TOWARDS THE ENTRENCHMENT OF HEALTH RIGHTS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

There is a cheap leverage levied on the provisions of chapter II, specifically section 17 (3) (d) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), that seeks to undermine the ‘fundamental objectives and directive principles of State policy’, with specific reference to health rights and its justiciability within the Nigerian legal framework. The above constitutional provision is without doubt captured under the socio-economic and cultural rights (a non-justiciable chapter), it however does not by any means restrict the justiciability of health rights or other socio-economic rights under this chapter from further realization, recognition, protection and promotion through legislative enactments or state obligation at the international and regional levels. This article adopts is a librarybased research (doctrinal research methodology), which seeks to unveil the ingenuity of health right in Nigeria within the scope of existing legal frameworks on human rights in Nigeria. The research found that there is an ingenuity of health rights within the existing legal framework and thus, concluded that health rights are justiciable fundamental human rights within the context of the available legal framework in Nigeria.