85.
At the international level, many States that are not members of the OAS or that have
not signed the American Convention have also established the right to health by
constitutional, legislative or judicial mechanisms; for example, the Constitutions of South
Africa (art. 27), 149 Cuba (art. 50), 150 Spain (art. 43), 151 Philippines (art. 13) 152 and Puerto
Rico (art. 2). 153 In addition, the Supreme Court of Canada has established that certain
constitutional provisions include the right to health. 154 England, on the other hand, is an
example of a State that has enacted progressive legislation based on the right to health as a
fundamental right for social well-being.” 155
86.
For its part in the Case of the Treatment Action Campaign, 156 the Constitutional
Court of South Africa analyzed a complaint against the public policy for the distribution of
Nevirapine, an antiretroviral medicine used to avoid the transmission of HIV from mothers
to babies during birth. The court determined that the Ministry of Health was not doing
everything that it reasonably could to promote the accessibility of the medicine, and ordered
that the restrictions to the use of Nevirapine in public clinics and hospitals be removed in
cases where it had been recommended by a doctor, and it also ordered the promotion of a
global and coordinated program to recognize gradually the right of pregnant women and
their newborns to access medical services to avoid mother-to-child transmission of HIV. It is
possible to find many other cases similar to these examples of judicial protection of the right
to health. 157 Some of these matters involve understanding the right to health
autonomously, without ignoring its interactions with the rights to life and to personal
integrity.
87.
It is important to underscore that this understanding of the right to health as directly
fundamental in the national States, or of the direct justiciability of the right to health within
the framework of the American Convention, does not imply understanding the right to
health as an absolute right, as a right that has no limits, or that must be protected every
democratic constitutional State, the ordinary legislator and the government and administrative authorities have a
broad margin to articulate their vision of the Constitution and, in particular, to deploy the public policies and
regulations that must substantiate the effective guarantee of the rights in one direction or another, the
constitutional judge is able to compare his work with the standards contained in the Constitution itself and in the
human rights treaties that form part of the laws and that are binding on all the State authorities” (Semanario
Judicial de la Federación y su Gaceta, Ninth period, Volume XXXIV, August 2011, p. 31). Amparo under review
315/2010. Jorge Francisco Balderas Woolrich. March 28, 2011. Rapporteur: Justice José Ramón Cossío Díaz.
Secretaries: Francisca María Pou Giménez, Fabiana Estrada Tena and Paula María García Villegas Sánchez Cordero.
149
“Article 27. Everyone has the right to have access to health care services, even reproductive health care.”
150
“Article 50. Everyone has the right to his or health being cared for and protected. The State guarantees
this right.”
151
“Article 43. The right to the protection of health is recognized. The public authorities must organize and
protect public health by preventive measures and the necessary services and social benefits. The law shall establish
the rights and obligations of everyone in this regard.”
152
“Article 13. The State shall adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development.”
153
“Article 2. The right of every person to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of
himself and of his family, and especially to food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.”
154
Chaoulli v. Quebec (Prosecutor General) [2005] 1 S.C.R. 791, 2005.
155
Cf. National Health Service Act 2006, and the Health and Social Care Act. 2012 No. 1319 (C. 47) (2012).
156
Constitutional Court of South Africa, Minister of Health et al. v. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) et al.
Case CCT 8/02, 5 July 2002.
157
For an analysis of cases in Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, India, Brazil and South Africa, see the
documents assembled in Yamin, Alicia Ely and Gloppen, Siri (coords.) La lucha por los derechos de la salud. ¿Puede
la justicia ser una herramienta de cambio? Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI, 2013.
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