Health and Human Rights
Vol 14, No 2 (2012)
http://hhrjournal.org/index.php/hhr

Human rights and health systems development: Confronting the politics of exclusion and the economics of inequality
Paul Farmer, Duncan Maru

Abstract
The social movements of the last two decades have fostered a rights-based approach to health systems development within the global discourse on national and international health governance. In this piece, we discuss ongoing challenges in the cavernous “implementation gap”—translating legislative human rights victories into actual practice and delivery. Using accompaniment as an underlying principle, we focus primarily on constructing effective, equitable, and accountable public sector health systems. Public sector health care delivery is challenged by increasingly exclusive politics and inequitable economic policies that fundamentally limit the participatory power of marginalized citizens. Finally, we discuss the role of implementation science in closing the delivery gap in human rights practice.