GI-ESCR exposes the impact of healthcare commercialisation at the 47th Session of the Human Rights Council | Oral statement

Today 24 June 2021, Rossella De Falco, GI-ESCR’s Programme Officer on the right to health, delivered an oral statement at the interactive dialogue on strategic priorities of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng during the 47th Session of the Human Rights Council , to expose the impacts of healthcare commercialisation on the right to health.

In our statement we welcome the report of the Special Rapporteur, especially for her consideration of health-service privatisation amongst the priority areas of her mandate. We recalled the central role of strong, high-quality, public healthcare systems in fulfilling the right to health during the COVID-19 crisis. Meanwhile, the pandemic also tragically showed that healthcare commercialisation can kill. As our recent report shows, healthcare privatisation left Lombardy, one of Italy’s wealthiest regions, utterly unprepared to deal with a pandemic. Meanwhile, in India, Kenya and Uganda, several reports have shown that commercial private providers used the pandemic as a business opportunity.

In this context, jointly with 8 other organisations, we expressed concerns last May that a report by a WHO advisory group alarmingly appears to promote commercialisation of healthcare, despite evidence of how privatisation can undermine the right to health. Commercial logics also hinder universal access to vaccines, even though humanity depends on it.

Privatised medical knowledge is not the only way: open science is possible, as shown by the experience of the WHO’s Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS).  

The human rights impact of healthcare commercialisation urgently deserve greater attention on the global agenda. The work of the special rapporteur on the right to health could be game-changing. Amidst this tragedy, we can work together to build resilient public healthcare systems to realise the right to health for all.

Watch the statement here below