The Human Right to Health

This timely book offers a fresh perspective on how to effectively address the issue of unequal access to healthcare. It analyses the human right to health from the underexplored legal principle of solidarity, proposing a new understanding of the positive obligations inherent in the right to health.

Combining human rights law, public health and social theory, Eduardo Arenas Catalán demonstrates that when interpreted in line with the principle of solidarity, the right to health should be viewed as a non-commercial right. Arenas Catalán argues that the right to health’s functions are to challenge the commodification of healthcare and to advance free-of-charge public healthcare services. Moreover, through a critical analysis of classical jurisprudence concerning the right to health, the book delivers a searing indictment of the effects of neoliberal capitalism and commercialization on human rights.

This thought-provoking book will be of interest to scholars and students of law, in particular international human rights law, public international law and legal theory, as well as social and public health researchers and students. Policy makers and legal practitioners will also find its original analysis of solidarity in the context of human rights and the law useful.