PHA-Exchange> Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health to visit Colombia

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: HREA <noreply at hrea.org>

UNITED NATIONS Press release
20 September 2007

The Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Paul Hunt, will
visit Colombia from 20 to 22 September 2007.

Between 14-19 May 2007, the Special Rapporteur visited Ecuador at the
invitation of the Government. The main purpose of the visit was to look into
the aerial spraying of illicit crops along the Ecuador-Colombia border and
its possible impact on the right to the highest attainable standard of
health of those living in Ecuador.

In April, The Special Rapporteur wrote to the Government of Colombia asking
to visit Bogota, at the time of his mission to Ecuador, in order to discuss
the aerial spraying issue. Unfortunately, the Government was unable to agree
to a visit at this time due to other commitments and the Ambassador in
Ecuador was also unavailable.

The Special Rapporteur warmly welcomes the recent decision of the Government
of Colombia to invite him to visit between 20-22 September 2007.

In Colombia, the Special Rapporteur will meet with Government officials and
civil society representatives, including non-governmental organizations, the
media and academics. He will hold a press conference on Friday, 21 September
2007. The Special Rapporteur will submit his report on his visits to Ecuador
and Colombia to the Human Rights Council as soon as possible after returning
from Bogota.

The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert of the Human Rights Council,
mandated to help States, and others, promote and protect the right to the
highest attainable standard of health.

For further information on the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and copies
of available reports, please consult
http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/health/right/index.htm.

--
HREA - www.hrea.org

Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an international
non-governmental organisation that supports human rights learning; the
training of activists and professionals; the development of educational
materials and programming; and community-building through on-line
technologies.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20070922/bcf89a91/attachment-0001.html>