The Right to Health of Children and the World Bank

Abstract

Article I of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1923). H uman rights may often appear to be nonsense on stilts to World Bank policymakers, just as they did 200 years ago to English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. But the many changes that have taken place in the last 200 years would undoubtedly have converted Bentham's skepticism into staunch support. Perhaps the most important reason is that today there is widespread consensus on the right to health. There is, to borrow from Bentham's famed language, a greatest number of the world's population who believe that their right to health provides them with the greatest good for the greatest number of them. In other words, most people throughout the world expect their government to provide them with an adequate level of health care. This is an expectation that has been acknowledged and confirmed in legally binding treaties by most of the world's governments. One might conclude that there is an overwhelming consensus that there is a human right to health. This is nowhere more true than in the case of the right to health of children. This article considers the World Bank's role in respecting, protecting, and fulfilling the child's right to health. It starts by briefly suggesting why a focus on child health is