Health is a human right

The right to the highest attainable standard of health is recognised in the constitution of many countries and numerous binding international human rights treaties.

But what does the right to health mean and how can it be put into practice? As policy makers grapple with this problem, nurses have an indispensable role to play in answering this question and delivering the standard of care required to achieve it.

Currently, the majority of “health systems around the world are mainly focused on disease rather than on as a person as a whole, whose body and mind are linked and who needs to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Nurses are essential in transforming health care and health systems such that no person is left behind, without access to care. Universal Health Coverage (UHC) necessitates placing the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities at the centre of the health system and of the economic development of the country.