From darkness to dawn : tackling discrimination based on health status in China

• Main Author: Li, Zijin
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: KN Asia and Eurasia; Africa; Pacific Area; and Antarctica; RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine; Pacific; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57623/; http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2689077~S1

Discrimination based on health status is a serious problem in China, which influences the fundamental rights of millions of people. This thesis mainly discusses the nature, characteristics and reasons of discrimination based on health status in China. As a contextual and socio-legal study, this thesis employs doctrinal, empirical, historical, international & comparative law methods to provide a comprehensive and in-depth study on tackling discrimination based on health status in China. It is among the earliest researches that focus on the specific topic of discrimination based on health status in China. This thesis argues that various factors are responsible for continuing discrimination based on health status in China. Particularly, the fragmentary, incomplete, ambiguous and conflicting legislation, the ineffective, arbitrary and bureaucratic administration, the dependant and ineffective judiciary, the less active nongovernmental actors, and other relevant political, economic, medical and cultural factors, interact with one another to cause continuing discrimination. To pursue this argument, first, the thesis clarifies the necessity to prohibit discrimination based on health status by analysing relevant definitions and theories of such discrimination. Second, the thesis explores how discrimination based on health status has been tackled in international law and domestic law in various other jurisdictions, in order to reveal international responsibility China should bear and foreign lessons China can learn. Third, the thesis examines how discrimination based on health status has been tackled in Chinese history and reality to understand why such discrimination remains serious today. Fourth, the thesis discusses findings of the author’s fieldwork on tackling discrimination based on health status in China to investigate the effectiveness of the current anti-discrimination regime. Based on the above analyses, the thesis finally concludes the main reasons for continuing discrimination based on health status in China and proposes a more effective antidiscrimination regime in China to prohibit such discrimination.