The impact of the European court of human rights on the development of rights in health care

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the international regional system of the preservation of the right to health in the European human rights system through the work of the ECtHR, to analyse the case law of the ECHR based on the human right to health. This purpose determines the following tasks: to identify the features of the realization of the right to health in the European mechanism of human rights protection; to study the mechanism of realization of the right to health in the activity of the ECtHR; to describe the case law of the ECtHR in terms of the right to health. Design/methodology/approach The “black letter” law methodology is used to focus attention on conducting research on the letter of the law and the desire to conduct a descriptive analysis of legal norms, based on primary sources. Findings On the basis of the conducted researches, it is possible to draw a conclusion that the ECHR, albeit implicitly, refers to the right to health as well. Originality/value The right to health is included in the catalogue of the most important universally recognized human rights and is most often considered as an integral part of socio-economic human rights, but there is no special universal or regional mechanism for protecting this category of rights.