The right to traditional, complementary, and alternative health care.
BACKGROUND
State parties to human rights conventions and declarations are often faced with the seemingly contradictory problem of having an obligation to protect people from harmful practices while also having an obligation to enable access to culturally appropriate effective healing. As people increasingly migrate across the globe, previous distinctions between 'traditional' and 'complementary and alternative medicine' practices are being transcended. There are connections across transnational healing pathways that link local, national, and global movements of people and knowledge.


OBJECTIVE
This paper contributes to the development of the concept and practice of the right to health in all its forms, exploring the right to traditional, complementary, and alternative health (R2TCAH) across different contexts.


METHODS
The paper draws on four settings - England, South Africa, Kenya, and Jordan - and is based on key informant interviews and a literature review undertaken in 2010, and updated in 2013. The paper begins by reviewing the international legal context for the right to health. It then considers legal and professional regulations from the global north and south.


RESULTS
Additional research is needed to establish the legal basis, compare regulatory frameworks, and explore patient and provider perspectives of regulation. This leads to being able to make recommendations on how to balance protection from harm and the obligation to ensure culturally appropriate services. Such an exploration must also challenge Western theories of human rights. Key concepts, such as individual harm, consent, and respect of the autonomy of the individual already established and recognised in international health law, could be adopted in the development of a template for future comparative research.


CONCLUSIONS
Exploration of the normative content of the right to health in all its forms will contribute to supporting traditional, complementary, and alternative health service users and providers in terms of access to information, non-discrimination, clarification of state obligations, and accountability.
Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom; maria.stuttaford@warwick.ac.uk.
Maria
M
Stuttaford
Department of Social Work, Al Balqaa Applied University, Fuhies-Alali, Jordan.
Sahar
S
Al Makhamreh
Faculty of Law, Centre for Human Rights, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Fons
F
Coomans
School of Law, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
John
J
Harrington
Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Chuma
C
Himonga
Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.
Gillian Lewando
GL
Hundt
D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014943:Global Health; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006806:Human Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional
appropriate health care; legal basis; plural health care; protection from harm; regulation; right to health; traditional, complementary and alternative therapies