A/HRC/36/20 countries and cities. Taxation was also central to financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 22. People’s right to health, healthy lives and increased well-being at all ages could only be achieved by promoting health through all the Sustainable Development Goals, not only Goal 3, and by engaging the whole of society in the process. That required sufficient political will to implement transformative, practical, high-impact and evidence-based strategies which, in turn, meant decisive action on all determinants of health and empowerment to enable people to increase control over their health. D. Interventions by representatives of Member States, observer States and other observers 23. During the ensuing discussion, statements were made by representatives of Bahrain, Botswana, China (on its own behalf and that of Algeria, Brazil, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Pakistan and South Africa), El Salvador, France, Georgia, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan (on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation), Paraguay, Portugal (on its own behalf and that of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries), Qatar, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Tunisia (on behalf of the African Group), United States of America, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) and the European Union. 24. Representatives of the following NGOs also contributed to the discussion: Amnesty International, International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, Le Pont, Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, Tourner La Page and Verein Südwind Entwicklungspolitik. 25. Many of the participants underscored the importance of the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, both as a fundamental human right in itself and as a means of realizing other human rights. They also emphasized that the cross-cutting nature of the right to health was reflected in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which recognized the centrality of health and well-being to sustainable development. Goal 3 on health could not be attained without achieving all other goals. 26. They also drew attention to the many challenges facing countries. Delegates noted that over 400 million people currently lacked access to essential health services, and more than 100 million people fell into poverty every year because they were spending more than they could afford on health care. Delegates raised the problems of ensuring health care for the increasing number of people on the move, such as migrants and refugees, the cost of medicines and the lack of resources. People in conflict or occupied areas were denied access to medical care, including through restrictions in their freedom of movement, blocking of the supply of medicines and attacks against aid workers. Participants asked what the United Nations could do in cases where State and non-State actors prevented people from accessing medicines and destroyed health infrastructure. Participants also highlighted how public health emergencies could erode national systems, with particular reference to the Ebola epidemic, which in Sierra Leone had overwhelmed the health-care system when it infected more than 14,000 people and took the lives of nearly 4,000 in the country. 27. Many participants reiterated the fact that States bore the primary responsibility to improve the public health system, ensure universal and equal access to public health services and tackle the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health, which included discrimination, stigmatization, violence and inequality. They underlined the need for a human rights-based approach in addressing those issues and ensuring universal health care, for all including migrants and refugees. One delegate also drew attention to the need to respect human rights in the context of mental health, which entailed eliminating all forms of discrimination, violence, stigmatization, segregation and forced treatment. One NGO particularly highlighted the impact of discrimination, prejudice, stigmatization and violence on both health and access to health-care services, medicines and information. One representative further stressed the importance of accountability and observed that health facilities often had inadequate procedures to enable patients to raise concerns about their 5