Search Tips
sorted by
30 shown of 95 entities
Right to health in conflict situations 2013, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- The right to health framework recognizes that international and non governmental organizations have particular importance in relation to disaster relief and humanitarian assistance in times of emergencies, including providing assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons. International and non governmental organizations may also be involved in conflict as monitors, mediators, peacekeeping forces and territorial administrators. Such organizations should ensure that they take due account of the right to health in their decisions and activities, including by adopting rights-based health policies, paying special attention to the needs of vulnerable groups and ensuring participation of affected communities. They should ensure that robust accountability mechanisms exist, particularly in peacekeeping and peace-enforcement situations. These include effective disciplinary systems, clear operational standards, systems for monitoring and data collection, and accessible independent dispute-resolution systems, especially for international organizations that enjoy immunity from domestic jurisdiction.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- States are obligated to protect the right to health of individuals from interference by third parties. Recruitment agencies, which are mostly private enterprises, are typically the first point of contact in the formal migration process for low-skilled migrant workers, many of whom are illiterate and poor. They provide information to migrant workers about job opportunities and living and work conditions in receiving States for a fee. They also arrange documentation necessary for migration, thus playing a crucial role in guiding migrant workers through important phases of migration. Dependence on recruitment agencies may render migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, necessitating regulation of recruitment agencies by sending States.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Many receiving States require migrant workers to undergo compulsory medical testing for certain conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis and pregnancy as part of their immigration policy. Though quite a few countries have eased HIV-related travel restrictions, compulsory testing for HIV for residence and work, especially for low-skilled migrant workers, continues in over 40 countries. This is despite commitment by States to enact legislation eliminating all forms of discrimination against persons living with HIV and recommendations against compulsory tests for migrant workers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Justifications for compulsory testing revolve around protection and preservation of public health and resources in the receiving State. However, compulsory testing, especially for HIV, is not only counterproductive to the public health approach but is in violation of the right to health. Compulsory medical testing does not consider the window period required for an accurate test. Further, in cases of false negative results, individuals may engage in unsafe sexual practices, exposing sexual partners to increased risk. False positive results may lead to mental trauma among migrant workers, considering the stigma that may be associated with particular health conditions. Additionally, as both their immigration from sending States and stay in receiving States is dependent on these tests, migrant workers may avoid getting tested, forge documents or even stop treatment, thus driving the disease underground. Compulsory testing is also no guarantee against transmission of communicable diseases once migrant workers are inside the receiving State.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Furthermore, test results are passed on to employers or recruitment agencies without the migrant worker's consent, breaching the requirement of confidentiality and contrary to international recommendations. Additionally, pre- and post-test counselling protocols may not be followed, even when required by law. A right to health approach, however, requires that counselling, voluntary testing and treatment be treated as a health-care continuum. Migrant workers who test positive for HIV may remain in an irregular situation, making them more vulnerable to abuse by employers and less likely to access medical treatment. In cases of pregnancy, women may resort to risky illegal abortion to avoid deportation. Further, compulsory testing stigmatizes those who are deported based on positive test results.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Detention centres are often overcrowded, lack basic standards of hygiene, nutritious food and water. They have been described as centres of abuse and violence against migrant workers. Long periods of detention and poor living conditions in detention centres facilitate the transmission of communicable diseases and can have a devastating effect on the mental health of migrant workers. Health-care services in some detention centres are reportedly unavailable, difficult to access and of poor quality, which is particularly concerning for migrant workers detained due to health status. Migrant workers living with HIV have faced stigmatization and harassment as a result of lack of confidentiality in detention. Where States persist with immigration detention, they should, at the minimum, provide detainees with adequate living conditions, consensual medical check-ups and make quality and confidential physical and mental health facilities available and accessible in a timely manner.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Domestic and sexual violence, lack of redress for rights violations and lower wages than male counterparts reflect gender-based discrimination and aggravate its negative effects in the health-care setting and access to health care faced by migrant workers generally. Furthermore, gendered power imbalances and lack of access to health services, information and redress affects the ability of women, especially sex workers, to negotiate safe sex, which increases their vulnerability to HIV. Sending and receiving States should therefore address the compounded vulnerability of female migrant workers, particularly those with irregular status, in the development and implementation of evidence-based and participatory health policies and strategies.