A/HRC/41/34 stakeholders to reflect on how biomedical dominance has led to overmedicalization in the health sector, particularly in mental health, diverting resources away from a rights-based approach to the promotion of mental health. The Special Rapporteur welcomes a diversity in terminology, which can promote different approaches to mental health that are equally important. II. Promotion of mental health: a population-wide human right, not a luxury A. A holistic framework for understanding obligations to promote mental health 11. In the WHO Constitution, health is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. This expansive understanding of health, in particular of mental health, is reaffirmed in a range of international instruments and political declarations, including the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Special Rapporteur reminds stakeholders that the right to health is not the right to be healthy, but a right to both conditions and services that are conducive to a life of dignity and equality, and nondiscrimination in relation to health. 12. Interdependence of rights is a foundational principle for a human rights-based approach to mental health. Attaining positive mental health and well-being is a product of, and a path towards, the full realization of the rights enshrined in international human rights law. 13. Giving effect to the full range of human rights is a core determinant of mental health. The relationship between the right to health and other human rights is indivisible: health enables the attainment of other rights, and certain rights promote the attainment of the right to health. Although the right to health is a social and economic right, that does not undermine the importance of civil and political rights for mental health promotion. Measures to enable everyone to participate actively and meaningfully in decision-making and civil action, and State accountability, are essential to the realization of mental health. 14. The Special Rapporteur remains concerned that certain rights that are vital to mental health, including the right to liberty, freedom from torture and the right to housing, are too often applied in isolation (see A/73/216). This narrow selection of human rights fails to illuminate the holistic experience of individuals and societies, especially those left furthest behind by existing mental health services. This is not a rights-based approach to mental health. Selectivity in understanding and responding to mental health does not adequately capture the grossly unmet need for rights-based action on the determinants of mental health. The systemic failures caused by such selectivity are illustrated by contemporary experiences of persons with serious mental health conditions. In many countries, these individuals are deprived of basic social and economic rights and are underhoused, underemployed, have little access to education, and no access to adequate or appropriate health services. It is equally unacceptable that, even when they receive services, including health care, food and shelter, such persons are deprived of their civil rights and freedoms when they are forced to live in closed psychiatric institutions. 15. Placing the right to health at the centre of rights-based action on the promotion of mental health ensures the inclusion of unique elements of the right to health: the obligation to promote and protect the determinants of health, international cooperation and assistance, the progressive realization of rights and allocation of the maximum available resources for health care. 16. In its general comment No. 14 (2000) on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights set out a list of key determinants of health in support of an expansive understanding of health. The list is, however, not exhaustive in its nature and must be interpreted in the light of evolving norms 4