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ZADHR NEWSLETTER: Volume 7, Issue 4 - October 2009 |
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Human rights education in medical education
Health and human rights are essentially linked. The focus of human rights is the promotion and protection of the dignity of human beings while health is concerned with their physical and mental wellbeing. It is impossible to achieve one without the other. Consequently health professionals should also be equipped with knowledge on human rights during their training.
Although Zimbabwe has a long history of human rights violations predating independence, medical and other health professionals have not actively taken up these violations and their impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of their patients. This has largely been the result of a lack of understanding of the link between health and human rights, the role of health professionals in promoting both and a misconception that involvement in human rights is equivalent to involvement in party politics.
As the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of health aptly points out, health is not just the absence of disease. It is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. The education of health professionals should therefore focus on more than just morbidity and mortality if their practice is to be about more than just the indifferent application of clinical skills.
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Right to Health
What is the right to health?
The right to health is "the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health". It is an entitlement to health care and the living conditions or underlying determinants that are necessary for good health.
The right to health, like all other human rights:
- is inherent;
- focuses on the dignity and integrity of every human being;
- is universal, interdependent, indivisible and interrelated with all other rights;
- applies to all individuals on the basis of equality and non-discrimination;
- must be guaranteed by law;
- cannot be arbitrarily taken away or waived; and
- can and should be claimed.
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The Right to Health and a new Zimbabwean Constitution |
The Constitution and The Right to Health
The constitution is the supreme law of Zimbabwe. It is the highest law of the land because it is superior to all other laws passed by parliament. It defines the structure, procedures, powers (extent and limitation) and duties of government. The constitution also sets out the rights of citizens in the country which the government is obligated to respect, protect and fulfill. The principles and rules for the relationship between government and citizens, including how government is elected, are also contained in the constitution.
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Key Elements of the Right to Health |
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Timely and appropriate health care, the right to health requires that appropriate preventive, curative and rehabilitative health care be provided in a timely manner. This includes comprehensive primary health care and operational health facilities that are equipped to provide different levels of health care with the necessary human resources, equipment, drugs and sundries.
There must be appropriate mental health services, immunization programmes and other relevant strategies for the control of infectious diseases and a system of emergency medical care for the management of accidents, epidemics and similar health hazards.
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ZADHR NEWSLETTER: Volume 7, Issue 1 - April 2009 |
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ZADHR NEWSLETTER: Volume 7, Issue 1 - April 2009
Contents
* Rights-Based Approaches to Health: Lessons for Zimbabwe
* The MoHCW’s 100 Day Health Action Plan
* Monitoring the Right to Health: Training Report
* Prison Health in Zimbabwe: The Case for Reform
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ZADHR NEWSLETTER: Volume 7, Issue 2 - June 2009 |
ZADHR NEWSLETTER: Volume 7, Issue 2 - June 2009
Contents
* Conditions at Psychiatric Institutions in Zimbabwe: The Case of Ngomahuru Psychiatric Hospital
* Promoting and Protecting the Rights of People with Mental Disorders: WHO Guidelines
* Personal Accounts of Human Rights Violations of People with Mental Disorders
* User Fees and Access to Health Project in Mutare
* ZADHR Chairperson wins the 2009 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights
* ZADHR elected onto the Zimbabwe Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM)
* Report on Chinhoyi Workshop, 13 June 2009
* Chinhoyi Workshop Report: Strengthening Zimbabwe’s Health System: What Can a Right to Health Approach Add?
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ZADHR NEWSLETTER: Volume 7, Issue 3 - August 2009 |
ZADHR NEWSLETTER: Volume 7, Issue 3 - August 2009
Contents
* Zimbabwe: Health Rights in Practice
* The Right to Health in a New Zimbabwean Constitution
* South Africa’s Constitution: A Constitutional Model for the Right to Health
* Monitoring the Right to Health: Prison Health Protection Programme
* A Human Rights Approach to Mental Health: Report on Bulawayo Workshop
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