Food, Water and Health as Human Rights

Some of the most basic rights concern survival: food, clean water and health. The World Health Organization's 1946 constitution declared that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of every human being, and UDHR Article 25 includes food, housing and medical care in the right to an adequate standard of living. The 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration called for 'Health for All' through primary health care.

In 2010 the UN General Assembly recognized a human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, with no votes against but 41 abstentions, reflecting debates over cost and legal obligations. Economist Amartya Sen argued that famines are often caused less by a lack of food than by people's lack of access to it, and that functioning democracies with a free press have not suffered major famines because governments must respond. These ideas link everyday needs to political rights, showing how different kinds of rights depend on each other.