Projects per year
Abstract
Persistent health inequalities exist globally, affecting high-income countries and blighting the developing world. Health inequalities currently are one of the greatest challenges facing realisation of the human right to health. This article argues that the struggle for the right to health in the face of such inequalities requires embracing three critical considerations: redistribution, representation, and recognition. While the analysis of the right to health has been formulated predominantly around theories of distributive justice, I suggest that a more normatively compelling account will link the politics of economic redistribution to the politics of sociocultural recognition. A recognition approach, which views rights claims as grounded on the vulnerability of the human condition, can show how rights are emergent in political action and that the ability to claim and exercise the human right to health is contingent upon recognition of diverse sociopolitical statuses. From this perspective, there are no ‘neutral’ constructions of the rights-bearing subject and conflict between different political framings of the right to health is a consequence of the struggle for recognition. This theme is illustrated by comparing conservative, affirmative, and transformative processes of recognition in the struggle for access to essential antiretroviral medicines by South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 569-588 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Review of International Studies |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 30 Nov 2011 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2012 |
Keywords
- human right to health
- recognition theory
- social justice
- social struggle
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Dive into the research topics of 'The Human Right to Health and the Struggle for Recognition'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 1 Finished
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aRENDT AND POLITICAL EXISTENTIALISM: Arendt and political existentialism
Hayden, P. (PI)
1/03/10 → 31/12/10
Project: Standard