Values in global health governance

In the 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated, the promise of achieving respect for the human rights, health and well-being of all is becoming an ever more distant prospect. We have not even remotely met the challenge of improving health for a large proportion of the world's population, and the prospects for improving global health seem to be receding in the current deteriorating economic and political climate. As global health remains one of the most pressing problems of our time, we must question the values that direct our actions and current approaches, which proclaim 'human rights to health' but which subsume these rights to a broader paradigm of unregulated global market economics and national politics, rather than working to make these oft-contradictory goals mutually compatible through justifiable and accountable global governance processes. We suggest that a new balance of values and new ways of thinking and acting are needed. These must transcend national and institutional boundaries and recognise that health in the most privileged nations is closely linked to health and disease in impoverished countries. Sustainable development of health and well-being is a necessity for all, and values for health should permeate every area of social and economic activity.