A/71/304 (b) Resource allocation should prioritize equitable distribution and access to health facilities, goods and services and not disproportionately favour health services for privileged populations, such as civil servants or those in large urban areas (target 1.a and Goal 3); (c) Resource allocation should ensure that the most vulnerable and marginalized have access to an adequate supply of safe and potable water (Goals 3 and 6). Transforming legal and policy environments 45. Discriminatory laws, policies and practices outside the health space can have a direct impact on the realization of the right to health. 21 For example, poor people are often excluded from access to health services, as well as from underlying determinants of health, such as social housing and other social services, not (only) because they are poor but (also) because they lack security of land tenure or an official legal identity. Criminalized populations may be barred as a matter of law or policy from social housing or other social services. Persons with disabilities may be denied legal capacity and subject to medical interventions or institutionalization without their consent. 46. Equally, such environments exacerbate barriers to health services and result in a range of adverse consequences for poor and marginalized populations. For example, laws criminalizing drug use may drive people who use drugs from life saving harm reduction services (target 3.3/3.5). 22 Restrictive and punitive drug policies can deprive people suffering from pain of their right to palliative care. Laws criminalizing abortion or restricting the provision of sexual and reproductive information or services put women and girls at increased ri sk of pregnancy-related complications and maternal mortality (target 3.2/3.7/Goal 5) (see A/HRC/32/32). 47. Repressive laws can also restrict space for civil society actors to operate, thus hindering efforts towards the realization of basic rights and freedoms. Laws prohibiting non-governmental organizations and human rights defenders from working without official registration and limiting or altogether banning access to foreign funding have chilled the efforts to promote the rights of marginalized populations across the globe. 48. In order to overcome inequalities and discrimination relating to health, the right to health requires that States take immediate and comprehensive legal measures, including through the repeal of discriminatory laws, and adopt robust legal protections of equality and non-discrimination (Goal 5 and target 10.3). 23 States should also adopt adequately resourced national health policies that give particular attention to all marginalized groups, and regularly review progress. National health equity strategies that encompass such an approach can help to __________________ 21 22 23 12/26 Manjima Bhattacharjya and others, “The right(s) evidence: sex work, violence and HIV in Asia — a multi-country qualitative study” (United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers, 2015). Judith Levine and others, “Risks, rights and health” (New York, UNDP, 2012); Steffanie A. Strathdee and others, “HIV and risk environment for injecting drug users: the past, present and future”, The Lancet, vol. 376, No. 9737 (July 2010). Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 14. 16-13597