Realisation of human rights to health and through health

The powerful interplay between health and the human rights of women, children, and adolescents forms the cornerstone of the global development agenda. When their right to health is upheld, their access to all other human rights is enhanced.¹ The corollary holds true. When their right to health is denied, the impacts inhibit their exercise of other human rights, undermining their potential and undoing realisation of the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. That is why whole-of-government leadership is needed to fulfil the potential of the powerful nexus of intersecting, interdependent rights.

However, despite progress, women, children, and adolescents worldwide continue to face challenges in their enjoyment of human rights, including their access to essential, good-quality health services. They often face violence and discrimination, are unable to participate fully in society, and encounter other barriers to realising their human rights.^2, 3, 4 Persistent inequalities between women and men, between adults and young people, and between different social and ethnic groups are reported across the world.⁵ Discrimination against women and girls—the most ubiquitous human rights violation—is perpetrated in every country, with grave human rights consequences including for their health and wellbeing.⁶ Punitive laws and sanctions impede access to certain essential health services, including HIV and sexual and reproductive health services, and continue to undermine the rights of women, children, and adolescents.

As a result, high levels of mortality and morbidity persist: every year worldwide there are more than 300 000 maternal deaths,⁷ 2·6 million stillbirths,⁸ 5·9 million deaths in children younger than 5 years, including 2·7 million newborn deaths,⁹ and 1·2 million adolescent deaths.¹⁰

This month at the 70th World Health Assembly and ahead of 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2018, the High Level Working Group on Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents launches its report, Leading the Realization of Human Rights to Health and through Health.¹¹ The High-Level Working Group on Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents was established in May, 2016, by WHO and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to secure political support, both nationally and internationally, for the implementation of the human-rights-related measures required by the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030). This report emphasises the fact that how we address health-related and other inequalities and injustices that prevent women, children, and adolescents from fulfilling their potential will determine the extent to which people’s lives are improved everywhere. This will determine whether or not the world achieves the Sustainable Development Goals and one of its key implementing platforms, the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030). This crucial interplay between the right to health and health as a basis for enjoyment of all other rights will determine whether or not societies are able to harness the dividends of the unprecedented demographic transition already underway.

A new approach to health, human rights, dignity, and wellbeing for current and future generations of women, children, and adolescents is urgently required. For this purpose, the Working Group report¹¹identifies a set of key recommendations (panel). These recommendations are based on the fundamental premise that no country will achieve acceptable levels of health and dignity for their people if they fail to uphold human rights. The Working Group further believes that human rights cannot be upheld in this way without bold, unapologetic leadership at the highest levels. Much work has been done over the years to show the clear link between health and human rights. Global commitments to do so exist as does robust guidance on a rights-based approach to health—what it is, how to implement it, and evidence that it works to improve health.¹¹ Political commitment and whole-of-government leadership are the missing keystones required to improve patchy and precarious implementation on the ground.

Recommendations of the High Level Working Group

Create an enabling environment

• 1 Uphold the right to health in national law
• 2 Establish a rights-based approach to health financing and universal health coverage
• 3 Address human rights as determinants of health
• 4 Remove social, gender, and cultural norms that prevent the realisation of rights

Partner with people

• 5 Enable people to claim their rights
• 6 Empower and protect those who advocate for rights
• 7 Ensure accountability to the people for the people

Strengthen evidence and public accountability

• 8 Collect rights-sensitive data
• 9 Report systematically on health and human rights

The Working Group report issues a call to all actors to reaffirm their commitment to universal values of health, dignity, and human rights for all and to champion the cause of women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health and rights through action, advocacy, and activism. The report also calls on the health and human rights communities, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the incoming new Director-General of WHO, to work together to support accelerated action for the health and human rights of women, children, and adolescents.

Extraído del trabajo de Tarja Halonen, Hina Jilani, Kate Gilmore, Flavia Bustreo
The Lancet, Volume 389, No. 10084, p2087–2089, 27 May 2017