Human Rights as a Basis for Health Prevention and Promotion: Lessons Learned From Children's Rights and Tobacco Control

Background: Exposure to tobacco smoke and tobacco smoking leads to numerous adverse health and developmental outcome including widespread cancers. The tobacco epidemic primarily roots in childhood as many adult smokers have started before the age of 18. Health prevention and promotion laws and policies are key to positive health change. Indeed, tobacco control legislation has positively impacted on child health and human rights may play a valuable basis and mechanism to foster health prevention and promotion strategies. Aim: To gain new knowledge on the added value of human rights law in fostering health prevention and promotion strategies by reference to specific findings in the case of tobacco control and children's rights. Methods: Literature research and document analysis. Interpretation on the basis of the treaty interpretation rules of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (art. 31-32). Results: Human rights are increasingly standard setting in the field of health prevention and health promotion in general. Even though human rights law largely includes open-ended norms, it provides for key legal obligations to protect child (and ultimately adult) health against the negative consequences of tobacco. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child demonstrates that governments should take into account the best interests of the child, protect and promote the life, survival, and development of children, the right to health and its underlying determinants, and regulate the tobacco industry to the extent that it does not harm children's rights including health. Conclusion: The human rights framework may a valuable mechanism to support health prevention and promotion as it includes legally binding and enforceable obligations.