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- Health-seeking behaviour can be influenced by a migrant worker's cultural background. Cultural misunderstandings and apprehension of procedures which they are not traditionally and culturally familiar with act as barriers to access. Migrant workers may therefore prefer doctors who practise their native traditional systems of medicines and who better understand their diseases, as opposed to the host State's health-care providers, who are perceived to lack cultural sensitivity to their health problems and sometimes racist and therefore discriminatory.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Discrimination and prejudice based on gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status intersect, causing chronic stress and making migrant domestic workers a highly vulnerable and marginalized group. Owing to their vulnerability, isolation and dependence, migrant domestic workers experience a range of violations which negate their enjoyment of the right to health and its underlying determinants. Violations include food and sleep deprivation, denial of medical treatment, squalid living conditions, non-payment of wages, excessive work hours (increasing the risk of accidents) and psychological, physical and sexual abuse. Cardiovascular, endocrine, skin, musculoskeletal, and psychological conditions have also been documented among migrant domestic workers, with worst cases resulting in death, including suicide.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- Migrant domestic workers are frequently excluded or inadequately covered by the receiving State's labour laws and social protections, including health insurance. Sponsorship systems, debt, language barriers, fear of arrest, detention or deportation and a lack of effective recourse for violations interact to varying degrees in different receiving States to facilitate the systematic exploitation and abuse of domestic workers. The situation of some migrant domestic workers has even been described as "modern-day slavery". In order to fulfil the right to health, States are obligated to address the particular vulnerability of migrant domestic workers under labour, occupational health and safety and social protection laws.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur is pleased to observe the adoption by the International Labour Office (ILO) in 2011 of Domestic Workers Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201, which details requirements for protection from harassment and violence, occupational health and safety, written contracts and protection under labour laws. This follows general comment No. 1 (2010) on migrant domestic workers of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which pays particular attention to the vulnerability of migrant domestic workers throughout the different stages of migration. Implementation of these instruments would provide greater protection to migrant domestic workers at all stages of the migration process, thereby creating an enabling environment consistent with the obligation to fulfil the right to health.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Report of the SR on the right to health and Agenda 2030 2016, para. 94
- Paragraph text
- To date, the approach to violence reduction has been fragmented, compartmentalizing different forms of violence. Importantly, many forms of violence continue to be tolerated within societies and even supported by States. For example, violence against women and children remains accepted in many societies as a cultural norm. The institutional care of young children, a clear act of violence against children, remains widespread in many countries. Around the world, many groups in vulnerable situations, including women, persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, experience numerous forms of violence. Each example is also a violation of various human rights protected under international law, including the right to health.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- LGBTQI+
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The right to mental health 2017, para. 12
- Paragraph text
- One decade later, progress is slow. Effective, acceptable and scalable treatment alternatives remain on the periphery of health-care systems, deinstitutionalization has stalled, mental health investment continues to be predominantly focused on a biomedical model and mental health legislative reform has proliferated, undermining legal capacity and equal protection under the law for people with cognitive, intellectual and psychosocial disabilities. In some countries, the abandonment of asylums has created an insidious pipeline to homelessness, hospital and prison. When international assistance is available, it often supports the renovation of large residential institutions and psychiatric hospitals, undermining progress.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- The right to health mandates States to put in place effective and accessible mechanisms to hold all duty bearers to account. Non-citizens, such as migrant workers also have the right to access legal remedies to challenge violations against them. Although States are the primary duty bearers under the right to health, they have a concurrent obligation to ensure that non-State actors, such as recruitment agencies and employers, are held accountable for violations of the right to health of migrant workers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to health and international drug control, compulsory treatment for drug dependence and access to controlled medicines 2010, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- The 2009 Madrid Recommendation notes that there is "overwhelming evidence" that health-protection measures, including harm-reduction measures, are effective in prisons. The Madrid Recommendation states that treatment programmes for people who use drugs, as well as harm-reduction measures, including needle and syringe programmes, are urgently needed in all prison systems. Drug-dependence treatment is also noted to be "highly effective in reducing crime": treatment and care within prison, or as alternatives to imprisonment, reduce rates of relapse, HIV transmission and reincidence in crime. Effective drug-dependence treatment thus protects not only the individual, but society at large, and combats the negative cycle of recidivism that exposes other detainees to risk. As harm-reduction programmes are cost-effective and relatively easy to operate in closed settings, they should be implemented within places of detention as a matter of urgency.