ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about welfare rather than health, because of all the complicated baggage attached to our contemporary concept ‘health’ – the way it has become moralised; the domination of biomedicine; and that it health is seen as an individual state rather than something that operates communally. The label ‘welfare’ is often seen rather narrowly as a matter of what goes on in ‘welfare states’ – the provision, by state governments, of various systems of support for its citizens in order to promote their wellbeing. Human rights – as a concept – is very much about human welfare. It sets benchmarks for the way people should treat each other, both as individuals and in terms of the responsibilities of states, their obligations towards their citizens and the limits on their powers. Although often treated with derision, laws on ‘health and safety’ have dramatically improved human welfare in the countries where they have been introduced.
