From the EQUIDAD list
-----Original Message-----
From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Poverty, equity, human rights and health
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]
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