The project continued work carried out by Professor Paul Hunt, firstly as a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and later as the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Since stepping down as UN Special Rapporteur, Professor Hunt continued to work on health-rights with Essex colleagues, such as Dr Linsey McGoey and Genevieve Sander.
When Professor Hunt served on the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee adopted General Comment 14 on the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Later, when he was the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, Professor Hunt endeavoured to apply General Comment 14 in his thematic and country UN reports. In parallel, a small team of Essex-based researchers worked on related health-rights projects.
This archive contains material related to the work that Professor Paul Hunt carried out in his capacity as Special Rapporteur from August 2002-July 2008, as well as the work of other staff from the Right to Health Unit.
In 2002, the UN Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the right to health. Paul Hunt from the Essex Law School and Human Rights Centre was appointed to this post in September 2002.
At its sixty-first session in 2005 the Commission on Human Rights decided to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for a further period of three years. The Human Rights Council, by its decision 1/102 of 30 June 2006, extended all mandates of the former Commission on Human Rights, including that of the Special Rapporteur.
He was requested by the Human Rights Council to work in cooperation with States, inter-governmental organisations and civil society:
The Special Rapporteur’s work focuses on two main themes:
Within these overarching themes, the Special Rapporteur, assisted by other staff at the Human Rights Centre, as well as the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR), carried out research into issues including:
The main objectives of the Special Rapporteur were:
In his work, the Special Rapporteur undertook country missions and other visits, transmitted communications to States with regard to alleged violations of the human right to health, and submitted annual reports on his work to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.
For further information about the role of Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, see the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights website:
In his work, the Special Rapporteur undertook country missions and other visits, transmitted communications to States with regard to alleged violations of human right to health, and submitted annual reports on his work to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.
All the reports and preliminary notes listed below are links to .pdf versions on the website of the United Nations.
Paul Hunt's 2010 Supplementary Note on the UN Special Rapporteur's Report on Maternal Mortality in India (.pdf) is available on our University's Research Repository.
You can also search for individual documents using the Symbol (e.g. A/HRC/14/20/Add.2) in the Search by Symbol function on the United Nations documents website.
All reports and preliminary notes are also available on the website of the United Nation Office of the High Commission on Human Rights:
The Human Rights Council, Commission on Human Rights, Economic and Social Council and General Assembly of the United Nations have adopted the following resolutions and decisions on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
The following press releases, statements and interviews can be downloaded as a zip folder from our University's Research Repository, except those hosted by an external site:
The following conference papers and presentations can be downloaded from our University's Research Repository:
The following publciations can be downloaded from our University's Research Repository:
States' obligations under some international treaties extend beyond their national borders to international assistance and cooperation for human rights, including the rights to sexual and reproductive health, in other countries. This publication focuses on what is expected of donors in the context of this responsibility. It shows how many donors are taking important steps towards fulfilling this duty through measures they are taking to integrate the rights to sexual and reproductive health into their policies and programmes, but also argues that many donors can also do more. The publication concludes with a set of recommendations addressed to donors and their developing country partner governments.
When Paul Hunt was UN Special Rapporteur (2002-2008), a recurrent theme in his work was access to medicines. For the most part, he - and colleagues in the Right to Health Unit - looked at the duties of States in relation to access to medicines e.g. his report to the UN General Assembly A/61/338, dated 13 September 2006. However, States reported that when endeavouring to enhance access to medicines the policies and practices of some pharmaceutical companies were a very considerable obstacle. Thus, he was urged to prepare access-to-medicines guidelines for pharmaceutical companies. After extensive research and wide-ranging consultations over some years, Paul Hunt and Rajat Khosla wrote 'Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines'. These Guidelines were published by the UN General Assembly in A/63/263, dated 11 August 2008. The present publication briefly discusses medicines and sexual and reproductive health, in particular medicines, HIV/AIDS and the human papillomavirus (HPV) - HPV being responsible for over 99% of cervical cancers. In this context, the publication then introduces, and reproduces, the 'Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines' that were published by the General Assembly in 2008.
