Global health rights: Employing human rights to develop and implement the Framework Convention on Global Health

Abstract

The Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) represents an important idea for addressing the expanding array of governance challenges in global health. Proponents of the FCGH suggest that it could further the right to health through its incorporation of rights into national laws and policies, using litigation and community empowerment to advance rights claims and prominently establish the right to health as central to global health governance. Building on efforts to expand development and influence of the right to health through the implementation of the FCGH, in this article we find that human rights correspondingly holds promise in justifying the FCGH. By employing human rights as a means to develop and implement the FCGH, the existing and evolving frameworks of human rights can complement efforts to reform global health governance, with the FCGH and human rights serving as mutually reinforcing bases of norms and accountability in global health.