appropriate health care. This article proposes law reforms to address this human rights crisis. It recommends the passage of uniform legislation in all Australian jurisdictions that stipulates minimum prison health care service standards, as well as mechanisms for ensuring they are implemented. The article also suggests that, in the short-term, until prison health care is significantly improved, substandard health care for prisoners should be treated as a potentially mitigating sentencing factor that can reduce the length of a defendant's prison term.

How Does Narcotic Control Impact upon Human Individual Rights: An Islamic and International Human Rights Perspectives.

Illegal trafficking of narcotics and problems associated with illegal substance abuse have attracted great deal of attention over the years. However, there are concerns about how to solve this problem while still respecting individual rights. In general terms, it has been alleged by numerous international observers that in many instances human rights have not been fully respected or observed in the fight against illicit drugs. When it comes to Shari'a law, the fundamental premise is that narcotics abuse and trafficking is clearly in violation of Islamic principles. This article highlights the importance of adopting a human rights-based approach to policies regarding narcotics and discusses the potential conflict and the State's obligation to enforce laws which protect their citizens with individual citizen's rights. It focuses on Islamic laws and takes Saudi Arabia as an example given the fact that the Saudi Arabia bases its constitution on Sharia.

How Indigenous communities in New Zealand are protecting their data.

Concerns about the ethical use of data, privacy, and data harms are front of mind in many jurisdictions as regulators move to impose tighter controls on data privacy and protection, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Although efforts to hold corporations to account for their deployment of data and data-driven technologies have been largely welcomed by academics and civil society, there is a growing recognition of the limits to individual data rights, given the capacity of tech giants to link, surveil, target, and make inferences about groups. Questions about whether collective data rights exist, and how they can be recognized and protected, have provided fertile ground for researchers but have yet to penetrate the broader discourse on data rights and regulation.

Laws governing access to sexual health services and information: contents, protections, and restrictions.

Access to sexual health services and information is critical to achieving the highest attainable standard of sexual health, and enabling legal environments are key to advancing progress in this area. In determining overall alignment with human rights standards to respect, protect, and fulfil sexual health-related rights without discrimination, there are many aspects of laws, including their specificity and content, which impact which sexual health services and information are availed, which are restricted, and for whom. To understand the nature of existing legal provisions surrounding access to sexual health services and information, we analysed the content of 40 laws in English, French, and Spanish from 18 countries for the specific sexual health services and information to which access is ensured or prohibited, and the non-discrimination provisions within these laws. Overall, there was wide variation across countries in the types of laws covering these services and the types and number of services and information ensured. Some countries covered different services through multiple laws, and most of the laws dedicated specifically to sexual health addressed only a narrow aspect of sexual health and covered a small range of services. The protected characteristics in non-discrimination provisions and the specificity of these provisions with regard to sexual health services also varied. Findings may inform national legal and policy dialogues around sexual health to identify opportunities for positive change, as well as to guide further investigation to understand the relationship between such legal provisions, the implementation of these laws within countries, and relevant sexual health outcomes.

Access to sexual health services and information is important to being able to have good sexual health. Laws are relevant because what they include and how specific they are affects what types of sexual health services people can access, what types of services are illegal, and whether or not all people can access services equally. We reviewed 40 laws in English, French, and Spanish from 18 countries to understand how many and which sexual health services and information countries ensure in their laws, which sexual health services are illegal, and which people are protected from discrimination in accessing these services. We found that countries use many different types of laws to ensure access to sexual health services or information, and most countries do not cover the same types or number of sexual health services. There are also differences in which people are specifically protected from discrimination in the laws we reviewed. These findings are important because they may help countries identify ways that access to sexual health services and information could be improved so as to improve people's sexual health. They may also guide future research.

Compulsory vaccination of children - medical and legal problems.

Regarding the vaccination of children, it can be said that there are basically three vaccination policies in the world, one of which is usually used in particular country depending on the national legislation. These are the mandatory vaccination policy, mandatory vaccination policy for school entry and recommended vaccination policy. The mandatory vaccination policy and the mandatory vaccination policy for school entry face obstacles consisting of conflicts between fundamental human rights and freedoms. This is, for example, a conflict between the right to health and the right to life on the one hand and the right to protect the inviolability of the person and body integrity or the right to personal freedom, freedom of movement, residence, etc., on the other. Another issue is the right to undisrupted school attendance, based on both compulsory schooling and the right to education. This article looks at different approaches to the vaccination of children in different countries. It provides an illustrative comparison of approaches to vaccination of children in selected countries. It is obvious that the essential problems with organizing and ensuring the vaccination of children are and will be associated with the indicated conflicts of fundamental human rights. It is therefore necessary to search and try to find the optimal policy for undergoing the necessary vaccinations and thereby creating herd immunity, of course for those infectious diseases where this is possible. These efforts are necessary for sufficiently effective protection of individual and public health.

