Cultural Diversity and Health, Epistemological and Legal Issues

Abstract [En]: This essay aims to investigate the connections between culture and the right to health by highlighting whether and to what extent factors attributable to cultural diversity can be integrated into health systems. Starting from the analysis of the international and European panorama, the national and regional reoglatory context is analyzed, with a particular focus on the experience of the Emilia-Romagna Region.

Abstract [It]: Il presente saggio si propone di approfondire le connessioni fra cultura e diritto alla salute evidenziando se ed in quale misura fattori riconducibili alla diversità culturale siano integrabili nei sistemi sanitari. Muovendo dall’analisi del panorama internazionale ed europeo, si analizza il contesto reoglatorio nazionale e regionale, con un particolare focus sull’esperienza della Regione Emilia-Romagna.

Keywords: Culture, Cultural diversity, Right to health, Health systems, Complementary and Alternative medicines

Parole chiave: Cultura, Diversità culturale, Siritto alla salute, Sistemi sanitari, Medicine altenative e complementari

Summary: 1. The right to health and its cultural dimension. 2. Continued: What space is there for cultural diversity and the recognition of "other" medicines? 2.1. Conceptual outlines. 2.2. Epistemological and legal issues underlying the integration of “non-conventional” medicines and practices. 3. The international sensitiveness towards non-conventional medicines: the WHO approach. 4. The European Union context: between caution and weak attempts at uniform regulation. 5. Non-conventional medicines in Italy: a panorama of variable geometry. 5.1. The national context. 5.2. The regional context: complex and differentiated paths of recognition. 5.3. Case study: the integration of cultural diversity factors in the Emilia-Romagna Region. 6. Conclusive findings and open questions.