Understanding the right to health in the context of collective rights to self-determination

The obligations set by the individual right to health are likely to conflict, at least if states are its addressee, with the obligations set by the collective rights to self-determination that certain sub-state communities have (or should be recognized). In this paper, I argue that conceiving of the right to health and of collective rights to self-determination as both aiming at the promotion of individual agency might help us alleviate this particular problem. To do so, I first explain how we can conceive of the right to health and of collective rights to self-determination as protecting crucial aspects of individuals' agency. It is because both health and the capacity to participate in particular collectives are important ways in which our agency is enabled. I then argue that this conception of the purpose of those rights offers a principle to guide our practical deliberation when the protection of health and the protection of collective self-determination seem to conflict. Finally, I specify how I think this principle might guide us when it comes to understanding the obligations that the right to health sets for the state towards members of self-determining sub-state communities, both in terms of the provision of healthcare goods and services and the provision of the underlying determinants of health.