Access to Health as a Human Right: From Geneva’s Treaty Bodies to Realisation on the Ground

Geneva is home to the core of the international human rights system: the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies and the Special Rapporteurs. Yet despite decades of expanding frameworks, realising the rights to health, food and water, which the UN recognises as closely linked, remains a challenge in many contexts. 

This session explores how to bridge the gap between recognising these rights and realising them in practice. Country and institutional voices will share concrete experiences of turning the right to health into reality, through legislation, the courts, civil society action and international cooperation. They will reflect on the factors that enable progress, the challenges that remain, and how different actors can work together to advance these rights.