It is worth reading this report that will soon be presented to the new UN Human Rights Council. The moderator was especially struck by the following two paragraphs:

53. WHO has a critical role to play. As a priority, the Secretariat should develop, through broad ranging consultations with member States and other stakeholders, a strategy setting out its mandate, role and priority activities in the area of health and human rights, including national capacity-building. This strategy should be submitted to, and approved by, the WHO governing bodies. Such a strategy will provide WHO with a solid institutional platform for its work in this area of increasing promise and interest. In turn, this will lead to a more systematic application of a human rights-based approach in countries.

54. For their part, those already committed to health-related rights should not overstate the contribution of human rights; after all, human rights do not provide magic solutions to complex health problems. Nonetheless, human rights have a constructive contribution to make - and this contribution cannot be realized without the active support and engagement of large numbers of health professionals.