ASEAN: Right to Health

The Right to Health

• The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) recognizes the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
• ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (2012) states that every person has the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, and reproductive health, and to have access to medical facilities.

Social Determinants of Health

• Non-medical factors that influence health outcomes, such as economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies, and political systems.
• Conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.

ASEAN Post-2015 Health Development Agenda

• Mission statement: To promote a healthy and caring ASEAN Community, where people achieve maximal health potential through healthy lifestyles, have universal access to quality health care and financial risk protection, have safe food and healthy diets, and live in a healthy environment with sustainable inclusive development.

Sustainable Development Goals

• Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Health and Development

• Health is generally viewed as an intrinsic 'good' as well as a means to, and an indicator of, development.
• Maternal mortality ratio was 235 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2016.
• In 2018, 83.3% of births in the region were attended to by skilled health personnel.
• About 30 out of 1,000 children who were born alive died before reaching age 5 in 2016-2018.
• Neonatal mortality rate in ASEAN averaged about 15 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018.
• There were 37.6 adolescent births for every 1,000 females aged 15-19 years in ASEAN in 2016.
• The incidence rate of tuberculosis in the AMS was 236 cases per 100,000 population in 2018.
• Incidence of malaria was generally low in the region, at about 0.5 per 1,000 population during 2016-2018.
• Death rates due to road traffic injuries in the region stood at 13.7 deaths per 100,000 population.
• In 2016, 25.4% of the population 15 years old and over in ASEAN were users of tobacco.

Health and Economic Development

• There is a strong positive correlation between health and GDP.
• Economic development promotes better health.
• Human development index (HDI) focuses on three basic dimensions of human development: life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling, and gross national income per capita.

Poverty and Health

• Poverty is a major development issue in the ASEAN.
• Poverty is linked to other development issues such as food insecurity and illiteracy.
• Lack of economic resources forces people into precarious situations that increase their risks and make them vulnerable to certain health outcomes, and limits access to health services.

Globalization and Health

• Globalization processes change the nature of health, including the transfer of risks, globalized health care and inputs, increased trade flows, and increased information flows.
• Medical tourism is a growing trend in ASEAN.

Environment and Health

• The local environment, also impacted by development processes, can affect health.
• Ideal environmental conditions include clean air and water, fertile land for food production, and disaster-resilient infrastructures.
• Stressors include pollution, noise, hazardous chemicals, unsafe drinking water, and ravages of climate change-linked disasters.
• ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (2012) recognizes the right to a safe, clean, and sustainable environment.

Politics and Health

• Corruption, the rise of authoritarianism, and political instability can impact health outcomes.
• Public policy is a determinant of health, and well-designed social policies can support the management of structural transformations in ways that enhance welfare, share benefits, and create access to essential goods and services for all.