A/HRC/38/36
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
10 April 2018
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirty-eighth session
18 June–6 July 2018
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to
the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health
Note by the Secretariat
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of
the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health, prepared pursuant to Council resolution 33/9. In the
report, the Special Rapporteur addresses the relationship between the right to health and
specific forms of deprivation of liberty and confinement in penal and medical regimes.
Detention and confinement remain the policy tool preferred by States to promote public
safety, “morals” and public health, doing more harm than good to public health and the
realization of the right to physical and mental health. The Special Rapporteur calls for the
full implementation of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) and for the development of supportive communitybased services as alternatives to detention and confinement in various cases.
GE.18-05613(E)