Analysing governments' progress on the right to health.

Objective: To examine the influence of varying articulations of the right to health under domestic constitutions, legislation and jurisprudence on the scope of legal protection for health. Methods: We investigated legal recognition of the right to health, by conducting a three-level search. First, we searched databases containing constitutional texts. Second, we did a thematic analysis of those constitutional texts with explicit constitutional recognition of health rights, employing NVivo for coding. For the 54 World Health Organization (WHO) Member States without explicit constitutional provisions, we explored statutory paths, judicial constructions and instances where both methods contributed to the acknowledgement of health rights. Lastly, we confirmed evidence of jurisprudence constructing a right to health based on a combination of domestic law and international human rights norms incorporated directly into the text. Findings: We identified 140 WHO Member States with a constitutionalized right to health. Our analysis suggests there are notable variations in the legal scope of protection for health, including breadth of entitlements and the possibility of enforcing these rights through the legal system. We also highlight the critical importance of constitutional acknowledgement, legislative measures, and judicial interpretations in shaping the legal entitlements to health-care services, affecting their accessibility and financial support. Conclusion: The analysis offers insights for policy-makers to assess different approaches to health-related entitlements, with implications for health financing and the evaluation of Member States' strides towards universal access to comprehensive care. This analysis also illuminates how distinct formulations of the right to health have varied effects on reducing health disparities.

Adicciones y discapacidad: medidas adoptadas por la legislación para la protección en el ámbito personal y patrimonial / Addictions and disability: measures adopted by legislation for protection in the personal and property sphere

La adicción a medicamentos, alcohol o drogas puede provocar en la persona una discapacidad. En la actualidad, la legislación se ha orientado a adoptar una serie de medidas de apoyo para proteger a las personas con discapacidad, sea cual sea el motivo que les haya llevado a dicha situación, tanto en el ámbito personal como patrimonial. Ya no se habla de la incapacitación en la norma, y sí de diversas medidas a adoptar tanto en la Ley 41/2003, de 18 de noviembre, de protección patrimonial de las personas con discapacidad y de modificación del Código Civil, de la Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil y de la Normativa Tributaria con esta finalidad, como en la Ley 8/2021, de 2 de junio, por la que se reforma la legislación civil y procesal para el apoyo a las personas con discapacidad en el ejercicio de su capacidad jurídica. Dentro de estas medidas hay que diferenciar a la persona menor y al mayor de edad. El propósito de este estudio es analizar dichas medidas en relación con la discapacidad y la adicción, bien cuando la adicción determina una situación de discapacidad, como cuando la persona discapacitada tiene una adicción posterior con la finalidad de proteger tanto a la persona como a los bienes. (AU)

Addiction to medication, alcohol or drugs can cause a person to become disabled. Currently, legislation has been aimed at adopting a series of support measures to protect people with disabilities, whatever the reason that has led them to this situation, both in the personal and property spheres. The law no longer talks about incapacitation, but rather about various measures to be adopted both in Law 41/2003, of November 18, on the property protection of people with disabilities and on the modification of the Civil Code, the Law of Civil Prosecution and Tax Regulations for this purpose. as in Law 8/2021, of June 2, which reforms civil and procedural legislation to support people with disabilities in the exercise of their legal capacity. Within these measures, it is necessary to differentiate between the minor and the adult. The purpose of this study is to analyze these measures in relation to disability and addiction, either when the addiction determines a situation of disability, or when the disabled person has a subsequent addiction in order to protect both the person and the property. (AU)

Abortion as a matter of Human Rights

Para garantizar la igualdad real, la autonomía, la libertad y el derecho a la autodeterminación reproductiva, es imperativo que los estados aseguren el derecho a determinar libre y responsablemente el número deseado de hijos. La penalización total del aborto es incompatible con los sistemas jurídicos constitucionales, ya que ignora la garantía de protección de los derechos humanos, imponiendo una carga injusta e indefendible a las mujeres vulnerables. Este artículo examina los elementos que sustentan un enfoque jurídico restrictivo de los derechos reproductivos. Se centra en las nociones cruciales de autonomía reproductiva y autodeterminación y su lugar en el marco de los derechos reproductivos. Estos derechos se consideran derechos humanos y se delimitan las correspondientes responsabilidades de los Estados. (AU)

To ensure genuine equality, autonomy, freedom, and the right to reproductive self-determination, it is imperative for nations to ensure the right to freely and responsibly determine the desired number of children. The complete criminalization of abortion is incompatible with constitutional legal systems as it ignores the assurance of human rights protection, placing an unfair and indefensible burden on vulnerable women. This article examines the elements upholding a legal approach that restricts reproductive rights. It centers on the crucial notions of reproductive autonomy and self-determination and their place in the reproductive rights framework. These rights are regarded as human rights, outlining States’ corresponding responsibilities. (AU)