A/79/177
is key in enabling individuals to fully understand health-related risks and make
informed decisions. 13 Health-related information is equally important in the context
of sexual and reproductive health. 14
12. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the resolution on human rights in the context
of HIV and AIDS adopted by the Human Rights Council at its fifty -sixth session, in
which the Council “urges States […] to review or repeal those restrictive, punitive or
discriminatory legal and policy frameworks that adversely affect the successful,
effective and equitable delivery of, and access to, HIV prevention, diagnosis,
treatment, care and support programmes and services for all persons living with,
presumed to be living with, at risk of or affected by HIV, including key populations”. 15
13. While information accessibility includes the right to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas concerning health issues, the exercise of this right should not
impair the confidentiality of personal health data. 16 The right to privacy, as a
component of the right to health 17 and as the independent right to be free from
arbitrary or unlawful interference with individual privacy, 18 is relevant especially in
circumstances where medical records are shared with law enforcement agencies. 19
14. Punitive provisions and legal restrictions to regulate people’s control over their
own body, the rights to bodily autonomy 20 including through regulations of same-sex
consensual adult relations, termination of pregnancy, and sex work, is a severe and
unjustified form of State control, generating stigma and discrimination, and constituting
a human rights violation. 21
15. Furthermore, denials of abortion can cause severe physical and mental pain or
suffering for pregnant persons, 22 in certain circumstances meeting the threshold of
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, a right autonomously protected by
the international legal framework. 23 The denial of post-abortion services, often as a
result of criminalization or stigmatization, can have equally enduring negative
consequences for pregnant persons. 24
16. Significantly, the right to life entails a general obligation for States to take all
necessary measures to prevent arbitrary deprivation of life, including by law
enforcement officials 25 and in the context of incarceration. 26 The respect and
insurance of the right to life extends to reasonably foreseeable threats and life threatening situations. 27 States are equally required to take positive actions to protect
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WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, arts. 10–12 and 14.c; A/71/282, para. 76; and
OHCHR, “Statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health on the adoption of
front-of-package warning labelling to tackle NCDs”, 27 July 2020.
E/C.12/2000/4, para. 11.
See Human Rights Council resolution 56/20.
E/C.12/2000/4, para. 12 (b).
Ibid., para. 3.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 17.
A/64/272, para. 20; and Open Society Institute, “The effects of drug user registration laws on
people’s rights and health: key findings from Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine”, October 2009,
pp. 16–18.
E/C.12/2000/4, para. 8.
A/HRC/32/44, paras. 76–78; and A/HRC/WG.11/39/1, para. 19.
CCPR/C/85/D/1153/2003, para. 6.3.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 7.
A/66/254, paras. 31–33.
Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018), para. 13.
Ibid., para. 25.
Ibid., para. 7.
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