The Imperial-Emancipatory Paradox of International Human Rights : How Useful is the Right to Health in Sub-Saharan Africa?
In thinking of and formulating strategies for tackling the problems of unavailability of or lack of access to good health care services in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is very tempting to look to the right to health as part of such strategies. However, given the genealogy and practices of the international human rights corpus, the question as to the value of utilising the right to health in such endeavours necessarily comes to the fore and demands investigation. This is so because inherent in the discipline of international human rights law is a bipolar attribute that makes it at once imperial and liberatory. This paper sets the stage by first examining this paradox and the various ways in which it has manifested itself. It is contended that while international human rights law has a great deal of emancipatory potential, such potential is severely blunted by its imperial tendencies that are characteristic of the discipline and international law in general. Using the trajectory of the right to health, the paper then analyses the usefulness or otherwise of international human rights in seeking solutions to problems relating to health in Sub-Saharan Africa. Examples of instances in which the right to health has been interpreted and applied at the national and regional levels are analysed and the argument made that the right to health has low utility value despite the promises it makes. The decisions examined affirm the justiciability of the right to health but they also highlight the limited role that international human rights can play in bringing about substantive change. The paper offers some explanations for this shortcoming arguing that the right to health does not address, and is probably incapable of addressing, the political and economic structural forces at the international level that need to be dealt with first if some of the problems connected with health in Sub-Saharan Africa are to be effectively addressed. In this connection, the contributions made by the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organisation to the health crisis in the region are highlighted. The paper concludes with the argument that an appreciation of the imperial-emancipatory paradox that is intrinsically built in the corpus of international human rights not only enables one to expect less from the right to health but also opens up possibilities of crafting more productive strategies in the struggle to achieve the highest attainable standard of health for the people of Sub-Saharan Africa
Year of publication: |
2007
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Authors: | Muriu, Daniel |
Publisher: |
[S.l.] : SSRN |
Subject: | Menschenrechte | Human rights | Südafrika | South Africa | Subsahara-Afrika | Sub-Saharan Africa | Grundrecht | Fundamental right | Gesundheitsversorgung | Health care | Gesundheit | Health |
Description of contents: | Abstract [papers.ssrn.com] |
Saved in:
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource |
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Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Notes: | Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments April 20, 2007 erstellt Volltext nicht verfügbar |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014049395
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