Redressing the Unconscionable Health Gap: A Global Plan for Justice
O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law,
The Harvard Law & Policy Review, Volume 4, Number 2, 2010, pp. 271-294
Available online at: http://bit.ly/cmUy7o
Or at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1635895
“……….The world’s distribution of the “good” of human health remains fundamentally unfair, causing enormous physical and mental suffering by those who experience the compounding disadvantages of poverty and ill health. If the health gap is unfair and unacceptable, then how can the international community be galvanized to make a genuine difference? In this article, I propose an international call to action through the adoption of a Global Plan for Justice (GPJ)—a voluntary compact among states and their partners in business, philanthropy, and civil society to redress health inequalities. The GPJ would be a form of “soft” norm setting, rather than a legally binding treaty, achieved with the passage of a World Health Assembly resolution.
Under the GPJ, states would devote resources to a Global Health Fund based on their ability to pay—for example, 0.25% of Gross National Income (GNI) per annum—in addition to maintaining current development assistance devoted to programs and activities of their choice. Global Health Fund resources would be allocated based on the health needs of developing countries measured by poverty, morbidity, and premature mortality.
The core missions of the Global Plan for Justice would be to (1) ensure the fair allocation of essential vaccines and medicines, with particular attention to low- and middle-income countries in a public health emergency; (2) meet basic survival needs, creating the conditions in which people can be healthy; and (3) help countries that will suffer most to adapt to the health impacts of climate change.
For an explanation of how the Global Plan for Justice fits into other innovative Global Health Governance strategies, see http://www.acslaw.org/node/16479 (explaining the progression from a Joint Learning Initiative for National and Global Responsibilities for Health, to a Global Plan for Justice, through to a Framework Convention on Global Health). See also, Lawrence O. Gostin, Meeting Basic Survival Needs of the World’s Least Healthy People: Toward a Framework Convention on Global Health, 96 Georgetown Law Journal, Vol. 96, 2008, pp. 331-392 (2008), http://ssrn.com/abstract=1014082...... From
The Unconscionable Health Gap: A Global Plan for Justice
O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law,
The Lancet, Volume 375, Number 9725, May 1, 2010, pp. 1504-05
Available online at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60065-7/fulltext
“…………….International norms recognize the special value of health. The WHO Constitution states that “the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health” is a fundamental human right. The right to health, moreover, is a treaty obligation with clear obligations.
Despite robust international norms, unconscionable health disparities exist between the world’s rich and poor, causing enormous suffering. The WHO urges “closing the health gap in a generation” through action on the social determinants of health.
As the Marmot Commission observed: “the social conditions in which people are born, live, and work are the single most important determinant of good or ill health.”
If the health gap is unfair and unacceptable, then how can the international community be galvanized to make a genuine difference? This commentary proposes an international call to action through a Global Plan for Justice—a voluntary compact among states and their partners….”
For a fuller examination of the Global Plan for Justice (GPJ), see Lawrence O. Gostin, Redressing the Unconscionable Health Gap: A Global Plan for Justice, 4 Harv. L. & Pol’y Rev. 271 (2010), available at http://hlpronline.com/2010/06/gostin_justice/ . For an explanation of how the GPJ fits into other innovative Global Health Governance strategies, see
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/documents/2010-07_Global_Plan_for_Justice.pdf
(explaining the progression from a Joint Learning Initiative for National and Global Responsibilities for Health, to a Global Plan for Justice, through to a Framework Convention on Global Health). See also, Lawrence O. Gostin, Meeting Basic Survival Needs of the World’s Least Healthy People: Toward a Framework Convention on Global Health, 96 Geo. L.J. 331 (2008), http://ssrn.com/abstract=1014082, http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/ois_papers/1/
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