Health Priorities for Sustainable Development
Critical Issues on Human Rights and Development, edited by Stephen P. Marks and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Forthcoming 2021, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
27 Pages Posted: 23 Dec 2020 Last revised: 25 Jan 2021
Authors: Lisa E. Sachs, Jeffrey D. Sachs
Date Written: October 2020
Abstract
The right to health has been repeatedly recognized as one of the core human rights, essential for human functioning, human dignity, economic well-being, and development. But, the right to health continues to elude hundreds of millions, and with Covid-19, perhaps billions of people. Poverty remains the most critical obstacle to the realization of the right to health in developing countries. Achieving universal health coverage, before the additional costs of Covid-19, would require roughly $50 billion per year, approximately 0.1 percent of the GDP of the high-income OECD countries. Yet, despite this broad understanding of the vicious cycle of poverty and disease, and the means for scaling up health coverage and care, the international community has mustered only a laggard and insufficient response. In addition to the moral and economic imperatives to invest in the right to health, there is also a legal imperative grounded in binding international legal instruments, wherein States have undertaken to realize specific human rights, including through international assistance and cooperation. This chapter explores the legal basis for the universal right to health and the core obligation found in international law of all developed countries to assist in the realization of this core human right. Finally, it outlines possible steps that the international community can take to help achieve the right to health globally.
Keywords: Health, Human Rights, United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals, World Health Organization, Health Systems, Health Financing, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Development Aid, International Assistance
JEL Classification: I14, I15, I18, I3, I1, H87, H4, K32, K33, O00, P36
Suggested Citation:
Sachs, Lisa and Sachs, Jeffrey D., Health Priorities for Sustainable Development (October 2020). Critical Issues on Human Rights and Development, edited by Stephen P. Marks and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Forthcoming 2021, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3753001 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3753001