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Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case.

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  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Harvard School of Public Health, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 9502498 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2150-4113 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 10790969 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Health Hum Rights Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: Boston, MA : Harvard School of Public Health, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, c1994-
    • Subject Terms:
      Health Services Accessibility/*legislation & jurisprudence ; Human Rights/*legislation & jurisprudence ; Public Policy/*legislation & jurisprudence; Colombia ; Government ; Humans
    • Abstract:
      Colombia has made significant progress in the recognition and protection of the right to health. Using litigation-a structural element of the democratic Colombian design-many people have had to fight in order to enjoy effective access to health care. Such litigation has proven a pacific and democratic way to protect a constitutional principle: health as a fundamental and justiciable right. In 2008, in the wake of thousands of individual rulings on the right to health, Colombia's Constitutional Court issued a structural decision, T-760 of 2008, ordering government entities to identify flaws that made the country's health system outdated and inequitable and to take correctional measures. In the years following this decision, Congress and the executive branch have increasingly included a rights-oriented perspective in public policies. The Colombian case reveals judicial intervention as a legitimate way to extend pressure on the government to act according to constitutional boundaries. Although there is still a long road ahead, public institutions responsible for health care are now on a constitutionally acceptable track.
      Competing Interests: Competing interests: The author was part of the technical teams that supported justices of the Colombian Constitutional Court in authoring judicial opinions on the right to health, among them Decision T-760 of 2008.
    • References:
      Lancet. 2008 Dec 13;372(9655):2047-85. (PMID: 19097280)
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20180717 Date Completed: 20181105 Latest Revision: 20181114
    • Publication Date:
      20240105
    • Accession Number:
      PMC6039729
    • Accession Number:
      30008558