A/HRC/23/59
I. Background
1.
In its resolution 7/29 on the rights of the child, the Human Rights Council decided to
dedicate, at a minimum, an annual full-day meeting to a discussion on different specific
themes on the rights of the child, including the identification of challenges in the realization
of the rights of the child. In its resolution 19/37, the Council decided to focus its next
annual full-day meeting on the right of the child to the highest attainable standard of health.
In the same resolution, the Council also invited the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a report on that issue (A/HRC/22/31) and to
present it to the Council at its twenty-second session, to inform the annual day of discussion
on children’s rights.
2.
Since the adoption of resolution 7/29, the Human Rights Council has held a number
of thematic discussions on the rights of the child:
“20 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: achievements and challenges
for its full realization” (tenth session)
“The fight against sexual violence against children” (thirteenth session)
“Protection and promotion of the rights of children working and or living on the
street” (sixteenth session)
“Children and the administration of justice” (nineteenth session)
“The right of the child to the highest attainable standard of health” (twenty-second
session)
3.
The annual full-day meeting on the right of the child to the highest attainable
standard of health, held on 7 March 2013, provided a significant opportunity to discuss the
challenges to achieving the full realization of the universal right to health. Discussions
focused on strengthening the implementation of the right of the child to health and on
accountability mechanisms that needed to be in place to ensure compliance of State with
their relevant obligations. Emphasis was also placed on the social determinants of health
and the interdependence between the right to health and other rights enshrined in the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. The full-day meeting consisted of two panels: one
focusing on challenges to achieving the full realization of the right of the child to health;
another on the implementation of the right of the child to health and accountability
mechanisms.
4.
The full-day meeting discussion was chaired by the President of the Human Rights
Council. The discussions of the panel were moderated by the Editor in Chief of The Lancet,
Richard Horton. Child representatives from Bolivia (Plurinational State of) and Haiti also
participated in the annual full-day meeting.
II. Challenges in achieving the full realization of the right of the
child to health
5.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights opened the annual
meeting. A video produced by World Vision and Save the Children, entitled “Our health,
our rights, our voices”, was then shown. Panellists in the morning session included the
Assistant Director-General for Family, Women and Children’s Health at the World Health
Organization (WHO), Flavia Bustreo; the Director of the Programme on Children’s Health
at the Ministry of Public Health of Uruguay, Gustavo Giachetto; the Secretary-General of
Terre des Hommes International Federation, Ignacio Packer; Tama, a child representative
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