ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the evolution that has brought human rights and health together in mutually reinforcing ways. It draws from the experience gained in the global response to HIV/AIDS, summarizes key dimensions of public health and of human rights and suggests a manner in which these dimensions intersect that may be used as a framework for health policy analysis, development, and evaluation. The chapter presents the principles under-lying the application of health and human rights principles to public health policy and it has done so by recalling the historical emergence of these concepts and the opportunities they provide for new approaches to policy development. Human rights constitute a set of normative principles and standards which, as a philosophical concept can be traced back to antiquity, with mounting interest among intellectuals and political leaders since the seventeenth century.
