Is Healthcare a Human Right?

Is every person entitled to health and welfare? What can be done to protect the vulnerables in our society? What are the responsibilities of the government, and ourselves during an outbreak like COVID-19? Can our human rights be limited, for the greater good? Professor Brigit Toebes points out that the COVID-19 outbreak is both a public health crisis and a human rights crisis. In this home recorded lecture (below) she explains what the right to healthcare means (+/-25 minutes, online only).

Brigit Toebes is a scholar with more than twenty years of experience in the international standards protecting health, with a strong emphasis on human rights and health prevention. She has an important role in the discussion about 'global health law' as an emerging branch of public international law. Recent research themes include the NCD pandemic and the regulation of behavioural risk factors, the regulation of vaccination, and the role of law in socio-economic health inequalities.

Join the discussion!
You’re invited to ask your questions about human rights and healthcare in the comments below the video on YouTube, on Facebook or send your question to studium@rug.nl (before the end of 22 April 2020). Brigit Toebes will be happy to answer them. We’ll publish a selection of questions and answers on our website.

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