A/HRC/32/32
health, mental health, palliative care, unintentional and intentional injuries, violence, and
health-compromising behaviours that may begin during adolescence.
28.
Rather than only setting up separate interventions and facilities for adolescents,
efforts should be made to ensure that adolescents receive adequate attention in all policies,
strategies and programmes that are relevant to them. Health systems should be designed
and services should be delivered in a way that respects the right to health and other related
rights of adolescents, in accordance with their evolving capacities. This can only be
achieved by guaranteeing the right of adolescents to be heard and to contribute to the
planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of services.
29.
The right to health gives rise to an obligation of States to ensure the availability,
accessibility, acceptability and quality of health services, goods and facilities. States must
ensure that sufficient health facilities, goods, services and programmes are available to
meet the needs of adolescents, especially the most marginalized.
30.
Services, goods and facilities must be accessible to all adolescents without
discrimination on any grounds. This includes access to information on their health, as well
on the nature, availability, location, costs and timing of services. Services must be
physically accessible, including to adolescents in remote or rural communities and
adolescents with disabilities, and be located in spaces that provide adolescents with
confidence that their specific health-care needs will be met.
31.
Services and goods must be affordable, considering that adolescents rarely have
financial means or autonomy, and accessible, directly and without parental support. In
practice, it should be recalled that user fees can obstruct access to services.
32.
States should develop a core package of interventions for adolescents, including to
sexual and reproductive health services, that are available free of charge. Services must be
designed and delivered in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities, developmental
needs and the best interests of adolescents. They must respect adolescents’ right to privacy
and confidentiality, address different cultural needs and expectations and comply with
ethical standards. Services must be sensitive to gender and lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex status, they must be non-judgemental regarding adolescents’
personal characteristics, lifestyle choices or life circumstances and they must treat all
adolescents with dignity and respect, consistent with their status as rights holders.
33.
All health-related services must be appropriate and of good quality, with skilled
personnel who have been adequately trained, in particular on adolescents’ right to health.
Equipment and drugs must be appropriate for adolescents and regular assessments of the
quality of health-care services undertaken.
34.
The health sector should take the lead in development plans for adolescents’ right to
health. However, intersectoral collaboration is vital, including among the education and
social protection sectors, and right-to-health considerations must be integrated into relevant
policies and strategies.
C.
Underlying and social determinants of health
35.
The right to health is not only a right to health care, but a right to underlying and
social determinants of health. Social determinants are the conditions in which people are
born, grow, live, work and age that influence their health. The evidence overwhelmingly
shows that the strongest determinants of adolescent health worldwide are structural factors
8
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents