The International Human Right to Health: What does it mean for Municipal Law in Ghana and Pakistan

Abstract

Health has universally been recognised as an important dimension of human flourishing. This has been recognised at the global and regional level by protection of the right to health/ health care in international human rights instruments. The content of this right has been explored and explicated within the context of the major international human rights instrument enshrining the right to health. Apart from international human rights instruments, municipal legal systems also recognise the right to health explicitly or tacitly. Ghana and Pakistan have been selected to explore the extent to which the international right to health has been domesticated in both countries. The article also attempts to understand how right-based approach is better than the policy based approach towards healthcare and how positively/effectively it can influence health reforms in the national legal system.