Thank you, President.
Action Canada delivers this statement on behalf of the Sexual Rights Initiative.
We thank the special rapporteur for this critical report, which rightly affirms that the right to health requires dignity as a normative and practical standard.
States' obligations extend far beyond health coverage. Health care must be available, accessible, acceptable and of good quality. Yet across the world, governments continue to adopt laws, policies and practices that undermine these obligations.
We welcome the report's emphasis on the duty of States to refrain from measures that erode dignity. Criminalization, anti-immigration policies, invasive surveillance practices, and restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights continue to exclude communities that are already marginalized. For example, in countries in the CEECA region, sex workers still face inaccessibility to decent access to health services, or in Canada, refugee claimants have been affected by the government's implementation of a co-payment policy through the Interim Federal Health Program, creating additional barriers for communities already facing significant obstacles to accessing care.
We are particularly concerned that some States continue to resist recognizing the positive obligations arising from the right to life that directly impact the full realization of the right to health. Without such obligations, dignity risks becoming an aspiration rather than an enforceable human rights guarantee.
At a time when many governments are underfunding public services, expanding privatization and failing to support international technology transfer, health inequities are deepening both domestically and internationally.
We urge all States to fulfil their human rights obligations by investing in resilient, publicly funded health systems and by ensuring that health care is delivered in a manner consistent with dignity, equality and human rights
Thank you,