Health is a fundamental right of every human being. Health as a human right is recognized in the WHO Constitution (1948), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and many international and regional human rights treaties. All WHO Member States have ratified at least one treaty that recognizes the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
This means that countries have legal obligations, while acknowledging that time and resources are required to fully achieve them. Some immediate obligations for countries include the guarantees of non-discrimination and equal treatment in health. The right to health includes entitlements, such as the right to control one’s health, informed consent, bodily integrity, and participation in health-related decision-making. It also includes freedoms, like freedom from torture, ill-treatment and harmful practices.
The right to health is closely related to and dependent on the realization of other human rights, including the rights to life, food, housing, work, education, privacy, access to information, freedom from torture and the freedoms of association, assembly and movement. It includes both nondiscriminatory access to quality, timely and appropriate health services and systems and to the underlying determinants of health.