Prevention

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About Prevention

A global initiative 

Inspire2Live’s perspective on prevention is about making relevant information available whilst placing great responsibility on national governments to fulfil their human rights obligations. 

Governments must take sufficient responsibility in the field of healthcare. The right to care for health, as laid down in Article 12.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (IVESCR) of 1966 states: “The participating states to this treaty recognize the right of everyone to the best physical and mental health”. 

In 2000, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors compliance with the Convention, adopted General Comment 14, on

The Right to Care for Health

States that are party to human rights treaties have the obligation to respect, protect and realise them. 

  • In terms of respecting the Right to Care for Health, the General Comment no. 14 states, among other things, that “the State must refrain from denying or restricting equal access for everyone, including prisoners or arrested persons, minorities, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants to preventive, curative and palliative health services” (paragraph 34). 
  • Protecting the Right to Health means that the State must ensure that other non-state parties do not violate this right. 
  • Realising means taking active steps to realize the Right to Care for Health, the so-called progressive realisation. 

We must compel governments either to prohibit the sale of tobacco on the basis of the aforementioned treaty or to adapt the measurement method used in such a way that this will lead to all currently available tobacco products becoming non-compliant with the new standards laid down in the tobacco law and therefore not fit for sale. See also the remarks in Tobacco Control.