@article{2014:mumbanika_mbwisi:the_protec,
title = {The Protection of the right to health under the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo},
year = {2014},
note = {The present study discusses the protection of the right to health
under the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It argues
that the DRC Constitution protects the right to health in a meaningful
way. Indeed, not only does the Constitution protect the right to
health in its broadest sense including health care and other
underlying determinants of health, it also protects all the rights
herein contained with the same status. In other words, all human
rights protected by it are justiciable. Furthermore, the Constitution
binds both the State and individuals to the Bill of Rights. According
to the Constitution, ratified international instruments such as the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
African Charter on Human and People Rights are part of the domestic
legal system of the DRC that the courts and tribunals must apply. This
implies that in applying international treaties, the courts and
tribunals may hold the DRC government responsible for violating one or
more aspects of the right to health, which are not specifically
provided for in the Constitution. However, the fact that the State is
bound to unqualified obligations to provide immediate implementation
of the right to health without taking account of the country’s
developmental level may be illusory. Moreover, the primary enabling
law the Constitution refers to in order to give effect to the right to
health has never been enacted. Also, there is no jurisprudence on the
right to health including from the Supreme Court of Justice, which is
the highest court of the land. This may be due to the lack of cases
before the courts in which Congolese people sought to claim their
right to health. Thus, without appropriate implementation measures,
the right to health as protected under the DRC Constitution will
remain illusive.},
journal = {VRÜ Verfassung und Recht in Übersee},
pages = {434--446},
author = {Mumbanika Mbwisi, Dady},
volume = {47},
number = {4}
}