OHCHR and the right to health

Issues in focus

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OHCHR and the right to health

Issues in focus

The right to physical and mental health is most at risk in times of crisis when access to essential health services is most urgently needed. Armed conflicts, natural disasters, pandemics and humanitarian emergencies disrupt access to health and mental health services, medicines, vaccines and other health products, increase exposure to disease, disrupt treatments of chronic and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including HIV and AIDS, and place already fragile systems under enormous strain.

Displaced persons, women and girls, older persons, persons with disabilities and other persons and population groups who already face systemic inequalities often encounter compounded barriers to accessing healthcare, reflecting and reinforcing structural discrimination and exclusion. Upholding the right to health in crisis contexts requires targeted efforts to identify and address the specific risks and needs of these persons and groups to ensure the full realization of their right to health.

Natural disasters and related environmental emergencies, many of which are intensifying due to climate change, pose serious risks to the right to health. These events can damage healthcare infrastructure, disrupt the supply of essential resources like clean water, and inflict both physical and psychological trauma. The creation of a system of urgent medical care in cases of accidents, epidemics and similar health hazards, and the provision of disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in emergency situations are obligations under the right to health (see CESCR General Comment 14).

Pandemics such as COVID-19 have demonstrated how deeply public health emergencies affect the enjoyment of human rights, particularly the right to physical and mental health. Beyond the direct toll on life, pandemics strain health systems, disrupt essential services, and expose or deepen structural inequalities. A human rights-based approach is critical to ensuring that pandemic preparedness, prevention, response and recovery are inclusive, equitable, and accountable.

In recent years, attacks on health workers and healthcare facilities in conflict situations have dramatically increased, exacerbating existing access challenges and creating new, compounding barriers by hindering service delivery, disrupting supply chains, driving up prices, forcing the suspension of vaccination campaigns, and pushing persons and populations that are already at risk of right to health violations further out of reach of essential healthcare.

As early as 2008, the Human Rights Council in its resolution 9/9 on the protection of the human rights of civilians in armed conflict re-stated the continuous application of human rights law and the complementarity of International Human Rights with International Humanitarian Law. This resolution, in conjunction with Human Rights Council resolution 12/5, OHCHR convened expert consultations and submitted a report to the Human Rights Council in 2010 (A/HRC/14/40). OHCHR’s key tool and publication on complementarity of Human Rights in armed conflict (2011) complemented Fact Sheet No.13 on International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (published in 1991), and was further concretized by the 2016 publication Protection of Economic, Social & Cultural Rights in Conflict (based on the OHCHR report to the ECOSOC in May 2015). This body of evidence, law and practice and re-statement of international, humanitarian and human rights law and forms the texture of the OHCHR’s right to health work and contemporary human rights analysis on this topic, and the basis for actional recommendations and practices.

The long-term impacts of such attacks on health workers and healthcare facilities on the right to health are profound. They undermine the stability and functioning of entire health systems by damaging critical infrastructure, reducing health workforce capacity, and eroding public trust in institutions. Recognizing the severity of these violations, the United Nations Security Council in its Resolution 2286 (2016) not only condemned such attacks, but explicitly deplored the long-term consequences for civilian populations and health-care systems.

Crisis often disrupt not only access to healthcare services but also the underlying determinants of the right to health—such as safe water and sanitation, adequate food, housing, education, healthy occupational conditions, and a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. When these elements are compromised, the right to health itself is undermined. The effects of such disruptions are rarely contained: they cascade across communities, deepen pre-existing inequalities, and impede recovery and development. The right to health in crisis settings is thus deeply interconnected with the realization of other economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights. A human rights-anchored approach is critical to capture and tackle the full scope of these interconnections.

OHCHR works to protect and promote the right to health before, during, and after crises — ensuring that responses are grounded in international human rights law, by:

  • Fostering a shared understanding of the interlinkage between economic, social and cultural rights and conflict, early warning and the protection of the right to health (see e.g. OHCHR reports on early warning and economic, social and cultural rights; and the protection of economic, social and cultural rights in conflict);
  • Monitoring and reporting on violations of the right to health in crisis situations;
  • Strengthening accountability for attacks on healthcare and other health-related human rights violations;
  • Engaging in country-level work to support rights-based health responses that reach those most at risk;
  • Convening expert consultations and developing normative guidance to inform policy and practice;
  • Advocating for inclusive, equitable and resilient health systems in crisis-affected contexts;
  • Contributing its expertise in human rights analysis and the design of human rights-based approaches, including to data collection.

Related reports and resources

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

UN HRC Advisory Committee

  • Report of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on best practices and main challenges in the promotion and protection of human rights in post-disaster and post-conflict situations (A/HRC/28/76)
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders - Human rights defenders operating in conflict and post-conflict situations (A/HRC/43/51)
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to a Healthy Environment - Women, girls and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment (A/HRC/52/33)

UN HRC Commissions of Inquiry (COIs)

Other resources & resolutions

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