Defining Questions: Situating Issues of Power in the Formation of a Right to Health Under International Law

At a time when UN agencies and committees, together with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly linking human rights norms with health promotion, this article takes up the question of what the relationships between health status and human rights are. This question is addressed from both a theoretical and a strategic perspective. Part II explores the meanings of power issues in human rights and public health. Part III argues that framing a right to health in terms of control over one's own health allows one to avoid paralyzing debates which have prevented the development of a right to health. Part IV revisits long-standing questions about the intersections between health and human rights from the perspective of a right to health based on control over health and personal empowerment. [Descriptors: Reproductive Rights - Overview, International]