PHM-Exch> Food for the social determinants of a thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 272

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*THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS GAP IN THE CAUSAL CHAIN OF PREVENTABLE ILL- HEALTH
AND MORTALITY MUST BE RECAST AS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS. *

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The GNP/capita ratio between rich and poor countries is 1:100; the
difference in health expenditures among the same is 1:1000.

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While health and human rights advocates have, from the start, taken a global
perspective on the causes of ill-health, social medicine and particularly
social epidemiology have been slower to catch up. This is not an  assertion
to be taken lightly. This, simply because advancing global health and health
equity against the odds of a wide variety of threats --including abusive
non-caring actors, unjustifiable reasoning and procrastination, and plain
complacency of those who have the power to make a difference-- requires the
adoption of a perspective that puts human rights and the human right to
health at the center.



“Achieving health equity within a generation is possible, it is the right
thing to do, and now is the right time to do it.” This statement in the
Report of WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health is not meant
to be hollow rhetoric. Why? Because the human right to health presents a
compelling case for action on health and on the social determinants of
health. It implies that if individuals have a right to health, then they
also have a right to the determinants of health being overcome*.*

For the full Readers, go to

http://wp.me/plAxa-1tc

Claudio
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