A/HRC/36/20 13. In conclusion, he appealed to the international community to assist Liberia in developing its health infrastructure and improving the capacity of its public health workforce. 14. Dr. López outlined the experience of Cuba in establishing its national health system, pursuant to article 50 of the Cuban Constitution, which was geared towards a single and public health system model that was free of charge and accessible. It covered 100 per cent of the Cuban population without any form of discrimination. There was also an immunization programme that protected against 13 diseases, with eight of the vaccines being nationally produced. Cuba had eradicated polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps, whooping cough, rubella, meningeal tuberculosis and mother-to-child transmission of HIV. 15. Cuba had helped other countries to realize the right to health by helping to strengthen health systems that were already geared towards achieving universal health coverage. Cuba recognized health as an essential and core human right that was central to public policies, and wished to continue its cooperation with other countries in that regard. 16. Dr. Ren underscored the global consensus that universal health coverage should not be viewed as a distant goal, but as a fundamental step in realizing the right to health. He described how much had been done to help develop core public health capacity to prevent, detect and respond to public health emergencies. Particular achievements of WHO included the adoption by the World Health Assembly of the WHO Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health. He further emphasized that expenditure on the health and social workforce should be regarded as an investment, and not merely as a cost. 17. HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases had a continuing and far-reaching impact on people’s lives. In addition to the high mortality rate, they caused disabilities, stigmatization and exclusion from society. Moreover, in many countries, those responsible for responding to the challenges were facing major financial and infrastructure challenges. There were clear capacity shortages in most areas of public health, including national disease programme management, programme planning, epidemiology, monitoring and surveillance, and research. Capacity-strengthening was therefore critical to continuing to save lives and expand access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment. 18. Dr. Ren further underlined how efforts to strengthen health systems should be guided by the human rights principles of equity, non-discrimination, transparency, accountability and participation. The Sustainable Development Goals had reframed the overall context of global health and opened up space for deeper discussion on the right to health. 19. Mr. Gong highlighted how the Government of China had prioritized people’s health by improving legislation and regulations, including those on immunization and the control of communicable diseases, public health emergencies and HIV/AIDS. China had targeted disease prevention and health education, infant and maternal health and mental health, enhanced the accessibility of public health institutions, engaged in capacity-building for health-care personnel and improved the level and the quality of services. China was also strengthening education, fostering healthy behaviours and physical fitness and controlling the use of tobacco and alcohol. 20. Ms. Kickbusch highlighted the interdisciplinary and intersectoral nature of public health and its centrality to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. She emphasized that many determinants of health required a human rights-based public health strategy, and that, in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals, the health of people could not be separated from the health of the planet. Public health strategies must be at the forefront of integrated strategies to address climate change and environmental factors, such as air pollution. 21. In a global consumer society, the right to health included the need to address the commercial determinants of health. Those included products, marketing and environments harmful to health. Public health needed a pricing policy, transparent information and clear labelling. The health community had made tremendous strides in the framework of tobacco control, and it was now important to address other risk factors for non-communicable diseases in similar ways. One example was the introduction of a sugar tax by some 4