International human rights law and how the health care has improved in 3 counties - Essay Example

International Human Rights Law and Health Care al Affiliation International Human Rights Law and Health Care Human rights violations have dominated many countries across all continents in the world. These have subjected a lot of people to discrimination and deplorable conditions that have negatively impacted on their health, translating into mortalities. It is, however, sad that most of the mortalities could as well be avoided by only getting the various governments to develop health policies that protect human rights and ensuring their integration into the healthcare systems (World Health Organization, 2002).

Because of this, the World Health Organization came up with a package of human rights that was to be implemented as a way of ensuring improvement in health outcome. The organization also went further to shed more light on how these rights were connected with health. Many countries adopted this and evidence shows that progress have been made as countries have been striving to integrate these into their health systems since 2002 (World Health Organization, 2002). This paper examines the progress that has been made by three countries: Kenya, Mexico and the US.

In Mexico, for instance, a lot have improved, especially in the field of mental health. For a long time, people with mental health problems would be dumped into institutions and be subjected to inhumane treatment without being allowed back into the community. International law on human rights recognizes that people have a right to treatment in least restrictive environment and within their communities.It is because of this that Mexico health care system has been reformed to support community integration of mentally disabled persons.

Both state and national health budgetary allocation have been increased since 2002, and this has helped significant enforcement of community integration of the mentally disabled. Patient dumping has since stopped through introduction of an individualized outplacement plan for persons into the community. Similarly, conditions within the institutions were also improved due to the provision of such basic needs as food, clothes, and bedding. Besides, essential medication, dental care, hygiene, and safety were also adopted to help improve health of the institutionalized psychiatric cases.

Through the recognition of the international laws that relate human rights to health and poverty reduction (issue no 5), Kenya has progressed tremendously in the area of reproductive health. The Kenyan government has since 2002, adopted laws that ensure the integration of family planning services into the healthcare system as a means of reducing birth and thereby alleviating poverty. Barriers such as sexual violence and FGM have been adequately addressed to see to it that people access these services.

Similarly, Kenya has also recognized health as a fundamental human right and has made efforts to ensure that basic health care is accessible to most if not all of its population (Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, 2012). This has further been cemented by the gradual increment in budgetary allocation for health over the years.The US laws recognize the relationship between international migration health and human rights by stating the entitlement of non-citizen especially in health care.

Consequently, the US constitution talks of “persons” and not “citizens.” Even though there was a serious problem of access to healthcare by non-citizens, the situation has improved in the recent past due to reforms in health system (Fremgen, 2009).Recognizing the role that immigrants play, the US has revised its health care policies to regularize immigrants so that they enjoy right to health. In the light of this, Congressional Budget Office has been increasing budgetary allocation for medical insurance to help cover the continuously growing population of the immigrants (Kinney, 2011).

The move has in the recent past seen the development of health policies complete with strategies, indicators and benchmarks implemented to increase coverage, for instance, the Obama-Bidden health system.ReferencesFremgen, B. F. (2009). Medical law and ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. (2012, April). Realising Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Kenya: A myth or reality? Retrieved December 3, 2014, from http://www.knchr.org/Portals/0/Reports/Reproductive_health_report.

pdfKinney, E. D. (2011). Realizing the International Human Right to Health for Non-Citizens in the United States. Notre Dame Journal of International, Comparative and Human Rights Law, 94-113. Retrieved from http://www3.nd.edu/~ndjicl/V1I1/Kinney%20Article.pdfWorld Health Organization. (2002, July 24). WHO | New WHO Publication Explores Important Links Between Health and Human Rights, an Area Drawing Increased Attention. Retrieved December 3, 2014, from http://www.who.int/hhr/activities/q_and_a/q_a_press/en/