INTRODUCTION: What is Health Justice?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Law
• Social Justice

Background:

• Health inequities persist despite advances in healthcare and public health.
• Existing frameworks often fail to address the root causes of health disparities.
• Community-led initiatives are crucial for driving transformational change.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define health justice as both a movement and a scholarly framework.
• To highlight the social ethic of care inherent in health justice.
• To identify subordination as the primary driver of health inequities.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of health justice principles.
• Review of community-led movement strategies.
• Examination of health law scholarship through a social justice lens.

Main Results:

• Health justice integrates community power-building with transformational change.
• It reframes the relationship between healthcare, public health, and social determinants.
• Subordination is identified as the fundamental cause of health inequities.

Conclusions:

• Health justice offers a robust framework for understanding and addressing health disparities.
• A social ethic of care is central to achieving health equity.
• Transformational change requires confronting and dismantling systems of subordination.