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Health and Human Rights

Health and human rights are mutually reinforcing: where human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled people are more likely to attain the best possible standard of health, and health systems are more likely to be responsive to the rights of patients and staff.

There are different human rights which can impact on health, from freedom from torture and ill-treatment, to the right to information.

International human rights law recognises a human right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

What is the Commission doing?

  • In 2009 the Commission undertook an independent evaluation of the experience of a Special NHS Board which has sought to adopt a human rights culture. The results provide practical lessons for other public authorities. The Commission has shared the methodology and findings of this evaluation widely, including at two international health conferences, local mental health groups and with the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Strathclyde.

Read the Summary document - large print Word format

Read the Summary document - PDF format

Read the full report (80 pages) - PDF format​

  • The Commission submitted comments to the Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee’s review of the Patients’ Rights (Scotland) Bill. You can read the submission in PDF.

  • The Commission is a member of the NHS Scotland Mutuality, Equality and Human Rights Board and is contributing to the development of a workplan on health and human rights. You can read more about the MEHRB at this link.

  • The Commission is supporting the Scottish Government's Health Inequalities Impact Assessment (HIIA) project which is developing and piloting an integrated impact assessment tool on health, inequality and human rights: link to HIIA website

  • Members of the Commission team have also participated in a number of events on the relation between health and human rights. In April 2010, for example, Duncan Wilson, Head of Strategy and Legal, addressed Voluntary Health Scotland’s conference “Health and Human Rights: making the connections”: link

  • The Commission also participated in an expert roundtable to support the development of mental health and human rights indicators by the Northern Ireland Regulation and Quality Improvement Agency (no link available).

Links and more resources

  • Asher, Judith, Right to Health, a resource manual for NGOs, American Academy for the Advancement of Science: link

  • British Institute of Human Rights, Human Rights in Health Care Project (practical examples of human rights in health care): link

  • Council of Europe, The Right to Health and the European Social Charter, information document prepared by the secretariat of the ESC, March 2009: link

  • Department of Health and BIHR, Human Rights and Health Care: a framework for local action, 2nd edition, 2008 (background publication): link

  • The François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University: link

  • International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations: link

  • Jeremy Croft, Human Rights and Health, a guide to the Human Rights Act 1998, Nuffield Trust (publication): link

  • United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and World Health Organisation, The Right to Health, factsheet No. 31: link

  • United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health: link

  • University of Essex, Right to Health Unit (headed by Prof. Paul Hunt, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health): link

  • World Health Organisation, Health and Human Rights page: link