CHILD'S HEALTH CARE: LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND ONGOING CHALLENGES

Abstract

The aim: Is to analyze the development of the modern legal framework for child's health care, to clarify the benefits of a human rights-based approach, which is now is mainstreaming for understanding the right of children to health and means of its protection. Materials and methods: To achieve this goal, as well as taking into account the specifics of the topic, the following research methods became relevant: the application of a dialectical approach and historical method made it possible to understand the patterns of formation and development of ideas of children's rights and health within the international community and national states; formal-legal method was used when studying legal texts (international law acts, both of universal and regional level, interpretation and clarification of human rights treaty bodies, expert reports and research, case law), and comparative-legal was used to compare different approaches on health protection in various international human rights mechanisms (US Supreme Court, Council of Europe). Conclusions: Today, perceptions of children's rights at the doctrinal and jurisprudential levels are quite developed due to a broad understanding and openness to progressive interpretation. In particular, the inclusion into the legal context such determinants as the inviolability of the dignity and private life of the child, proper understanding of the stages of adulthood, and an assessment of the child's developmental environment has made modern international law and national legal systems to become more viable in sense of protection of child's well-being in today's world.