Active and informed participation is an integral component of health systems, as well as the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Despite its critical importance, health and human rights have not given participation the attention it deserves. While some health researchers have made more headway than those working in human rights, neither community has a widely accepted understanding of what the process of participation means in practice. The monograph is an accessible, practical, timely and original introduction to the process of participation; the need for a variety of participatory mechanisms; the relationship between fairness and transparency of the process; the relationship between participation and accountability and participation in accountability. The publication of the monograph was supported by the Ford Foundation.
Healthcare providers' conscientious objection to involvement in certain procedures is grounded in the right to freedom of religion, conscience and thought. However, such conscientious objection can have serious implications for the human rights of healthcare users, including their sexual and reproductive health rights. This briefing paper examines the implications of conscientious objection, by healthcare providers, for the protection of sexual and reproductive health rights, and concludes with a set of recommendations for States' policies and laws.
Today, there is growing recognition that a strong health system is an essential element of a healthy and equitable society. However, health systems in many countries are failing and collapsing. It is vital to find ways of strengthening health systems. This briefing looks at health systems from the perspective of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. It outlines how this fundamental human right underpins and reinforces an effective, integrated, accessible health system - and why this is important. In other words, the briefing signals a right-to-health approach to health systems strengthening.
Accountability is a central feature of human rights. Despite its critical role, little work has been done to explore its meaning and content. Even less work has been done in the context of the right to health. As a result, accountability is cloaked in misunderstandings. The monograph is an accessible, practical and timely study, addressing these misunderstandings by clarifying the process of accountability; the relationship between monitoring, mechanisms and redress; and the pre-conditions for effective accountability. The publication of the monograph was supported by OSI's Public Health Program and Law and Health Initiative.
Sexual and reproductive health are among the most sensitive and controversial issues in international human rights law, but they are also among the most important. This publication examines the outcomes of the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 and the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing held in Beijing in 1995 that can be applied alongside international human rights law standards in the context of sexual and reproductive health rights.
Over half a million women die each year due to complications during pregnancy and birth. The vast majority of these deaths are preventable. Despite longstanding international commitments to reducing maternal mortality, progress to date has been disappointing. This publication introduces the contribution of the right to the highest attainable standard of health to reducing maternal mortality.
This report was was published in the series Special topics in social economic and behavioural research in 2007. The research was funded by the WHO-World Bank-UNDP Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.
This briefing aims to provide a short, concise and accessible introduction to the right to the highest attainable standard of health and is available in English, French and Spanish versions. This project was a joint initiative of the Human Rights Centre and the International Federation for Health and Human Rights Organisations (IFHHRO).
Gunilla Backman, Paul Hunt, Rajat Khosla, Anna Protano-Briggs, Camila Jaramillo-Strouss, Belachew Mekuria Fikre, Caroline Rumble, David Pevalin, David Acurio Páez, Mónica Armijos Pineda, Ariel Frisancho, Duniska Tarco, Mitra Motlagh, Dana Farcasanu, Cristian Vladescu
Published in The Lancet (13-19 December 2008), this report identifies some of the right-to-health features of health systems and proposes 72 indicators that reflect some of these features. Globally processed data on these indicators for 194 countries and national data for five countries (Ecuador, Mozambique, Peru, Romania and Sweden) were collected. Globally processed data were unavailable for 18 indicators for any country, suggesting that organisations that obtain such data give insufficient attention to the right-to-health features of health systems. Where they are available, the indicators show where health systems need to be improved to better realise the right to health. The report provides recommendations for governments, international bodies, civil society organisations, and other institutions and suggests that these indicators and data, although not perfect, provide a basis for evaluating health systems and monitoring the progressive realisation of the right to health. Right-to-health features are not just good management, justice, or humanitarianism, they are obligations under human rights law. Many of the features are reflected in the Alma-Ata Declaration (1978) and the recent World Health Report on primary health care (2008). In the same issue, The Lancet carries an editorial calling this "a landmark report", as well as short articles by Navanethem Pillay (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), Amartya Sen (Harvard University), Hedia Belhadj and Aminata Toure (UNFPA), and Ariel Frisancho and Jay Goulden (CARE Peru).
