Should a community have to choose between the right to practice its culture and the right to health? The right to health is a highly contestable right, especially when it may conflict with traditional rights or local customs. In the article "Health systems and the right to the highest attainable standard of health", Paul Hunt and Gunilla Backman discuss the components of a health system and how to implement it, as well as the right to " best possible state of health. Among these components, Hunt and Backman notably argue that there is a need for "international cooperation [to realize] health as a global public good", a "respect for cultural differences" and a balance between "the rights of competing man” (83-86). ). Many irreconcilable conflicts arose when Hunt and Backman applied their framework to the violation of the right to health, which health committee members discussed in Bettina Shell-Duncan's article "From Health to Human Rights man: female genital mutilation (FGC) and intervention policy”. .” Shell-Duncan's article covers the implications of realizing FGC as a right to health due to its cultural significance. In this article, I will use the health issue of female genital cutting to explain how the actualization of the "highest possible level of health", as defined by Hunt and Backman, can lead to many of the conflicts that their framework fails to resolve. Hunt and Backman's article explains a right to health approach that would be used to improve health systems. Their article presents the position that health is a human right, which local and national actors must respect "to the highest possible standard", based on the assumption of the Constitution of the World Health Organization ( 1946) and the Declaration of Alma-Ata (1978). In this article, ...... middle of article ....... Shell-Duncan did not expose the "pressures" put on these countries. I argue that “pressure”, in any form, can lead to resistance to desired outcomes because affected communities would be dissatisfied with the methods of intervention. However, critics of my interpretation might argue that some form of “pressure” is necessary to actualize agreements and change. Still, I argue that the oppressed might view foreigners as meddling, while more powerful nations might begin to gradually control more low-income countries. Works Cited Hunt, Paul and Gunilla Backman. “Health systems and the right to the highest possible standard of health. » Health and Human Rights 10.1 (2008): 81-92. Print.Shell-Duncan, Bettina. “From health to human rights: female genital excision and the policy of intervention. » American Anthropologist 110.2 (2008): 225-236. Print.