Mainstreaming the ‘Abortion question’ into the right to health in Uganda

Abstract

The right to health is a social and economic right that requires progressive realisation by states (Chenwi 2013). Although Uganda’s Constitution does not provide for the right to health, the country is a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN General Assembly 1966). The Constitution contains other social and economic rights, such as the right to education, but the lack of the right to health has prompted several recommendations by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ (CESCR) that Uganda take legislative and other measures to ratify and apply the rights in the ICESCR.