Health and Poverty or How to Ensure the Right to Health in Situations of Economic Crisis. Response from the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Abstract

It is certainly a huge challenge determining the content and scope of the child's right to health, especially in contexts of poverty or economic crisis. To broach this issue and try to offer some answers, this study will refer to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the obligatory reference in all matters concerning children. Regarding the Convention's legal status, its universality and the holistic nature of the rights set forth within it, the doctrine of the Committee on the Rights of the Child offers important guidelines for interpreting the wide-reaching right of the child to health contained within the Convention. Also discussed are the obligations concerning States Parties to it for its effective implementation, including in situations of economic difficulty.