What do we mean when we talk about rights in relation to health? Where does the language of health rights come from, and what are the implications of using such a discourse?

During the last 20 years there have been an increasing number of initiatives and efforts for instance in relation to HIV/AIDS which draw on the language, institutions and procedures of human rights in the field of global health. This book explores the historical, cultural and social context of public health activists increasing use of rights discourse and examines the problems it can entail in practice....

What do we mean when we talk about rights in relation to health? Where does the language of health rights come from, and what are the implications of using such a discourse?

During the last 20 years there have been an increasing number of initiatives and efforts for instance in relation to HIV/AIDS which draw on the language, institutions and procedures of human rights in the field of global health. This book explores the historical, cultural and social context of public health activists increasing use of rights discourse and examines the problems it can entail in practice.

To date, geography has not yet carved out a disciplinary niche within the diffuse domain that constitutes global health. However the compulsion to do and understand global health emerges largely from contexts that geography has long engaged with: urbanisation, globalisation, political economy, risk, vulnerability, lifestyles, geopolitics, culture, governance, development and the environment. Moreover, global health brings with it an innate, powerful and politicising spatial logic that is only now starting to emerge as an object of enquiry.

This book aims to...