How do Human Rights issues have an impact on Public Health?

Human rights and public health are considered synonymous in terms of

characterizing beneficence and non-maleficence towards the public. Laws on human
rights and policies on public health both serves as a tool for progression and
protection of the society. However, they do not have the same scope and thus,
conflicts may arise as they differently view problems of the society (Astran, 2021).
For instance, as the COVID-19 pandemic arise, various governments have enacted
public health regulations that restrict the public freedom in order to eradicate the
disease transmission. While such restrictions are necessary for pandemic
management, many of these measures have been unduly broad or have failed to
take into account the consequences to communities already vulnerable to human
rights breaches. Furthermore, the pandemic has worsened preexisting injustices
caused by a lack of access to health care, poverty, racial injustice, refugee problems,
and a lack of education. The need to use a human rights approach in response to
COVID-19 grows as such human rights breaches worsen (Zweig et al., 2021). These
problems may be difficult to address if only one aspect, either human rights or public
health, is working on the problem and thus, human rights considerations in the
health-care legal approach may provide a viable answer to this gap as the two
aspects work together as one. With this, policymakers are encouraged to approach
COVID-19 pandemic control from a human rights perspective, focusing public health
policies on society's most marginalized communities. This would enable for a more
equitable, realistic, and long-term pandemic response focused on the needs of
people most vulnerable to COVID-19 and human rights violations. Moreover,
engaging human rights law to protect and promote personal and communal health
prevents a narrow capitalist conception of health care delivery.

References:
Astran, J. (2021). What Human Rights Issues Have an Impact on Public Health?.
HealthMed.org. Retrieved 1 June 2022, from https://healthmed.org/what-human-
rights-issues-have-an-impact-on-public-health/.

Zweig, S., Zapf, A., Beyrer, C., Sapir, D., & Haar, R. (2021). Ensuring Rights while
Protecting Health: The Importance of Using a Human Rights Approach in
Implementing Public Health Responses to COVID-19. Health And Human Rights
Journal, 23(2), 173-186. Retrieved 1 June 2022, from
https://www.hhrjournal.org/2021/10/ensuring-rights-while-protecting-health-the-
importance-of-using-a-human-rights-approach-in-implementing-public-health-
responses-to-covid-19/#:~:text=All%20of%20the%2021%20public%20health
%20intervention%20categories,and%20public%20transport%20closures%2C%20and
%20quarantine%20and%20isolation.