The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has participated in the open call for consultation launched by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) regarding its upcoming ‘General Recommendation n°37 on racial discrimination and the right to health under Article 5 (e)(iv) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).’  

GI-ESCR’s submission clarifies the normative framework applicable to private actors in health, drawing on our previous work. GI-ESCR has also discussed the importance of paying attention to the different types of healthcare actors within a system, going beyond a simple public-private division and adding nuances to the analysis, drawing on research from an upcoming paper that we will publish.

For the submission, GI-ESCR has elaborated on its report ‘Private actors in health services: towards a human rights impact assessment framework’, jointly published with the University of Essex and ISER, which provides a first review of the existing standards on the right to health in the context of private actors’ involvement. Likewise, GI-ESCR has included insights from its empirical policy briefs and reports on the challenges posed by healthcare commercialisation for the enjoyment of the right to health in Italy, Kenya and Nigeria during the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can know more about our work on the right to health here.