Advancing a Human Rights-Based Approach to Access to Medicines: Lessons Learned from the Constitutional Court of Peru

Abstract

Access to medicines and the right to health continues to be widely discussed in academic literature. United Nations human rights bodies have done much work to elaborate on the normative content of the right to health and the obligations of states to uphold this right, although translating this into tangible benefits to the public at national level remains a challenge. This paper explores the case of Peru to evaluate prominent decisions of the Constitutional Court that have been instructive in clarifying the state's obligations in relation to health. I argue that the court's rights-based approach offers lessons that other states can draw on to meet their obligations to ensure the right to health by securing access to essential medicines.