UN expert for making right to health a reality for all

Governments must do more to guarantee universal and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and guarantee the enjoyment of the right to life and health of billions of people in developing countries, a UN expert told the Human Rights Council Wednesday.

"The pandemic's disproportionate impact on Black people, indigenous peoples and other ethnically, religiously and racially persecuted groups, such as the Rohingya and Roma, is rooted in historical and current systems of oppression, systemic discrimination and racism," Tlaleng Mofokeng, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, told the Council.

These factors also underpin the lack of universal access to Covid-19 vaccines for the poor in the global South, she said.

Mofokeng, who took up her duties on August 1 last year, said, "My priorities include global health related to the Covid-19 pandemic, racism and the right to health and health equity."

The Special Rapporteur, while presenting her annual report to the Council, said she would also focus on sexuality, gender-based violence and femicide during her tenure.

"Sexual health is fundamental to the overall health and wellbeing of individuals, couples and families," Mofokeng said. "Dignity and bodily autonomy are central to sexual and reproductive health rights."

"It is a grave injustice that one in three women report physical and or sexual partner violence, and that lesbian and transgender women experience homophobic rape and other forms of sexual violence," she said, "These serious human rights violations also have a heavy toll on their physical and mental health."