Page 75 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

• Nursing associations should collaborate within regional treaty areas (for example, the Council of

Europe) to ensure the effective mobilization of nursing skills, strengthening of nursing capacity

and protection of nurses’ rights.

Nurses, midwives and the right to health

Nursing bodies can contribute to the strengthening of respect for the right to health by:

• Explicitly acknowledging the link between the work of the nursing profession and the rights of

citizens to highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

• Ensuring that a rights-based analysis is used to frame any submission from a nursing body to
government and health funders in support of increased or modified health expenditure or changes

to health policy

• Ensuring information on human rights is included in publications directed at nurses and

midwives.

2.10.3 Responding to human rights abuses

Professional bodies can play an important role in strengthening the ethics and ethical awareness

of nurses who may be confronted by human rights abuses as well as playing a protective role for
those nurses at risk of abuse.

• Nursing associations and regulatory bodies should ensure that nurses and midwives are kept

abreast of developments in the field of ethics and human rights, including matters related to

national legislation, international human rights standards relevant to nursing and standards arising
from within the international profession.

72 Academic Year 2025/2026