Getting the balance right: thick and thin approaches to harmonizing state particularism and the human right to health.

CONTEXT: The right to health requires States to achieve the highest standard of health attainable for all. A culturally sensitive approach is needed to respect States' interpretation and implementation of the universal right to health, and document their progress.
OBJECTIVE: This viewpoint suggests how to harmonize the (i) human right to health and (ii) the particularism of State values and interests. STRATEGY: I describe the 'thickness' with which individual States recognize the right to health, as a dimension of universality, and then implement that recognition, as a dimension of particularism. Recognition and implementation by States need to be thick to demonstrate 'glocal' rationality, as characterizes the right to health as a Webberian ideal type. Examples of variation in the thickness of States' interpretation and implementation of the right to health are discussed.
CONCLUSION: It is possible to work towards harmonizing the right to health, and State particularism, by maximizing the thickness with which individual States recognize this right and progressively implement it.