ESRC Research Seminar 'Global Health and Human Rights: Theory, Process and
Susbtance', Seminar 1, Liverpool, 19th and 20th of April 2007.
What Future for the Minimum Core? From the Margins to the Centre: The
International Right to Health and the South African Experience
Lisa Forman (University of Toronto, Munk Centre for International Studies)
The minimum core is an important development in the elaboration of the content of
the international human right to health. It places limits on the notion of progressive
realization, signifying a hierarchy of health interests not subject to the latter concept’s
temporal and resource constraints. While the minimum core concept is generally
accepted within the international human rights system and by human rights
academics, there are questions about its practical utility, particularly given the South
African Constitutional Court’s rejection of its direct domestic application. In my talk,
I will explore ways not simply to reconcile the South African judicial approach to the
minimum core with international human rights law, but to forge a strengthened notion
of the concept drawing from South African constitutional jurisprudence.