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Inter-American Court Finds Right to Health Violation in the Context of Emergency Medical Services

On January 17, 2001, Vinicio Poblete Vilches was admitted to the Chilean public Hospital Sotero del Rio with severe respiratory failure. He was 76 years old and was sent to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where he was in an unconscious state for several days. He underwent surgery, was discharged and readmitted, and died in the hospital on February 7. The principal questions before the Inter-American Court were whether the state violated: 1) the human rights to health and life of Mr.

Petitioner, 69-year old Hernando de Jesus Blanco Angarita, filed a tutela action before the Constitutional Court after the First Civil Municipal Court of Bogota found that the National Social Security Fund had not violated his constitutional rights by delaying the transfer of his deceased wife’s pension. The Constitutional Court reversed the First Civil Municipal Court and held that there had been a violation of rights recognized both in the Colombian Constitution and international law.

In 2005, under the Article 26 procedure of the Constitution, the Irish Supreme Court reviewed the constitutionality of a bill referred to it by the President. This bill authorized charges for in-patient services, provided by the public health service, to be imposed on certain people, in most cases, elderly people of limited means.

Ninety-year-old Eduardo Navia brought this tutela action seeking to receive disability payments from the State. He had undergone heart surgery in May 1998 and January 2008, with both surgeries limiting his ability to work. Relying on a certification of disability issued by the Social Security Agency (ISS) Section of Bolivar on September 14, 2007, he applied for disability benefits to the ISS on October 5, 2007. The ISS determined his date of disability to be March 6, 2007, but denied his application claiming that he had failed to comply with the requirements of Art.

This High Court case was brought with the support of Hakijamii, a human rights organization based in Nairobi that has been a member of ESCR-Net since 2005; and stemmed from the request of more than 1,000 individuals, evicted from their homes located in six communities commonly known as the Medina Location of Garissa municipality.

Petitioners, pensioners of the Latvian State, challenged the constitutionality of the Law on State Pension and State Allowance Disbursement in the period from 2009 to 2012 (hereinafter the "Disbursement Law"), which had been passed in an effort to reduce the State's budget deficit.  The overall economy was rapidly declining in 2009, and the Latvian Parliament argued that it had to act quickly to respond to the country's economic crisis.  The law decreased the amount received by current pensioners by 10% and decreased the pensions of future pensioners (individuals currently employed) by 70%.

The Colombian Constitutional Court has among its functions the review of tutela actions. The Court annually reviews a small proportion of the more than 300,000 tutela actions resolved by lower judges; 36% of which are related to the right to health according to data of the Colombian Ombudsman's Office for 2005. Decision T-760 of 2008 accumulated 22 of these cases. However, the Court did not limit itself to reviewing and resolving these individual cases.

Country: 
South Africa
Working Group(s) / Area(s) of Work: 
Strategic Litigation
OP-ICESCR

A group of retired citizens filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) against the State of Peru. The IACHR subsequently filed an action with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights alleging violation of rights to private property and judicial protection, and of the obligation to ensure progressive realization of social rights. During their active working life, the petitioners were employed as officials of a State agency that had its own pension fund.