Paula
Braveman, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Center on Social
Disparities in Health,
University of California
Sofia
Gruskin, International Health and Human Rights Program, Francois Xavier
Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health,
Boston MA, USA.
Bulletin
of the World Health Organization July 2003, 81 (7)
Available
online as PDF file [7p.] at:
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/81/7/en/Braveman0703.pdf
"........Those
concerned with poverty and health have sometimes viewed equity and human
rights as abstract concepts with little practical application, and links
between health, equity and human rights have not been examined systematically.
Examination of the concepts of poverty, equity, and human rights in relation
to health and to each other demonstrates that they are closely linked
conceptually and operationally and that each provides valuable, unique
guidance for health institutions' work. Equity and human rights perspectives
can contribute concretely to health institutions' efforts to tackle poverty
and health, and focusing on poverty is essential to operationalizing those
commitments.
Both
equity and human rights principles dictate the necessity to strive for equal
opportunity for health for groups of people who have suffered marginalization
or discrimination. Health institutions can deal with poverty and health
within a framework encompassing
equity and human rights concerns in five general ways: (1) institutionalizing
the systematic and routine application of equity and human rights perspectives
to all health sector actions;
2) strengthening and extending the public health functions, other than health
care, that create the conditions necessary for health;
3) implementing equitable health care financing, which should help reduce
poverty while increasing access for the poor;
4) ensuring that health services respond effectively to the major causes of
preventable ill-health among the poor and disadvantaged; and
5) monitoring, advocating and taking action to address the potential health
equity and human rights implications of policies in all sectors affecting
health, not only the health sector........."
This
message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO,
is part of an effort to disseminate information related to Equity, Health
inequality; socioeconomic inequality in health; socioeconomic health
differentials. Gender, Violence, Poverty, Health Economics, Health Legislation,
Ethnicity, Ethics, Information Technology and Virtual libraries, Research
& Science issues. [IKM Area]
PAHO/WHO
Website: http://www.paho.org/English/HDP/
EQUITY
List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html
