PHM-Exch> Special Rapprteur for Health consultation in Guatemala

[Claudio Schuftan]

   From:    marcybloom at comcast.net
   * *

*CIVIL SOCIETY IN CENTRAL AMERICA, MEXICO AND THE SPANISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN
MEET WITH THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON THE RIGHT TO HEALTH*

Guatemala City – Guatemala

*United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right of everyone to the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health, Anand Grover,
visited** *Guatemala
City on March 22 and 23 to participate in the civil society consultation for
Central America, Mexico and the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean.   The Special
Rapporteur *has previously held *consultations in South America and Nepal.
Mr. Grover is a practicing lawyer in the Bombay court and the Supreme Courts
of India and is director of the NGO Lawyers Collective.  He is a pioneer in
the field of HIV law and has won several hundred HIV/AIDS related
litigations in India.

 The consultation was coordinated by Planned Parenthood Federation of
America (PPFA) and the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), which convened
a group of 40 experts on different health issues from national, regional and
international civil society organizations from Costa Rica, the Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

 This consultation provided a forum for civil society in the region to
discuss critical issues related to the respect, protection, promotion and
guarantee of the right to health.  Some of the issues discussed were access
to health services, health systems and budgets, accountability, civil
society’s participation in the adoption of public policies, sexual and
reproductive rights, HIV/AIDS, mental health, workplace health and the
impact of free trade agreements on the Right to Health.  The participants
informed the Rapporteur about some of the obstacles that women, children,
adolescents, migrants, indigenous people and people with disabilities face
due to discrimination and inequality.

For PPFA and CRR, it was especially important that sexual and reproductive
rights, including access to safe and legal abortion, were a priority and
cross-cutting issue.  The activists underlined the importance of the right
to health and the interdependence between that right and other human rights,
such as the right to food, the right to be free from violence and the right
to adequate housing. The Rapporteur stated that “Sexual and reproductive
rights are an integral part of the right to health and an entry point to
eliminate the historic discrimination that women continue to face in the
region. In Central America, Mexico and the Spanish Caribbean it seems to be
very important to address the situation of violence against women and the
legal barriers that are restricting women’s access to sexual and
reproductive health services including abortion, which is one of the main
causes of maternal mortality in this region”.

The Rapporteur highlighted the relevance of civil society’s active
participation and empowerment in ensuring that his mandate is effective and
able to advance policies, laws and practices related to the right to
health.  For Mr. Grover, this consultation represented an important
opportunity for the region’s organizations to become knowledgeable about his
mandate and allowed him an opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of the
principal health-related challenges in the region.

Thanks to the exchange brought about by this consultation, the participants
were able to identify regional and national priorities related to the right
to health and to offer Mr. Grover specific suggestions for furthering health
as a human right.  PPFA and CRR will produce a report that includes all the
presentations and identified priorities, which can be used as an advocacy
tool for civil society organizations.  PPFA and CRR also will provide
follow-up on the specific petitions made to the Special Rapporteur relating
to sexual and reproductive health and their intersections with other aspects
of the right to health.

For more information, contact Regina Tamés, PPFA Advocacy Program Officer at
regina.tames at ppfa.org           and Ximena Andión, CRR International
Advocacy Director at xandion at reprorights.org
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