Essential reading

General resources in health and human rights

Each chapter of this Guide contains topic-specific resources on the health issue covered by that chapter. The following are general resources on health and human rights, divided into the following categories:

* For additional information on UN and Regional conventions as well as Guidelines and interpretations see Appendix.

Conventions: UN

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Source: www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Source: www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination.
Source: www.ohchr.org/english/law/cerd.htm
Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries.
Source: www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/62.htm
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Source: www.ohchr.org/english/law/cedaw.htm
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Source: www.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Source: www.ohchr.org/english/law/cat.htm

Conventions: Regional

African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
Source: www.achpr.org/english/_info/charter_en.html
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Source: www.achpr.org/english/_info/women_en.html
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
Source: www.achpr.org/english/_info/child_en.html
[European] Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Source: conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/005.htm
European Social Charter.
Source: conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/035.htm
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
Source: conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/157.htm

Guidelines and interpretations

The Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Derogation Principles in the ICCPR, especially Article 25.
Source: www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/siracusaprinciples.html
The Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Source: www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/Maastrichtguidelines_.html
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 14, The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health.
Source: www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(symbol)/E.C.12.2000.4.En
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation 24, Women and Health.
Source: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/recommendations/recomm.htm#recom24

Books

General Human Rights

Buergenthal, Thomas and Dinah Shelton and David Stewart. International Human Rights in a Nut Shell. West Publishing Company, 1995.
Cranston M. What are Human Rights? New York: Basic Books, 1973.
Nussbaum M. Capabilities, Human Rights and the Universal Declaration. In: Weston and Marks. The Future of International Human Rights, Transnational Publishers, 1999.
Orend B. Human rights—Concept and Context. Broadview Press, 2000.
Steiner HJ and Alston P. International Human Rights in Context – Law, Politics, Morals. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Chapters 1, 4 and 11.
Sen, Amartya, Development as Freedom. Pp.87-100. New York: Anchor Books, 1998.

Health and Human Rights

Alfredsson, G. and K. Tomasevski. A Thematic Guide to Documents on Health and Human Rights: Global and Regional Standards adopted by Intergovernmental Organizations, International Non-Governmental Organizations and Professional Associations. Martinus Nijoff, 1998.
Asher, Judith. Right to Health: A Resource Manual. Commonwealth Medical Trust, 2004
Beyrer, Christopher and Hank Pizer, eds. Public Health and Human Rights: Evidence-Based Approaches. (forthcoming).
Chapman, Audrey and Sage Russell, eds. Core Obligations: Building a Framework for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Intersentia, 2002.
Cook, Rebecca J, Bernard Dickens, and Mahmoud Fathalla. Reproductive Health and Human Rights: Integrating Medicine, Ethics, and Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Farmer, Paul. Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. California: University of California Press, 2001.
Farmer, Paul. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor. California: University of California Press, 2003.
Gostin, Lawrence O. Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint. California: University of California Press, 2003.
Gruskin, Sofia and Michael A. Grodin, George J. Annas, and Stephen P. Marks, eds. Perspectives on Health and Human Rights. Routledge, 2005.
Mann, Jonathan M. and Sofia Gruskin, Michael A. Grodin, and George J. Annas, eds. Health and Human Rights: A Reader. Routledge, 1999.
Marks, Stephen. Health and Human Rights: Basic International Documents. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2006.

