Clinical nutrition and the human right-based approach

Abstract

 Introduction: nutritional care was recognized as a human right in the Cartagena Declaration of May 3, 2019. This article defines this right and discusses the implications of the human right-based approach in clinical nutrition and the fight against disease related malnutrition.

Methodology: an analysis was carried out with the human rights-based approach. This approach is a fundamental strategy to determine the role and obligations of different stakeholders (governments and policy makers, health institutions, patients, health professionals and caregivers).

Results: it is possible to define nutritional care as an emerging human right. Its normative mandate is found in the principle 13 of the Cartagena Declaration. Like other human rights, it is based on the principle of respect for human dignity but its content and scope are limited to the field of clinical nutrition. Although this mandate has no binding force, it does imply an important moral commitment to ensure that the patient benefits from the nutritional care process.

Conclusion: the recognition of nutritional care as a human right is the result of the effort of international scientific societies in the field of clinical nutrition that seek to fight for a minimum guarantee so that people, anywhere in the world can access nutritional care. In the future, the objective is that from a legal and political point of view, states also have certain obligations, whose effective implementation can be legitimately claimed by people.