Introduction: human rights law and health – new challenges; new perspectives

Nataly Papadopoulou and Elizabeth Wicks

A chapter in Research Handbook on Human Rights Law and Health, 2025, pp 1-10 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This Introduction explains the ethos and purpose of the Research Handbook, placing it within the context of current issues in health law and health care. It starts by making the connection between health and human rights, noting the tension created when human rights have to deal with new health challenges. To respond to this tension, it then identifies both opportunities and limitations in employing human rights law for a re-imagined concept of health. It argues that the relationship between human rights law and health cannot stand still and must inevitably change and adapt as new issues of health emerge, and as societal conceptions of health, and healthy lives, evolve. It recognises situations where rights fail but warns of the need to preserve the foundation of human rights law and acknowledges that the concept of ‘health’ underlying this collection is not uncontentious, nor is it static. This Introduction provides a taster of the complex, emotive, and vital issues explored throughout the Handbook.

Keywords: Human rights law; Health; Health care; Limits of rights; Dignity; Autonomy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781803928029
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