Summary: Working Group on Health Promotion

Health and Human Rights

Introduction
At the very beginning three major themes were distinguished:

1. Human rights violations in health are comparable to slavery, torture and violence, especially when women and children are concerned;
2. The importance of reducing vulnerability to ill health through human rights, education, non-discrimination and the right to health and food;
3. The importance of promoting human rights through health development

General Summary
The introductory session for the Working Group on Health was devoted to the unifying theme of health and human rights. Our first panellist, Helena Nygren Krug, human rights adviser, World Health Organization (WHO) presented:

• The historical background;
• The development and the implications of human rights instruments;
• The major linkages between health and human rights;
• WHO's rights based approach and its core areas of work.

She made a key point about the indivisibility of the five rights (political, civil, social, economical and cultural) and underlined that the latter three— so crucial to health— are now starting to receive due attention.

Our second panellist, Peter Prove, President of the Geneva Committee on Human Rights, followed up with a presentation appropriately titled "Giving flesh to the bones. Of health and human rights", referring to the concrete and whole realization of the Right to Health. He presented to us and especially pointed out some parts of the General Comment prepared by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This General Comment can be considered as a new key addition to jurisprudence in international law. Peter Prove urged civil society groups to read this important document and to use its interpretative statements in their lobbying and advocacy efforts.

Our third panellist, Miriam Maluwa, law and human rights adviser for UNAIDS, freshly arrived from the Barcelona International AIDS conference, provided practical examples of making concrete the Right to Health in areas struck by a high percentage of HIV/AIDS. She spelled out the linkages between the impact on all the affected people, the vulnerability to infection, and the international and national responses to the pandemic.

Interesting issues
A key question was raised in relation to enforcement of the Right to Health, and in particular in relation to mechanisms for dealing with violations of the Right to Health. Helena Nygren Krug informed us that mechanisms were currently being explored and that the human rights treaty bodies had a role to play. Developed only two years ago, the General Comment on the Right to Health, described by Peter Prove, is a valuable new tool for rendering concrete the Right to Health. Few NGOs currently work in health and human rights, but a rights based approach to health is gathering support and credibility.

Presenters were asked to express their opinion about the gap between theory and practice in the Right to Health and about the issue concerning the need for bread rather than for medicines. It was pointed out that WHO regards health as a long-term investment in economic growth. However, it is critical to understand that 90% of health determinants lie outside the health sector. In response to questions about how the UN agencies, founded on human rights, might put pressure on governments to respect the Right to Health, civil society was advised to put pressure on national governments, because UN agencies are servants of the government. The means to do it are: raising awareness, mobilising public opinion and providing input and "shadow" information to the reporting process of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (to which civil society has strong access). It was observed that UN agencies can be influential when they want to: if they wish to remain close to their original mission and to fulfil their mandates, they will need to join hands with civil society in promoting health as a human right.

Conclusions and recommendations
At a very general level, it was agreed that the Right to Life and the Right to Health could not logically or morally be separated. It was recognized that the neglect of economic and social rights prevents any meaningful implementation of the Right to Health: in fact, the fulfilment of these rights depends a great deal on much on macroeconomic, political and structural factors, which are beyond the control of the people and their communities. To deal with poverty, civil society and UN agencies need to develop strategies together. More specifically, it was recommended that all the relevant information should be made available in an appropriate form and language, in order to reach indigenous peoples.

Presenters' Documents Available

15.07_prove_peter.doc (103 K)

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