Macarena Cano Muñoz
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GIESCR submitted input to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has submitted an input to the the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in response to the ‘Call for Contributions: Example of a Human Rights-Based Approach to Universal Health Coverage’.
The submission focuses on the centrality of public healthcare services for the realisation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in line with the right to health under international human rights law, which includes the entitlement to access universal healthcare services without discrimination. Likewise, the submission highlights the human rights risks of shifting healthcare financing, provision, and governance from the public onto the private sphere.
Finally, GI-ESCR highlights the potential negative human rights implications of overreliance on the concept of UHC for the realisation of the right to health. GI-ESCR warns that UHC should not become a substitute or a synonym for realising the right to health in health policy and global health narratives. In this regard, it emphasises that the right to health translates into a specific set of binding legal obligations for states that is not always appropriately reflected in the UHC framework and provides guidance on how to integrate the right to health within UHC-oriented policies.
The submission is based on our recent work on the right to health and private actors, including the following reports and policy briefs:
- Compendium of United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies’ Statements on Private Actors in Healthcare;
To know more about our work on health, please consult this page.
Read the full submission here:
