Participation and the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health

This monograph is an introduction to participation in the context of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. A companion volume to Accountability and the right to the highest attainable standard of health (sometimes referred to as the "accountability monograph"), the monograph is intended to assist government health policy makers to understand the content and role of participation in the context of policy making and the right to health. The active and informed participation of people and groups in all health-related decisionmaking is a component of the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

The right to health places the well-being of people, groups, communities and populations at the centre of a health system. By doing so, implementation of the right can help to ensure that a health system is neither dominated by experts nor removed from the people it is meant to serve. In the context of health systems, this includes active and informed participation in the identification and development of health policy, as well as implementation and accountability. Clearly, participation has wide application in the context of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. In this preliminary monograph, the principal focus is placed on participation in the development of health policy, as a means of illustrating how active and informed participation can take place.