The right to the highest attainable standard of health lies at the heart of the health and human rights movement. Of course, this right does not provide magic solutions to complex health issues, any more than do ethics or economics. Nonetheless, the right to health has a crucial constructive role to play.
The health and human rights communities have much in common. Recently, the international community has begun to devote more attention to the right to the highest attainable standard of health (‘the right to health’). Today, this human right presents health and human rights professionals with a range of new opportunities and challenges. The right to health is enshrined in binding international treaties and constitutions. It has numerous elements, including the right to health care and the underlying determinants of health, such as adequate sanitation and safe water. It empowers disadvantaged individuals and communities. If integrated into national and international policies, it can help to establish policies that are meaningful to those living in poverty.
For the most part, development practitioners fail to use the human rights tools at their disposal in the struggle against poverty. Of course, neither human rights nor anything else provide a magic solution to the immensely complex problem of global poverty. Nonetheless, human rights have a constructive contribution to make and a failure to use them is a missed opportunity of major proportions. There has been some progress at the policy level, much less progress at the operational level.
Paul Hunt submitted these Guidelines to the UN General Assembly in 2008. The Guidelines were prepared by way of a long consultative process, including a public consultation on 19 September 2007, at the University of Toronto.
A zip folder containing .pdf versions of all documents related to the draft guidelines consultation process is available on our University of Essex Research Repository:
UNESCO provided a grant for a short-term project to develop a methodology on human rights and impact assessments, using the right to health as a case study. Professor Paul Hunt and Gillian MacNaughton co-authored a report, entitled Impact Assessments, Poverty and Human Rights: A Case Study Using the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, which was submitted to UNESCO on 31 May 2006:
The British Medical Association, in collaboration with MedAct, provided a grant for a short-term project to research national medical association projects supporting the right to health and health-related Millennium Development Goals. The research focused particularly on support provided to national medical associations in developing countries by their counterparts in developed countries. The research findings were written up in a report by Dr Octavio Ferraz:
The British Medical Association, in collaboration with Medact, provided a grant to support research on the duty of international assistance and cooperation, enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and its relationship to the right to health. The research examined this legal duty, its relationship with the Millennium Goals, jurisprudence, and examples of its practical application by States. The research culminated in a report by Dr Octavio Ferraz and Judith Mesquita:
This project of the Human Rights Centre was carried out in close cooperation with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and is funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Paul Hunt was on the advisory board of this project.
Commissioned by MedAct, a UK-based charity taking action on key global health issues, Judith Bueno de Mesquita wrote a paper on the human rights implications of international health worker migration, co-authoring with Matthew Gordon (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). This project was funded by the British Medical Association and Save the Children UK.
In April 2004, the Human Rights Centre hosted a meeting of the EU-China Human Rights Network on the topics of the right to health and social security. The Right to Health Project coordinated the event and contributed three background papers and working papers for the meeting.
Judith Bueno de Mesquita also participated as Seminar Co-Rapporteur in a follow-up EU-China Human Rights Dialogue Seminar on the right to health and HIV/AIDS, held in the Hague, Netherlands, on 8-9 November 2004.
This project is coordinated by the Irish Centre for Human Rights and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The Human Rights Centre, University of Essex, is a member of the Steering Group. The project is funded by the European Commission.
Building on recent conceptual advances focusing on the operationalisation of a human rights-based approach to health in the context of poverty reduction strategy papers and current experiences in developing and implementing poverty reduction strategies, this project identified and analyzed good practices for the delivery of pro-poor health policies through the prism of a human rights-based approach to health.
WHO was the lead institution in this project, and the Special Rapporteur was a member of the core project steering group. The project culminated in the publication of a handbook on a human rights approach to health in the context of poverty reduction strategies, which was published by WHO: