Abstract
This chapter reviews the values base and ethical arguments for global health diplomacy (GHD) and how these are codified within human rights treaty obligations that are binding on nations that ratified them. It begins by questioning if nations only engage in global health for their own security or economic interests. It then discusses the concept of values and the bipolar model of political values (freedom and equality). With reference to the Millennium Declaration’s consensus on global values, the chapter next identifies and explains GHD’s core value as promoting greater global health equity. This is supported by statements in several recent policies and commentaries on global health as a foreign policy concern. Global health equity requires reasonable access for all to resources for health, which leads into a review of key social justice theories and ethical arguments for systems of global redistribution. These arguments, and the values that underpin them, are implicit in international human rights, notably the right to health. Two main covenants, or treaties, define the major human rights that are legally binding on ratifying nations, many of which are important to health by way of improving social determinants of health. The chapter identifies a short-list of key human rights provisions that could, and should, guide global health diplomacy; and provides a checklist of questions useful for this purpose.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aguirre, D. (2008a). The human right to development in a globalized world. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Alcázar, S. (2008). The Copernican shift in global health. Geneva: Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. http://graduateinstitute.ch/webdav/site/globalhealth/shared/1894/Working%20Papers_003_WEB%20new%20version%2015062009.pdf. Accessed 5 Oct 2010.
Austin, W. (2001). Using the human rights paradigm in health ethics: The problems and possibilities. Nursing Ethics, 8(3), 183–195.
Blouin, C., Drager, N., & Smith, R. (in press). Buidling a national strategy for trade and health. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press
Boggio, A. (2009). Health and development: An ethics perspective. In A. Gatti & A. Boggio (Eds.), Health and development: Towards a matrix approach (pp. 140–152). Houndmills: Palgrave MacMillan.
Braithwaite, V. (1994). Beyond Rokeach’s equality-freedom model: Two-dimensional values in a one-dimensional world. Journal of Social Issues, 50(4), 67–94.
Bustreo, F., & Doebbler, C. F. J. (2010). Making health an imperative of foreign policy: The value of a human rights approach. Health and Human Rights, 12(1), 47–59.
Chapman, A. (2009). Globalization, human rights and the social determinants of health. Bioethics, 23(2), 97–111.
Dasgupta, P. (1995). An inquiry into well-being and destitution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Feldbaum, H., & Michaud, J. (2010). Health diplomacy and the enduring relevance of foreign policy interests. PLoS Medicine, 7(4), e1000226.
Foreign Ministers of Brazil, France, Indonesia, Norway, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand. (2007). Oslo Ministerial Declaration – global health: A pressing foreign policy issue of our time. Lancet, 369(9570), 1373–1378.
Howse, R., & Teitel, R. G. (2007). Beyond the divide: The covenant on economic, social and cultural rights and the World Trade Organization. (Occasional Paper No. 30) Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
International forum for social development. (2006). Social justice in an open world: The role of the United Nations. Economic and social affairs ST/ESA/305. New York: United Nations.
Kirchmeir, F. (2006). The right to development: Where do we stand? 23 dialogue on globalization occasional papers. Geneva: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.
Labonté, R., & Gagnon, M. (2010). Framing health and foreign policy: Lessons for global health diplomacy. Global Health, 6(14), 1–22.
Labonté, R., Schrecker, T., & Sanders, D. (2007). Trade policy and health equity: Can ‘policy coherence’ avoid a collision? In C. Blouin, N. Drager, & J. Heyman (Eds.), Trade and health: Seeking common ground (pp. 226–261). Montreal: McGill Queens University Press.
Nussbaum, M. (2000). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pogge, T. (2002). World poverty and human rights. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Pogge, T. (2004). Relational conceptions of justice: Responsibilities for health outcomes. In S. Anand, F. Peter, & A. Sen (Eds.), Public health, ethics and equity (pp. 135–161). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Policy Coherence Commission (PCC). (2008). Coherent for development? How coherent Norwegian policies can assist development in poor countries. NOU 2008: 14. Oslo.
Prowse, M. (2007). The poverty and inequality debate in the UK. (Background note of March 2007). London: ODI.
Rokeach, M. (1973). The nature of human values. New York: New York Free Press.
Ruger, J. P. (2009). Global health justice. Public Health Ethics, 2(3), 261–275.
Schaefer, D. L. (2007). Procedural versus substantive justice: Rawls and Nozick. Social Philosophy and Policy, 24(1), 164–186.
Sen, A. (1992). Inequality reexamined. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (2004). Elements of a theory of human rights. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 32(4), 315–356.
Singer, P. (1972). Famine, affluence and mortality. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1(1), 229–243.
Starfield, B. (2001). Improving equity in health: A research agenda. International Journal of Health Services, 31(3), 545–566.
Swedish government bill 2002/03:122 of 15 May 2003. Shared responsibility: Sweden’s policy for global development.
Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. (2006). Swiss health foreign policy: Agreement on health foreign policy objectives. Geneva.
UK Department of Health. (2008a). Health is global: A UK government strategy 2008. London.
UK Department of Health. (2008b). Health is global: A UK government strategy annex 2008. London.
UN General Assembly Resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986. Declaration on the right to development.
UN General Assembly Resolution 55/2 of 8 September 2000. United Nations millennium declaration.
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (2000). International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 14, Article 12.
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (2004). The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, E/Cn.4/2004/49 on 16 Feb 2004, Geneva.
Whitehead, M. (1992). The concepts and principles of equity and health. International Journal of Health Services, 22(3), 429–445.
World Conference on Human Rights A/Conf.157/23 on 12 July 1993, para 1, Vienna Declaration and Program of Action.
World Health Organization. (forthcoming). Foreign policy and global health: Six national strategies. Geneva.
Yamin, A. E. (2008). Will we take suffering seriously? Reflections on what applying a human rights framework to health means and why we should care. Health and Human Rights, 10(1), 45–63.
Further Reading
Aguirre, D. (2008b). The human right to development in a globalized world. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
Clapham, A., Robinson, M., Mahon, C., & Jerbi, S. (2009). Realizing the right to health. Geneva: Ruffer & Rub.
See also: Annual Reports of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/health/right/annual.htm and the Reports authored by the first Special Rapporteur (2002–2008), Paul Hunt: http://www.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/research/rth/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Labonté, R. (2013). Human Rights and Equity: The Value Base of Global Health Diplomacy. In: Kickbusch, I., Lister, G., Told, M., Drager, N. (eds) Global Health Diplomacy. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5401-4_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5401-4_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5400-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5401-4
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)