A/62/214 policy to determine whether or not a full-scale right-to-health impact assessment is necessary; (b) to prepare an assessment plan and distribute information on the policy and the plan to all stakeholders; (c) to collect information on potential right-to-health impacts of the proposed policy; (d) to prepare a draft report comparing the potential impacts with the State’s legal obligations arising from the right to health; (e) to distribute the draft report and engage stakeholders in evaluating the options; and (f) to prepare the final report detailing the final decision, the rationale for the choices made and a framework for implementation and evaluation. 42. Follow-up activities are proposed in the final section of the report. The Special Rapporteur is promoting the study during his country missions and it has already been presented at some workshops. Subject to further funding, it would also be helpful to distribute the report more widely for discussion. Later in 2007, the Special Rapporteur will present the report at the eighth International Health Impact Assessment Conference. 43. Further work is required to determine whether mainstreaming human rights, such as the right to health, into other existing impact assessments is feasible, including case studies with different types of impact assessments. The practical tools, such as checklists, interview guidelines and charts for connecting impacts to human rights obligations (all of which are found in the report), also need further development. There is a need to encourage Governments and impact assessment professionals to follow rights-based approaches to impact assessment and policymaking. 44. In conclusion, human rights impact assessments are an aid to equitable, inclusive, robust and sustainable policymaking. They are one way of ensuring that the right to health, especially of marginalized groups, including the poor, is given due weight in all national and international policymaking processes. From the right-to-health perspective, an impact assessment methodology is a key feature of a health system. Without such a methodology, a Government cannot know whether its proposed policies, programmes and projects are on target to progressively realize the right to the highest attainable standard of health, as required by international human rights law. IV. Water, sanitation and the right to the highest attainable standard of health 45. The health of populations, communities and individuals requires more than medical care. Equally important are the social, cultural, economic, political and other conditions that make people need medical care in the first place. 14 A WHO commission is currently studying the social determinants of health, such as gender, poverty and social exclusion. 15 Other determinants of health include access to water, sanitation, nutrition, housing and education. __________________ 14 15 10 See preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization and R. Beaglehole, “Overview and framework”, in Roger Detels, ed., Oxford Textbook of Public Health (Oxford University Press, fourth edition, 2002). Information about the Commission can be found on the WHO website at www.who.int/social_determinants/en/. 07-45379