Key articles, reports, and other documents

Annas, George J. Human Rights and Health—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 339 New Eng. J. Med. 1778 (1998).
Asher, Judith. Right to Health: A Resource Manual for NGOs., 2004
www.shr.aaas.org/Right_to_Health_Manual/index.shtml
Beyrer, Chris. Public Health, Human Rights, and the Beneficence of States, Human Rights Review 2004, 5(1) 28-33.
Burris Scott. “Law as a Structural Factor in the Spread of Communicable Disease.” Houston Law Review 36 (1999): 1756-1786.
Burris, Scott and Zita Lazzarini and Lawrence O Gostin. “Taking Rights Seriously.” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 30(2002):490-491.
Farmer P, Gastineau N. Rethinking Health and Human Rights: Time for a Paradigm Shift. J Law, Med and Ethics (2002) 30:4:655-666.
Farmer, Paul. Never Again? Reflections on Human Values and Human Rights. Tanner lectures on Human Values. University of Utah: 2005.
Goodman T. Is There A Right To Health? J. of Medicine and Philosophy, 30:643-662, 2005.
Gruskin, Sofia and Trantola, Daniel. “Health and Human Rights, paper, to appear as chapter in The Oxford Textbook of Public Health, 4th edition, Detels, McEwan, Beaglehole and Tanaka, eds, (Oxford University Press).
Human Rights and Health in Prisons: a review of strategy and practice, Penal Reform International and Royal Netherlands Tuberculosis Foundation (2006).
Human Right to Health Information Sheet 1: Human Right to Health, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative.
Human Right to Health Information Sheet 2: Human Right to Health Care, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative.
Leary, V. “The Right to Health in International Human Rights Law,” Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, 1994, 1(1):24-56.
London, Leslie. “Human Rights and Public Health: Dichotomies or Synergies in Developing Countries? Examining the Case of HIV in South Africa.” Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 30 (2002): 677-691
London, Leslie. “Issues of equity are also issues of rights: Lessons from Experiences in Southern Africa,” BMC Public Health 2007, 7:14.
Mann, Jonathan. Medicine and Public Health, Ethics and Human Rights, Hastings Center Rep., May-June 1997.
Ngwena, Charles. “The Recognition of Access to Health Care as a Human Right in South Africa: Is It Enough?” Health and Human Rights: An International Journal 5 (1): 26-44 (2000).
Odinkalu, Chidi Anselm. Analysis of Paralysis or Paralysis by Analysis? Implementing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Human Rights Quarterly 23.2 (2001) 327-369.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Fact Sheet on the Right to Health.
Potts, Helen. Human Rights Centre. University of Essex. Accountability and the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health. 2008.
www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/docs/HRC_Accountability_Mar08.pdf
Right to Health Unit, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, UK, Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, Inter-Regional Conference on Human Rights and Judiciary Systems.
Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations. Our Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health.
http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/docs/REVISED_MAY07_RtH_8pager_v2.pdf
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, Initial Report on Sources and Content of the Right to Health, E/CN.4/2003/58.
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, Report on Mission to Uganda, E/CN.4/2006/48/Add.2.
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, Report on Progress and Obstacles to the Health and Human Rights Movement, in addition to Cases on the Right to Health and other Health-Related Rights, A/HRC/4/28.
World Health Organization. 25 Questions and Answers on Health and Human Rights, Health and Human Rights Publications Series 1 (2002).
World Health Organization. Fact Sheet on the Right to Health.
Zuckerman, Barry and Ellen Lawton and Samatra Morton. From Principles to Practice: Moving from Human Rights to Legal Rights to Ensure Child Health.

Periodicals

Health and Human Rights: An International Journal.
The Lancet (contains a regular health and human rights section).
BMC International Health and Human Rights.

Websites

Amnesty International Health Professional Network
web.amnesty.org/pages/health-index-eng
BMC International Health and Human Rights
www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinthealthhumrights/
François Xavier Bagnoud Centre for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health
www.hsph.harvard.edu/fxbcenter/
Global Lawyers and Physicians
www.glphr.org
The International Center for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (monthly report of significant human rights decisions from common law jurisdictions)
www.interights.org
International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations
www.ifhhro.org
International Society for Health and Human Rights
www.ishhr.org
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF)
The IHF is a community of 46 human rights NGOs in the OSCE area that co-operate on promoting implementation of human rights and compliance with international human rights standards.
www.ihf-hr.org/index.php
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Center for Public Health and Human Rights
www.jhsph.edu/humanrights/index.html
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative
www.nesri.org
Physicians for Human Rights
physiciansforhumanrights.org/
Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
shr.aaas.org
Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health
www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/rapporteur.shtm or
www.ohchr.org/english/issues/health/right/
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library contains a lengthy list of health and human rights websites, though many of these are out of date
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/links/health.html
World Health Organization’s Health and Human Rights page
WHO’s 25 Questions and Answers on Health and Human Rights is a useful introductory document
www.who.int/hhr/en/

Search engines

The UN Treaty Body Database includes all general comments, concluding observations, reports, and other documents of the UN human rights system, organized by treaty monitoring body and special procedure.
www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf
The International Human Rights Index also includes the above documents but is searchable by key word, country, and right.
www.universalhumanrightsindex.org
The University of Minnesota has an excellent database of international human rights documents and information. It is organized simply and clearly and is generally the easiest way to find documents.
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/
Professor Anne Bayefsky’s website (York University, Toronto, Canada) includes international human rights documents and jurisprudence that are searchable by country, category of document, and theme or subject matter.
www.bayefsky.com
The Global Justice Center maintains a database of domestic and international court decisions that cite to CEDAW or the CEDAW Optional Protocol.
www.globaljusticecenter.net/casebank
The European Court of Human Rights maintains a database of decisions.
cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/search.asp?skin=hudoc-en
Health and Human Rights Info, a project of the International Society for Health and Human Rights, is a searchable database of organizations, manuals, training materials, projects and reports, and articles related to several areas of health and human rights.
www.hhri.org
The Harvard School of Public Health has produced a searchable database of syllabi from health and human rights courses around the world.
www.hsph.harvard.edu/pihhr/syllabidatabase.html

Training materials

The Human Rights Resource Center, part of the University of Minnesota human rights library, contains a range of interactive training packages on human rights.
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/
The website of Equitas contains a collection of education manuals and resources as well as extensive information and links to Equitas projects and partners.
www.equitas.org

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