Our UN team assesses the damage to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Today is World Health Day, and this year's theme is "My Health, My Rights". In Gaza, however, access to health care has become a luxury.
April 7 also marks the 76th anniversary of the World Health Organization. Seventy-six years ago, after the deadliest and most devastating war in human history, the nations of the world came together to form WHO with the aim of promoting health, keeping the world safe and serving vulnerable populations, so that everyone, everywhere, can achieve the highest levels of health and well-being.
On 7 April 1948, the Constitution of the World Health Organization entered into force: a treaty between the nations of the world that recognized that health was not only a fundamental human right, but also essential for peace and security.
My health, my rights
Around the world, the right to health of millions of people is increasingly threatened. Disease and disasters are the leading causes of death and disability. Conflict is destroying human lives, causing death, suffering, hunger and psychological distress. Burning fossil fuels is exacerbating the climate crisis while depriving us of our right to breathe clean air, with indoor and outdoor air pollution claiming a life every 5 seconds.
WHO's Commission on the Economics of Health for All found that at least 140 countries recognize health as a human right in their constitutions. However, countries have not passed laws and put them into practice to ensure that their people have access to health services. This means that at least 4.5 billion people – more than half of the world's population – did not receive adequate coverage of essential health services by 2021.
To address these challenges, the theme of World Health Day 2024 is "My Health, My Rights", which aims to advocate for the right of everyone, everywhere, to quality health services, education and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent work and environmental conditions, and to be free from discrimination.
WHO recommends that governments adopt legislation to realize the right to health in all sectors, reorient health systems around primary health care, take action to redress health inequalities, and ensure accessible, acceptable and high-quality health services for all.
The people of Gaza are denied their right to health
This year's World Health Day coincides six months into the conflict in Gaza. At a time when people around the world are celebrating the theme "My health, my rights", the civilian population of Gaza is completely unable to realize this fundamental right. In Gaza, access to health care has become a luxury, and the ability of WHO and its partners to help is constantly disrupted and hampered.
Prior to the current round of conflict, Gaza had 36 major hospitals providing medical care to more than 2 million people. There are currently only 10 hospitals that are still functioning to some extent, providing extremely limited services. The backbone of the Gaza Strip's health system, Shifa Hospital and Nasser Medical Centre, have been destroyed. Prior to the latest siege, WHO and its partners had recently made efforts to restore essential health care to Shifa Hospital, but now these efforts have been in vain.
A possible Israeli military invasion of Rafah will only lead to a further reduction in access to health care and unimaginable health consequences, WHO said. Hospitals cannot be militarized, abused, or attacked. The systematic destruction of health care must stop.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said famine was on the horizon, the disease was spreading and trauma was mounting. WHO calls on all parties to act now to protect the remaining health facilities in Gaza, to protect health care workers and humanitarian aid workers, to open more land crossings to allow supplies into northern Gaza, to reduce the conflict, to ensure unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza, and to cease fire immediately.