Seventy-five years after the United Nations’ historic ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the global commitment to protect the fundamental human rights of all people is under grave threat. The IAS-International AIDS Society – and Lancet Commission on Health and Human Rights was launched in 2021 to study the current state of health and human rights and develop recommendations to reverse the recent backtracking from this commitment.

Following the release of the commission’s final report in March 2024, this session will explore the alarming deterioration of human rights over the past two decades in many parts of the world and the serious implications of this trend for human health, particularly the health of the most vulnerable. Through examples such as the failure to achieve international solidarity in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent spate of restrictive laws governing sexuality and reproductive health, and the inequitable costs of climate change, panellists will examine the social, political and environmental factors that are undermining the centrality of human rights and human dignity, and what actions are needed to update and refocus the world’s commitment to these principles.

This session will explore:

• Why was a Commission needed on Health and Human Rights? Why now?

• How can we make progress on the recommendations from the Commission? What more needs to be done?

• How can we strengthen the human right to health in national policies, systems, to achieve health for all?