Children's Right to Health

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to, first, examine the meaning of the right to health for children and, second, explore the practical ways in which this right might be relevant to addressing children’s health needs. It is argued that despite the considerable ambiguity associated with the right to health, there is now a well-developed body of academic commentary and jurisprudence from the human rights treaty monitoring bodies which provides a persuasive understanding of the key feature of a child’s right to health. This right will be shown to be of relevance to advocacy efforts, the development of policies and programs, service delivery, and research to address children’s health needs.