The potential role of justiciability in fostering compliance with the right to health in Nigeria

Abdullahi, RO

Abstract

The yearnings, hopes, aspirations of the Nigerian people are yet to be met as there continues to be a gap between the promises embodied in international human rights law especially the commitment to the right to health and the actual practice. Also, the need to develop the content of the Economic, Social and Cultural rights under which the right to health falls has been given considerably less attention despite the fact that these rights have been part of the language of international human rights since at least the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Under the Nigerian legal system, there is no clear legal foundation in reliance upon which the right to health claims could be asserted; consequently, the domestic courts have contributed very little to the development of socio-economic rights protection generally because of their inherent limitations. This thesis examines the potential role of the justiciability of the right to health in fostering compliance with the right to health, it argues that justiciability is a function of compliance. Since human rights treaties are binding to States, the Nigerian government can implement the right to health notwithstanding its complexities. ‘Justiciability’, as used in this thesis, presupposes the existence of a review mechanism to determine the compliance with the terms of the legal regime and includes judicial, quasi-judicial and other manner of approaches. The thesis provides an invaluable insight into some of the approaches that need to be taken for the protection of the right to health to experience a significant impact on both policy and practical outcomes in Nigeria. The thesis offers a theoretical basis on which the assertion that the widely accepted notion that the right to health is non-justiciable is obsolete, and the assumption that the right to health is a mere fundamental objective and directive principle must be rejected.

Citation

Abdullahi, R. The potential role of justiciability in fostering compliance with the right to health in Nigeria. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2021
• Award Date: Jun 1, 2021