Abstract
Abstract The vulnerability of individuals is often used as a springboard to call upon additional rights protection or to scale up interventions. This is also the case in child health and tobacco control research. While human rights law is generally a strong mechanism to support such calls, critics like Martha Fineman question specific understandings of vulnerability within human rights law. Against this backdrop, the article analyses the usefulness of relying on vulnerability in human rights law to argue for better rights protection. The article concludes that Article 3 crc – reflecting the best interests of the child norm – seems a suitable “solution” to Fineman’s critique on the notion of vulnerability in human rights law. Finally, the universal and particular vulnerabilities of children in relation to tobacco-related harm can be a springboard into rights protection but are not the principle legal source that require governments to break down structural health inequalities.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 7 million people die each year because of tobacco-related diseases including cancer via free access gispen and cardiovascular diseases.1 Whilst most tobacco-related health infirmity affects adults, the so-called tobacco epidemic roots in childhood and likewise seriously affects child health and development
The central purpose of this article was to reflect on the usefulness of vulnerability in calling for additional rights protection in general, and as relevant for protecting children against tobacco-related health infirmity
It posed this question against the backdrop of, on the one hand, health sciences research relying on children’s vulnerability in proposing policy interventions, and on the other hand, the scholarship of Fineman and others building on her theory criticising vulnerability within the context of the human rights discourse
Summary
According to the World Health Organization (who), approximately 7 million people die each year because of tobacco-related diseases including cancer via free access gispen and cardiovascular diseases (who, 2018). Whilst most tobacco-related health infirmity affects adults, the so-called tobacco epidemic roots in childhood and likewise seriously affects child health and development. In child health and tobacco control research, Been and colleagues stressed that children are vulnerable to secondhand-smoke (shs) and found that smoke-free legislation positively impacted on perinatal and child health (Been et al, 2014). They concluded that their study, ‘provides strong support for who recommendations to create smoke-free environments’ (Been et al, 2014: 1549). Vulnerability is a complex and contested norm in general, and in human rights discourse
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