A/70/213 The source of right to health obligations 37. Besides defining health, the WHO Constitution also recognized that the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental human right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognized that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family and that motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and protection (art. 25). These original international sources of the right to health emphasize that health is a broad concept, covering not only physical but also mental health and not only disease but also well-being, all of which encompass the healthy development of children. 38. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other international human rights treaties recognize the right to health and give rise to binding legal obligations on States parties to respect, protect and fulfil that right. 39. The treaties set out entitlements and freedoms, assign duties, provide a legally binding framework and demand accountability. They demand particular efforts, mostly by States, to address inequality and discrimination, focusing on the most marginalized young children. The right to survival and development and its relationship to health and other human rights 40. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the links between health, survival and development: article 12 on the right to health obligates States parties to take steps necessary for, among other things, the “provision for the reduction of the stillbirth rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development of the child”. In other words, in the Covenant, development is part of the right to health. Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the right to health of the child and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. This approach underlines that the spectrum of essential health-related services should not be limited to medications and vaccines, but should also include effective public health and psychosocial interventions. 41. In contrast, the Convention separates the right to health (art. 24) and the right to survival and development (art. 6). However, there is no doubt that these articles are fundamentally linked. For example, article 24 includes a range of obligations that are inseparable from ensuring survival and development, such as diminishing infant and child mortality, providing medical assistance, combating disease and malnutrition, ensuring appropriate pre- and postnatal health care for mothers, providing access to information on child health, developing preventive health care and guidance for parents and abolishing harmful traditional pract ices. The right to survival and development can only be implemented in a holistic manner through the enforcement of other rights contained in the Convention, such as the right to health. 42. Other rights relevant to survival and development that are also interconnected and interrelated with the rights to health and life include the rights of young children to be registered at birth; to education; play; a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development; adequate housing; adequate nutrition; social security; water and sanitation; and the right to be free from all forms of violence. The present report focuses on the right to health, including aspects of children’s development that fall within the right to health. 10/25 15-12535