An Explication on Broadening the Definition and Scope of
Maximum Available Resources under the General Comment
14 of the ICESCR to include Islamic Taxation in Financing the
Right to Health
LA Latif*
DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000313
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Author Information
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- PhD, Commercial Law Department, Kenya
Corresponding author:
L A Latif, PhD Candidate (Cardiff), MA (UDE), LLM (UoN), LLB (First Class Honours, UoN), PGDip. Law (KSL), CTF. IT (WWU),
CTF. HRL (Harvard FXB), Commercial Law Department, P.O. Box 30197, GPO, Nairobi, Kenya
Received: August 09, 2017; Published: August 30, 2017
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Abstract
There exists no comprehensive definition on what constitutes “available resources” as envisaged under article 2.1 of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. There is also an absence of an extensive discourse on this definition beyond stating that
it refers to both the resources existing within a state as well as those available from the international community through international
cooperation and assistance. The definition does not recognize Islamic forms of taxation that are domestically available to an Islamic as well
as a secular state. Accordingly, the problem identified in this explication is that of linking zakat; a form of Islamic taxation, to the concept and
definition of maximum available resources. The book by Waris (2015) argues that there is a link between taxation and human rights (the right
to health being among such rights). Waris pushes this proposition to the point of demonstrating the validity of the argument that rights require
resources for their realization and subsequent enforcement, but she stops short of discussing the exact fiscal mechanism that could be used
for the realisation and enforcement of specific rights. This explication having identified this gap aims to advance an argument that allows for
broadening the international community understands of what constitutes maximum available resources that a state can utilise to finance the
right to health. It proposes the introduction of zakat as a potential method of mobilising financial resources domestically available and argues
for its inclusion in the definition and scope of maximum available resources.
|Abstract|
|Introduction|
|The Rationale for Including Zakat within the Definition
and Scope of Maximum Available Resources|
|Justifying Zakat as an Alternative Source for Financing
the Right to Health|
|The Current Financing Challenges in Enforcing Health
Rights, Hence the Need to Tap into Zakat Revenue|
|Conclusion|
|References|
ISSN: 2574 -1241