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The realization of the right to health of older persons 2011, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Internationally recognized human rights standards and principles as contained in core international human rights treaties cover and protect older persons. Despite this tacit protection, it has increasingly been argued that there is a gap in the international human rights system because there is currently no specific universal human rights instrument on the rights of older persons. Specific provisions focusing on older persons, such as those which exist for some other categories of vulnerable persons such as women, children, persons with disabilities, and migrant workers, are also lacking.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2011
Paragraph
Right to health in conflict situations 2013, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- States should give particular attention to persons rendered vulnerable by conflict, such as women, children, older persons, people with disabilities and displaced communities. This requires States to address marginalization arising from social, political and economic exclusion; discrimination against persons belonging to or perceived to belong to a specific community; vulnerability due to ill-health; and conflict strategies that deliberately render certain communities vulnerable. These factors, individually or in combination, may expose certain groups to multiple vulnerabilities and an increased risk of violation of their right to health. Recognizing the diverse vulnerabilities in different communities and empowering them to participate in all decision-making processes that affect their health enable States to fulfil their obligation under the right to health during conflict and also promotes a sustainable recovery from conflict.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Older persons
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Ensuring continuous access to treatment and medicines on a non-discriminatory basis is crucial to the right to health framework. Migratory processes and pressures can expose migrant workers to increased risk of contracting communicable diseases particularly HIV. There is therefore a need to ensure that continuous treatment is available to these populations throughout the entire process. Treatment interruptions, lack of follow-up and treatment failures are documented at higher rates among migrants than the stationary population. Some States have adopted regional frameworks, such as the Ibero-American Social Security Convention, and bilateral social security agreements to ensure "portability" of social security, including health-care benefits, from sending to receiving States, which allows migrant workers to enjoy such benefits, independent of their immigration status. States are encouraged to adopt such approaches with respect to access to treatment for chronic diseases, such as HIV, in order to maximize adherence rates in both sending and receiving States.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 61
- Paragraph text
- Participation of migrant sex workers in the formulation and implementation of health laws, programmes and collection of disaggregated data is required to ensure that health concerns of sex workers are addressed. Measures that provide a confidential and supportive environment for voluntary testing, treatment, referral and counselling, that educate sex workers about sexual and reproductive health rights, including preventing the transmission of HIV, and that tackle the marginalization experienced by sex workers are consistent both with epidemiological evidence and the right to health framework.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Right to health in early childhood - Right to survival and development 2015, para. 76
- Paragraph text
- Inequalities and discrimination obstruct equitable healthy development and educational attainment among young children from marginalized groups, including persons living in poverty, minority and indigenous groups, the girl child, persons with disabilities, persons in underserved areas such as rural populations, refugees, internally displaced children and children living in areas affected by conflict. Inequalities and discrimination ultimately contribute to health and other inequalities later in life and to the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Ethnic minorities
- Girls
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Youth
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- The right to health requires States to ensure access to health facilities, goods and services, especially for vulnerable groups, such as migrant women workers. Health services, information and education should be tailored to the specific needs of women - such as sexual and reproductive health needs, including access to contraception and safe legal abortion - and pay attention to the special vulnerability of low-skilled migrant workers, regardless of immigration status.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 8
- Paragraph text
- The International Labour Organization (ILO), through various conventions and recommendations places obligations on States and certain duties to recruitment agencies, requiring them to take steps to prevent abuse and exploitation of migrant workers. It focuses on occupational health and safety of migrant workers and recommends measures to promote reunification of families, which can have a positive effect on mental health as it provides social support to migrant workers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 26
- Paragraph text
