Tracing Human Rights In Health

This paper is an endeavor to situate the evolution of Right to Health in a historical context. The various highlights of the paper are :i) Evolution of public health. ii) Evolution of human rights.iii) Important milestones in globalpublic health since the founding ofthe WHO.iv) Justifiability of health as a humanright from the angle of InternationalLaw.v) Human rights issues impeding therealization of health as a human right, such as reproductive health, family planning as a human rights issue, AIDS as a human rights issue, the right to safe drinking water, the right to food and access to essential drugs.vi) Realization of the right to health in developing countries with a special focus on the Constitutional provisions related to the human right to health.vii) Realization of the right to health in the Indian context. The conclusion reflects on the aspects of operationalizing right to health through Civil Society Initiatives, the People’s Health Movement. It highlights the debates within the newly emergent discipline of Health and Human Rights.