An Economic and Social Rights Platform for Health and Human Dignity

Human health depends on many social determinants: food, water, education, housing, social security, work with dignity and other fundamental needs are critical to the health of individuals and communities. These needs cannot be met in isolation from one another, which is why the human rights that arise from human needs are necessarily interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. As such, the human right to health can only be fully realized when all fundamental needs are met, and health policy must be situated holistically within a broader economic and social policy framework. NESRI’s economic and social rights platform, presented publicly for the first time in this session, offers a framework for approaching health policy as an integral part of larger rights-based social and economic policies. Recognizing that the realization of human rights depends on an equitable distribution of resources and universal access to needed goods and services, the platform yields both immediate policy solutions and a long-term vision for a healthy, equitable, democratic society, grounded in the power of people to define, claim and protect their rights.