The People's Health Movement in association with Medact and Doctors for Human Rights has prepared a report on human rights and health in the UK.
This report has been submitted to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The Committee has responsibility for reviewing whether countries comply to their committments under the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The government of every country that has ratified this Covenant has to submit a report to the Committee, about once every five years, to say how it is working towards fulfilling its human rights obligations under the Covenant.
Meanwhile NGOs can also submit reports to be read by the Committee in parallel to the government's official report. On the basis of the information obtained, the Committee makes recommendations, called 'Concluding Observations' to the government making suggestions about how its human rights perfomance can be improved. The People's Health Movement report focuses on the UK goverments obligations under the Right to Health and scrutinises its performance. It considers areas such as the health of migrants and asylum seekers; the health and healthcare of older people; mental health; health care in detention; maternity care; NHS reforms, and Human Rights education for health professionals.
