A/HRC/47/28
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
7 April 2021
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Forty-seventh session
21 June–9 July 2021
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Strategic priorities of work
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health, Tlaleng Mofokeng
Summary
The present report contains a brief account of the activities undertaken by the
Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, since she assumed the
functions of the role on 1 August 2020, and identifies the priority themes for her work in
the coming years.
The main approach of the Special Rapporteur will be to examine the understanding
of coloniality and racism, their impact on the right to health and how to move forward to
substantive equality. In the report, she argues that substantive equality as a goal allows for
the addressing of structural and indirect discrimination and for the identification and
elimination of the power dynamics that have perpetuated the systems and patterns of
privilege and disadvantage that outlived formal colonialism. To achieve substantive
equality in the realization of the right to health, laws and policies should address the
intersectional nature of discrimination, namely the lived experiences of those who
experience discrimination on multiple grounds. In particular, the Special Rapporteur plans
to look into the interrelated and entrenched obstacles operating at different levels that stand
between individuals and their enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health rights.
The present report includes seven priority themes that will be elaborated throughout
the tenure of the mandate holder and also contains two additional issues that will be
examined further.
GE.21-04567(E)