Niger

Title II of the Constitution dedicated to human rights and duties includes two references to health-related rights. First, the right to health is referred to, along with other rights, in article 12. This article (12) provides a list of rights recognized under the conditions defined by law; these include the rights to health, healthy and sufficient food, drinking water, and education (non-exhaustive list). Second, a right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and moral health is recognized under article 13. It is specified that the State shall ensure the creation of conditions which are likely to assure to all, medical services and medical assistance in the event of illness. As for article 12, reference is made to the law to specify the implementation modalities.

Article 153 identified a set of priority areas in which the State shall ensure to invest; these include: agriculture, livestock farming, health and education, and the creation of a fund for future generations.

The right to health is guaranteed for every Nigerien (article 19).

Public health is described as the public authorities ' responsibility for the physical and moral health of the population, in all its curative, preventive, educational and social aspects, at both local and national level (article 1). The law stresses the need to integrate the health and hygiene dimension in the design of public development policies and strategy documents, programmes, and projects (article 2).

Chapter 3 of the law addresses various social protection areas including, among other, employment and social security (section 4), food and nutritional security (section 7), and health (section 8). For health, article 19 specifically provides that vulnerable people are entitled to free health care, adaptation and rehabilitation services including consultations, examinations and care, medical evacuations, on presentation of their national solidarity card. This applies in public health centers.

Under article 24 of the law a Social Protection Fund is created to support vulnerable people; its source of revenues are the contributions from the State, local authorities, private sector and any other resources authorized by law. Under article 26, a National Agency for Social Protection is created, with legal personality, financial autonomy. It is supervised by the ministry responsible for social protection.

The law includes a full chapter on discrimination against people with HIV (article 20 to article 26) which, among other things, prohibits the requirement of a HIV test during hiring (article 22), punishes the dismissal of a worker on the grounds that he or she is a person living with HIV (article 23) or refuses that insurance company condition the subscription of health insurance policy on prior HIV testing (article 26).

Public Health facilities providing free care for gynaecological cancer are National Hospitals, National Reference Maternities and National Specialized Centers (article 3).

The State is supporting the cost of care of services covered . For insured people, the State covers the share not covered by the social protection system. For people not insured and for civil servants, the cost is fully assumed by the State. (article 5). Public Health facilities providing the services covered benefit from additional resources to their share of the budget initially allocated by the state (article 6).

The State supports the cost of the caesarean section services provided in public health facilities; these facilities receive additional resources in their share of the budget initially allocated by the state (article 3).

A system for monitoring and evaluating free caesarean sections services is set up and will be further detailed through an order of the Minister in charge of Public Health (article 5).