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

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 democrat...

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Autor principal: Arrieta-gómez, Aquiles ignacio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Harvard University Press 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6039729/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30008558
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author Arrieta-gómez, Aquiles ignacio
author_facet Arrieta-gómez, Aquiles ignacio
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description 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decision, T-760 of 2008, ordering government entities to identify flaws that made the country’s health system outdated and inequitable and to take correctional measures.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.
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spelling pubmed-60397292018-07-13 Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case Arrieta-gómez, Aquiles ignacio Health Hum Rights Research-Article 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. Harvard University Press 2018-06 /pmc/articles/PMC6039729/ /pubmed/30008558 Text en Copyright © 2018 Arrieta-Gómez. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research-Article
Arrieta-gómez, Aquiles ignacio
Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case
title Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case
title_full Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case
title_fullStr Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case
title_full_unstemmed Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case
title_short Realizing the Fundamental Right to Health through Litigation: The Colombian Case
title_sort realizing the fundamental right to health through litigation: the colombian case
topic Research-Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6039729/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30008558
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