On 23 September 2019, world leaders adopted a high-level United Nations Political Declaration on universal health coverage (UHC) at the United Nations General Assembly. In adopting the declaration, U.N. Member States have committed to advance towards UHC by investing in four major areas around primary health care.
These include mechanisms to ensure no one suffers financial hardship because they have had to pay for healthcare out of their own pockets and implementing high-impact health interventions to combat diseases and protect women’s and children’s health. In addition, countries must strengthen health workforce and infrastructure and reinforce governance capacity. They will report back on their progress to the U.N. General Assembly in 2023.
The International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) published a Technical Brief which explains how UHC can be both an opportunity and a concern for the health and rights of people who use drugs.
Through sustained diplomacy and negotiation at the political level and strong and concerted advocacy from civil society and communities, UHC is now prominent in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The principle of the SDGs is ‘leave no one behind’; this should be taken to mean that those on the fringes of society are accorded the same rights to health and wellbeing as the most privileged. People who use drugs, along with other criminalised and marginalised populations, clearly fit into this category.
To read the Technical Brief, follow this link>>>