Despite universal recognition of the right to health and its international and national legal regulation, appropriate implementation of the right to health is still amongthe most urgent and pressing tasks of today’s jurisprudence. So far, no specific international universal or regional mechanism is available for protecting the right to health, and such protection is only possible via the protection of other human rights. The article is focused on the study of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) involving violations of the right to health in the context of violation of article 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention).

The article aims at examining the peculiarities of the protection of the right to human health via the protection of the right to life through the lens of ECHR’s current case law, particularly in light of the implementation of commitments to ensure adequate health care, and also medical malpractice, compensation for medical expenses, and medical care in prisons.

The article comprises the study of the specifics of the ECHR’s approaches to the protection of the right to health via the protection of the right to life; clarification of the content of the right to health; characterization of the positive obligations of States to ensure the right to health, consideration of the issue of the minimum health care level under the Convention in the context of the protection of the right to life.

We were able to identify certain trends in the protection of the right to health in the ECHR case law with the use of methodological tools, namely: historical legal method to identify the specifics in the evolution of the right to health, comparative legal method – to clarify the relationship between the provisions on the protection of the right to health and life, and systematic method – to study the ECHR case law with regard to the protection of the right to health and the right to life in their relationship to each other.

The ECHR case law confirms the obligations of States to protect the right to health and facilitate the improvement of citizens’ health, and at the same time imposes the obligation to ensure this right with due regard for the principle of reasonableness, which implies that States should make all efforts possible within the available resources to implement the right to health. States are under the obligation to establish clear rules on the practical measures for the efficient implementation of the right to health, and even if resources are scarce, some obligations should be implemented immediately, in particular, the obligation to guarantee the right to health on a non-discriminatory basis.

Owing to the ECHR activities, the concept “the right to health”, which does not have its own unambiguous legal definition, nevertheless, finds a more specific definition. ECHR judgments are recognized in many countries as one of the sources of law, which, furthermore, allow identifying the gaps in national legislation, inconsistency of some provisions of national legislation with the provisions of the Convention. Putting in place a special international legal mechanism for the protection of the right to health is essential for the protection of this right.

Bibliography

Authored books

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Edited books

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Conference papers

23. Korotkyi T, ‘Frahmentatsiia mizhnarodnoho prava cherez pryzmu mizhnarodnoho prava okhorony zdorovia’ [‘Fragmentation of International Law Through the Prism of International Health Law’] in Pravove zhyttia suchasnoi Ukrainy: tezy dopovidei Mizhnarodnoi naukovoi konferentsii profesorsko-vykladatskoho skladu [Reports of the International Scientific Conference of Faculty] (2010) (in Ukrainian).

Theses

24. Hendel N, ‘Mizhnarodno-pravove rehuliuvannia spivrobitnytstva derzhav u sferi okhorony zdorov’ia’ [‘International Legal Regulation of States Cooperation in the Sphere of Healthcare’] (dys kand yuryd nauk, 2014) (in Ukrainian).

 25. Kruk Yu, ‘Zakhyst prava na zdorovia v Radi Yevropy’ [‘Protection the Right to Health in the Council of Europe’] (dys kand yuryd nauk, 2015) (in Ukrainian).

26. Medvedeva M, ‘Mizhnarodni pravovi standarty spivrobitnytstva derzhav u sferi biotekhnolohii’ [‘International Legal Standards of Cooperation in the Field of Biotechnology’] (dys kand yuryd nauk, 2005) (in Ukrainian).

Websites

27. Guide on Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Right to life. Updated on 30 April 2020 <https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_2_ENG. pdf> accessed 12 June 2020 (in English).

28. ‘Reforma systemy okhorony zdorovia’ [‘Health Care Reform’] (Uriadovyi portal) <https://www.kmu.gov.ua/ua/diyalnist/reformi/rozvitok-lyudskogo-kapitalu/reformasistemiohoroni-zdorovya> (accessed: 15.06.2020) (in Ukrainian).