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Health as a fundamental right soon
Constitutional amendments to make health a fundamental right for the people are being drafted by the Law and Society Trust in association with the People’s Movement for the Rights of patients and other health action groups.
A spokesman said a meeting to finalise the draft would be held soon and the draft would be submitted to the parliamentary committee on health in cooperation with Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva, Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana and Constitutional Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera.

He said that many civic and political rights had been guaranteed under the fundamental rights provisions in the Constitution but the right to health was not guaranteed as done in many other countries and it was not even mentioned in the directives on state policy.

Sri Lanka has signed many international covenants under which the provision of primary healthcare to all is guaranteed as a fundamental right. But this was not included in the 1978 Constitution and this major structural flaw needed to be addressed immediately, the spokesman said.

A basic draft from which the constitutional amendments are to be worked out has been drawn up by PMRP patron Dr. K. Balasubramaniam who is one of the world’s most respected figures in the field of healthcare and health rights.
According to the draft, one of the most fundamental human rights is the assumption that each person matters and everyone deserves to be treated with dignity. This is the tenet from which all other human rights follow.

nother is that those who are most vulnerable deserve special protection. The recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of every citizen is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in Sri Lanka.
The emergence of Sri Lanka as a country in which all its citizens shall enjoy freedom of speech and freedom from fear and want is the highest aspiration of the common people.

Health, as a fundamental right, is a social, political and economic issue.
While Health is a fundamental human right indispensable for the exercise of all other rights, health and ill-health are themselves the outcome of social, economic and political influences, the draft states.

Everyone has the right of access to preventive healthcare and the right to benefit from medical treatment under the conditions established by national laws and practices. The right to health embraces a wide range of socio-economic factors that promote conditions in which people can lead a healthy life and extends to the underlying determinants of health, including food and nutrition, housing, access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, safe and healthy working conditions, and a healthy environment.

Poverty is the deadliest disease. Hunger is the commonest cause of death. These clearly demonstrate that the Ministry of Health and the Department of Health Services alone cannot ensure the right to health, but points to the non-exhaustive examples of the obligations of other government Ministries and Departments.

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