Justiciability of the Right to Health in South Africa and Switzerland through the Lens of its Normative Components

Abstract

Despite the recent interest in health rights litigation, there has not yet been a study specifically addressing and comparing the justiciability of the right to health in two diverse contexts such as South Africa and Switzerland from the point of view of determining whether the essential components of the right to health under international law have been referred to in the formulation of complaints and in judgments handed down by the courts. The respective constitutional provisions incorporating the right to health as well as pertinent health rights cases were identified before analysing the similarities and differences relating to the essential components of the right to health. The findings support more frequent reference to the normative components of the right to health throughout domestic judicial proceedings in order to further the advancement and effective implementation of the right to health, not only in South Africa and Switzerland but more broadly.

Utility of the Right to Health for Addressing Skilled Health Worker Shortages in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

“…This decision to include articles with implicit reference to the RTH is consistent with methods used by other authors where they mapped portions of government interventions to the normative components of the RTH. 96 , 103 , 104 The UN High Commission on Human Rights has described the use of a subjective approach (ie, perceptions, opinion and judgement) for examining state actors’ reasoning and behaviour towards the RTH as valid, provided there is transparency in the approach. 105…”

The Geneva University Global Health and Human Rights Summer School: A 5-Year Intercultural Collaborative Experience

“…This unique setting was put forward by the University of Geneva when the decision was taken to develop and implement several training programs related to human rights: e.g., a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Human Rights was developed at the Law School ( 29 ); with the support of the Geneva Academic Society, the Federal Agency Against Racism and the Federal Agency for Cooperation and Development, a CAS in Health and Human Rights, as a residential program for local health professionals and social workers ( 30 ) and as a distance learning e-program targeting professionals from six French-speaking African ( 31 ) was implemented at the Medical School: a pre-graduate one-semester elective in Health and Human Rights was integrated into the pre-graduate medical curriculum ( 32 ).…”