NGO Group for the CRC
Subgroup on the Child’s right to Health

Article 4 of the Convention on the rights of the Child calls on responsible governments to allocate their budgetary resources in a way that ensures the implementation of the social, political and economic rights of children. We wish to remind the Committee of a prerequisite to achieving this goal: the child’s right to health.
No other privilege can be enjoyed by somebody if he or she is not healthy. Health is the spring board from which a child begins the course to a successful life. Thus states have the responsibility to allocate resources to measures that aim at improving protection of the child’s right to health.
Drawing extensively from texts issued by the Office of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, we are reminded that the right to health is not to be understood as the right to be healthy: the state cannot provide protection against every possible cause of ill health.
It is, rather, the right to the enjoyment of a variety of facilities, goods, services and conditions necessary for the realization of the highest attainable standard of health. This right includes both health care and the underlying determinants of health, including access to potable water, adequate and safe food, adequate sanitation and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health-related information and education.
The entitlements include a system of health care and protection that is available, accessible, and of good quality.
Thus, the right to health implies that functioning public health and health care facilities, goods and services are available in sufficient quantity within a state.
It means that they are accessible to everyone without any discrimination. Accessibility has a number of dimensions, including physical, informational and economic. Thus informational accessibility includes the right to seek, receive and impart information concerning health issues, subject to the right to have personal health data treated with confidentiality.
Clearly, States must remember that resources should not only be allocated just for physical goods, but for intellectual goods as well. Economic accessibility means that health facilities, goods and services must be affordable for all. Further, all health facilities, goods and services must be acceptable --  that is to say respectful of medical ethics, culturally appropriate, and of good quality.
The right to health is an approach that should be implemented in all health care programs because it is intricately connected to a State’s ability to develop. A strong and healthy population drives a strong and healthy economy.
During this year’s high-level substantive session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which took place in Geneva from the 2-10 July and focussed on the progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, this relation has become clearer.

Although Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s 2007 report on poverty and hunger, one of the documents under consideration at the Council, concludes that there has been global progress in access to education and health care, he notes  that children living in rural areas in developing countries are still affected by drug abuse, alcoholism, crime and environmental degradation in addition to health problems and malnutrition prevalent in urban areas. He also stressed the importance of assistance[?] programs to improve this situation. Children's rights and human rights in general, must be respected in all health programs for them to be effective. States alone have this obligation and are able to ensure that all those delivering health care and services respect them as well.
Several countries are aware of this obligation and have specifically expressed their concern for children’s health. In Ethiopia, according to the State Minister of Finance and Economic Development of Ethiopia, Ato Mekonnen Manyazewal, Ethiopian programs are placing an emphasis on family planning and vaccinations. A state minister from Sudan said that Sudan would like to create initiatives to reduce malaria and tuberculosis, major child killers, but first needs international help. In Brazil, quality education is seen as the spring board from which they hope to improve child health, but they too need greater international[?] participation. They are looking inward to see how their state can pull the resources together in this effort. Many States made similar statements during this segment of ECOSOC, but most need further encouragement and material support.

In an effort to hold governments responsible for the health of their children, the NGO group for the CRC’s Subgroup  the Child’s right to Health is doing its part. In February, the Subgroup met with members of the Committee on the rights of the child to present some important, emerging, and underreported issues that have an important impact on the child’s health. The observations were the result of research on documents, including the CRC, and from the ICESCR, UN Special Rapporteur, UNICEF, WHO, Governments, NGO reports to the CRC Committee, and the Committee’s own concluding observations. Plans for the next stage of the project were also discussed with the Committee, WHO and some National NGO coalitions to be addressed to a full range of stakeholders.
As part of this second stage, the child Health team has developed a questionnaire based on the project’s preliminary findings. This questionnaire is being shared with National NGO coalitions in order to solicit their comments and suggestions before the development of a final version. In the third phase, the Subgroup will develop a first draft of guidelines based on the results of the previous two phases. These guidelines are for the purpose of improving the quality of the entire reporting process and broadening the scope of coverage of the child’s right to health by NGOs in their reports. It also aims to encourage the National coalitions to strengthen their collaboration with relevant health-related organisations and professionals in the preparation of the NGOs report to UN monitoring bodies. 

This modest initiative is only a beginning and we call on participants to help us go forward.