- Some States prohibit agencies from recruiting workers or a class of workers, such as domestic workers, to countries or employers who habitually deprive migrants of adequate rest, nutritious food, medical care and sleep. However, as this may result in migrant workers seeking riskier routes to foreign employment, sending States should ensure that bilateral agreements with receiving States provide for strong protections and enforcement mechanisms against abuse and exploitation.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Right to health and criminalization of same-sex conduct and sexual orientation, sex-work and HIV transmission 2010, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Sex workers should have the right to legal protection, with regard to various hazards such as violence, general occupational risks and labour exploitation. Judicial decisions have, in some instances, resulted in such protection being directly realized. For instance, a court in The Hague found in favour of a Czech immigrant who had been denied permission to reside in The Netherlands for the purposes of prostitution, concluding that prostitution is considered labour according to domestic law, and that the petitioner was therefore entitled to a permit.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Right to health and criminalization of same-sex conduct and sexual orientation, sex-work and HIV transmission 2010, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Alongside the right to health, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights protects the right to freely chosen, gainful work (art. 6), which the State must take steps to safeguard. Article 6 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women does not require States to suppress consensual, adult sex work. Rather, it calls for the suppression of "all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women". The term "exploitation of prostitution" has not been defined within the Convention, but is interpreted to refer to exploitation in the context of prostitution. Additionally, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families applies to a significant number of sex workers who travel between States to engage in sex work.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
Occupational health 2012, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- A number of international human rights instruments address the right to occupational health in a variety of contexts. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides for the right of everyone to "just and favourable conditions of work" (art. 23). The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women establishes women's "right to protection of health and to safety in working conditions, including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction" (art. 11.1(f)) and requires States to "provide special protection to women during pregnancy in types of work proved to be harmful to them" (art. 11.2 (d)). The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families obliges States to "take measures not less favourable than those applied to nationals to ensure that working and living conditions of migrant workers and members of their families in a regular situation are in keeping with the standards of fitness, safety, health and principles of human dignity" (art. 70).
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Occupational health 2012, para. 41
- Paragraph text
- Exposure to pesticides has been linked to various acute and chronic toxic illnesses, including a number of cancers. Despite this, in many countries the law does not require pesticide use labels to be printed in languages understood by migrant workers in the jurisdiction. As a result, migrant agricultural workers suffer from high rates of toxic chemical injuries and skin disorders compared to other workers. Moreover, there are strong indications that efforts to regulate the distribution, application and disposure of such pesticides have been ineffective in reducing exposure. Such regulations are deficient in scope and under-enforced in both the developed and the developing world.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2012
Paragraph
Right to health in conflict situations 2013, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The health needs of certain groups are often overlooked in conflict due to limited or suspended services. Older persons are more at risk in conflict due to poor mobility and are less able to travel to health facilities. They may be unable to carry heavy packages of food or containers of water, and often live without family support, which renders them vulnerable to higher levels of malnutrition and disease. Similarly, persons with disabilities, often abandoned by families fleeing conflict, may face greater health and safety risks. Many facilities are unable to provide children with disabilities with the treatment and care suited to their physical developmental needs, hampering their ability to enjoy their right to health.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Families
- Older persons
- Persons on the move
- Persons with disabilities
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 6
- Paragraph text
- The right to health framework is primarily grounded in article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which recognizes the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health. General comment No. 14 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights elaborates upon, and interprets, the right to health. It mandates States to respect, protect and fulfil the right to health of everyone, including migrant workers. States are also required to improve the underlying determinants of health - prerequisites for the realization of the right to health - such as education, nutritious food, potable water, adequate sanitation, and safe and healthy work and living conditions. Migration should be seen as an underlying determinant, as the processes of pre-departure and reintegration in sending States, and arrival, stay and integration in receiving States determine health outcomes of migrant workers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Migrant worker’s right to health 2013, para. 10
- Paragraph text
- By mandating that non-discrimination inform all aspects of State policy, the right to health framework does not allow for any distinction between regular and irregular migrant workers on the one hand, and nationals of States, on the other. In this aspect it differs from the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families which allows irregular migrant workers access to health facilities, goods and services only when urgently needed. Non-discrimination requires that socio-economic rights, such as access to health facilities, goods and services, be equally available to nationals and non-nationals, including irregular migrant workers.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph