Our submission with SATHI is related to the Right to Health and Development Finance Institutions.

The Global Initiative for Economic Social and Cultural Rights and Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (SATHI) have submitted input for the upcoming report of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights for its upcoming report concerning development finance institutions. The report will be presented at the 53rd Session of the Human Rights Council.

Development Financial Institutions are unique investors that support private investments in low- and middle-income countries for the realisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They play an ever-prominent role in official development assistance (ODA) and they are increasingly leveraging for the growth of private businesses in several low- and middle-income countries.

In the submssion, GI-ESCR and SATHI analyse States’ obligations to protect the right to health in the context of development finance.

When private actors provide services in areas where the public sector has been strong, they should be “subject to strict regulations that impose on them so-called ‘public services obligations’: (…) private healthcare providers should be prohibited from denying access to affordable and adequate services, treatments or information.

The submission also explores the connection between health and ecosystems. It emphasizes that all health sector interventions financed by DFIs should adopt adequate human rights and environmental safeguards to prevent potential adverse impacts on people and ecosystems. This includes adopting measures to ensure health interventions are aligned with the Paris Agreement, as well as with international human rights treaties to contribute to a just transition to a sustainable and climate-resilient future.

GI-ESCR sent this submission to contribute to normative development and interpretation of human rights law on the right to health and private actors. To know more, please look at our work on the right to health and private actors.