The 34th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) took place form 27 February to 24 March 2017. While health topics do not prominently feature in the Council’s sessions, this recent HRC had few notable discussions highlighting – in the words of Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore – the right to health as “an enabler of other rights.”
On 8 March 2017, a panel discussion on improving access to medicines brought together states, public health actors, civil society representatives, stakeholders working on intellectual property rights, trade experts, and human rights activists. The event provided feedback on the report of the High-level Panel on Access to Medicines and facilitated an exchange of views and best practices in regards to this issue. The fact that one third of the global population still lacks access to essential medicines was highlighted as a critical human rights issue. In order to ensure access to medicines in developing countries, the discussion stressed the role of local production, technology transfer and capacity building.
However, different views on the report and the panel’s recommendations remain. Within the context of the Wold Health Organization (WHO) the report was not put on the agenda of the next World Health Assembly (WHA) as a separate item but was subsumed in agenda item 14.3 – addressing the shortage of medicines and vaccines – to accommodate a discussion on this issue at the upcoming 70th session of the WHA later in May 2017.
On 9 March 2017, the Human Rights Council held a panel discussion on preventable maternal mortality and morbidity as a human rights priority for all states in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The discussion emphasised the important role that strong health systems paired with an integrated focus on women and girls can play in reducing and eliminating the perpetuation of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity. A human-rights-based approach is needed to tackle gender inequalities, promote sexual and reproductive rights, and develop accountability mechanisms. Concrete actions must be implemented beyond the health sector to address structural factors, such as poverty, malnutrition, and harmful practices, all linking closely to economic, social and cultural rights. Lessons learnt in the area of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity should also be drawn and used to infuse a human rights perspective into other sectors and components of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Finally, as requested by the Human Rights Council in July 2016, a report on the realisation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people with mental health conditions was released. The report identifies the main challenges faced by people with mental health conditions and prescribes a number of policy shifts, including measures to improve the quality of mental health service delivery and to create an enabling legal and policy environment.
The report testifies to a growing willingness to move the mental health agenda forward. The WHO is promoting a one-year global campaign on depression, the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide. On the occasion of World Health Day on 7 April 2017, awareness was raised on the burden of mental disorders, while dialogue and communication are encouraged to overcome stigma and prejudice. Making mental health a global priority is increasingly seen as an essential element to achieve universal health coverage. Multisectoral approaches to tackle the underlying social and economic factors of mental disorders must be an integral part of this effort.
These discussions highlighted once more that a human rights perspective is fundamental in reaching the 2030 Agenda goal of universal health coverage, and as such the Human Rights Council provides an important forum for staging health-related discussions. Stronger synergies should, therefore, be fostered between the Council and other global health fora.