Litigating the Right to Health in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

Description

Health rights litigation is still an emerging phenomenon in Africa, despite the constitutions of many African countries having provisions to advance the right to health. Litigation can provide a powerful tool not only to hold governments accountable for failure to realise the right to health, but also to empower the people to seek redress for the violation of this essential right. With contributions from activists and scholars across Africa, the collection includes a diverse range of case studies throughout the region, demonstrating that even in jurisdictions where the right to health has not been explicitly guaranteed, attempts have been made to litigate on this right. The collection focusses on understanding the legal framework for the recognition of the right to health, the challenges people encounter in litigating health rights issues and prospects of litigating future health rights cases in Africa. The book also takes a comparative approach to litigating the right to health before regional human rights bodies. This book will be valuable reading to scholars, researchers, policymakers, activists and students interested in the right to health. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Notes on Contributors......Page 8 Preface......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 14 Introduction The Relevance of Health Rights Litigation in Africa......Page 16 Part I The Normative Framework on the Right to Health......Page 26 1 The Normative Framework on the Right to Health under International Human Rights Law......Page 28 2 A Human Rights-based Approach to Realising Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in sub-Saharan Africa......Page 58 Part II Country Case Studies......Page 86 3 The Domestic Legal Enforcement of the Right to Health in Malawi: Appraising the Litigation Potential......Page 88 4 Litigating the Right to Health Care in South Africa......Page 114 5 Litigating the Right to Health in Uganda: The Necessity for Innovation and Activism......Page 134 6 Litigating Health Rights Issues: The Nigerian Experience......Page 156 7 The Right to Health in Mauritius: Is the State Doing Enough or is the Constitutional Protection of the Right to Health Still Required?......Page 172 8 Litigating the Right to Health in Kenya: An Analysis of Selected Cases......Page 192 9 Challenges in Litigating the Right to Health in Mozambique: ACritical Analysis......Page 210 Part III Comparative Regional Study......Page 232 10 Keeping Promises: Litigation as a Strategy to Concretise the Right to Health in Africa......Page 234 11 The Protection of the Right to Health through Individual Petitions before the Inter-American System of Human Rights......Page 258 Index......Page 290