Health Equity as a Justiciable Right in Nigeria: A Doctrinal Framework for Judicial Enforcement

Abstract

Despite the widespread recognition of the right to health across
international, regional, and domestic human rights frameworks, courts have struggled to address persistent health inequities in a principled and
consistent manner. This difficulty stems not from the non-justiciability of the right to health per se, but from a deeper doctrinal limitation: health equity is still predominantly treated as a policy aspiration rather than a legally enforceable standard. These disparities reflect in access, financing,
geography, and health outcomes and reveal a persistent gap between
normative legal commitments and their practical realization. This article
argues that this conceptual mischaracterization has constrained judicial
engagement with systemic disparities in access, financing, and health
outcomes. Focusing on Nigeria, the article reconceptualizes health equity as a justiciable dimension of the right to health and develops a doctrinal
framework for its judicial enforcement. Drawing on jurisdictions that
adjudicate inequities within the right to health, it reinterprets and integrates the principles of non-discrimination, substantive equality, and
reasonableness review into a structured, analytical model for adjudicating
inequities in healthcare systems. On this basis, the article advances a set of
enforceable standards as a judicial test that enables courts to identify and
evaluate systemic health inequities as rights violations rather than mere
policy deficiencies. By transforming health equity from a programmatic
objective into an enforceable legal standard, the article offers a normative
and doctrinal intervention that strengthens the capacity of courts to address structural injustice in healthcare.