One of the fundamental rights in any nation is the right to health, which must be protected with national and international legal instruments. If you want to discover what the right to health of the indigenous peoples of Mexico is like, then we will explain it to you throughout this post.
The General Health Law establishes the right to health of all citizens
In general and for indigenous peoples, the right to health is protected by different international legal systems. The WHO establishes that “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
For its part, the General Health Law regulates the right of every person to health protection, established in Article 40. Constitutional and which defines, among its purposes, promoting the enjoyment of health and social assistance services that meet the needs of the population in an efficient and timely manner.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the most current regulatory instrument
For indigenous peoples, the right to health is established in international instruments such as Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries of the International Labor Organization, which mentions (in its article 7.2) that “the improvement of the conditions of life and work and the level of health and education of the interested peoples, with their participation and cooperation, should be a priority in the global economic development plans of the regions where they live”.
One can also highlight the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (of the year 2007), which is the most current instrument as far as values and interests of indigenous peoples are concerned. Specifically, it establishes (in article 10) that peoples of this type have the right to full enjoyment, collectively or individually, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, among which stand out the right to be consulted on health programs, to the preservation and use of their traditional medicines, to maintain their sanitary practices and to exhaust the highest possible level of health and co-responsibility of their exercise.