Health rights in the post-2015 development agenda: including non-nationals

• Published in: Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2013-10, Vol.91 (10), p.719-719A
• Main Authors: Brolan, Claire E, Dagron, Stéphanie, Forman, Lisa, Hammonds, Rachel, Abdul Latif, Laila, Waris, Attiya
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Assembly; Citizens; Citizenship; Civil rights; Communities; Court decisions; Developing countries; Discourse; Distributive justice; Dynamical systems; Dynamics; Emigrants and Immigrants; Emigration and immigration; Funding; Health; Health aspects; Health care; Health care policy; Health facilities; Human; Human Rights; Humans; Immigrants; International aspects; International organizations; Internet; LDCs; Migration; Policy Making; Population; Social aspects; Sustainable development; Trends; United Nations
• ISSN: 0042-9686; 1564-0604
• DOI: 10.2471/BLT.13.128173

With the approach of the September 2013 meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the post-2015 Development Agenda, the health and intersectoral development goals have become the subject of considerable debate. Little of this debate has to do, however, with how the "right to the highest attainable standard of health" applies to non-nationals -- ie people who live in a country without being its citizens and hence without access to health system benefits. Unprecedented numbers of non-nationals -- with varying legal status -- pose challenges to low- and high-resource states' responsibilities, resources, distributive justice mechanisms and long-standing Westphalian systems and structures. High-level rhetoric around population dynamics in the post-2015 agenda is welcome, for the global community cannot continue to ignore the in-country inequities related to present and future large-scale human movement.