A/HRC/36/20 I. Introduction 1. Pursuant to its resolution 32/16, the Human Rights Council convened, on 8 June 2017, a panel discussion to exchange experiences and practices on promoting the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health by enhancing capacity-building in public health. In the same resolution, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was requested to prepare a summary report of the discussions for submission to the Council at its thirty-sixth session. The discussion was also broadcast live and archived at http://webtv.un.org. 2. The panellists were: the Deputy Minister of Health and Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, Tolbert Nyenswah; the National Director of Public Health at the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba, Lorenzo Somarriba López; the Assistant Director General for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization (WHO), Ren Minghui; the Deputy Director General, Department of Law and Legislation, National Health and Family Planning Commission, China, Gong Xiangguang; and the Director of the Global Health Centre and Adjunct Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Ilona Kickbusch. The discussion was moderated by the Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko. 3. The panel discussion was opened by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Director General of WHO, Margaret Chan, gave a keynote statement. The panellists then made brief opening statements that were followed by a debate chaired by the President of the Human Rights Council, Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli. States, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other observers were encouraged to intervene through questions, comments and the sharing of good practices, challenges and recommendations on the way forward. II. Summary of the discussion A. Opening statement 4. In her opening remarks, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights emphasized the right to health as the foundation for all human rights, for education and work and for a life lived in dignity. The right to health was an enabler of all other rights and depended on the rights to non-discrimination, information, physical and mental integrity and life. Moreover, the enjoyment of rights to and through health was essential for inclusive and sustainable development. 5. The Deputy High Commissioner underscored the importance of supporting the sexual and reproductive maturing of women and girls and ensuring that it did not come at a cost. The giving of life should not be a threat to life — yet for millions that was not the case, when States failed in their obligations. The onset of puberty should not be a doorway to an onslaught against a girl’s physical and mental integrity through child marriage, sexual exploitation and abuse, unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. Yet, owing to the lack of enjoyment of their rights to education, protection and information, such was the reality for millions of girls. The threats to the right to health were not only the result of inaction or failure to invest, but the product of an active rollback — deliberate and intentional policies that moved away from the human rights to and through health. That trend was particularly evident in the attempts to roll back the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and the associated human rights, with discriminatory, selective and devastating consequences for women and girls, which imposed unaffordable costs on their communities. 6. Other factors undermining health included unprecedented rates of urbanization, pollution, increasing climate instability, famine, environmental degradation, conflicts 2