E/C.12/GC/22 right to life or security, and in certain circumstances can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. 12 III. Normative content of the right to sexual and reproductive health A. Elements of the right to sexual and reproductive health 11. The right to sexual and reproductive health is an integral part of the right of everyone to the highest attainable physical and mental health. Following the elaboration in the Committee’s general comment No. 14, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care contains the four interrelated and essential elements described below.13 Availability 12. An adequate number of functioning health-care facilities, services, goods and programmes should be available to provide the population with the fullest possible range of sexual and reproductive health care. This includes ensuring the availability of facilities, goods and services for the guarantee of the underlying determinants of the realization of the right to sexual and reproductive health, such as safe and potable drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities, hospitals and clinics. 13. Ensuring the availability of trained medical and professional personnel and skilled providers who are trained to perform the full range of sexual and reproductive health-care services is a critical component of ensuring availability. 14 Essential medicines should also be available, including a wide range of contraceptive methods, such as condoms and emergency contraception, medicines for abortion and for post-abortion care, and medicines, including generic medicines, for the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and HIV.15 14. Unavailability of goods and services due to ideologically based policies or practices, such as the refusal to provide services based on conscience, must not be a barrier to accessing services. An adequate number of health-care providers willing and able to 12 See Human Rights Committee Communication No. 1153/2003, Karen Noelia Llantoy Huamán v. Peru, views adopted on 24 October 2005; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women communication No. 17/2008, Alyne da Silva Pimentel v. Brazil, views adopted on 25 July 2011; CAT/C/SLV/CO/2, para. 23; and CAT/C/NIC/CO/1, para. 16. 13 In paragraph 12 of general comment No. 14, the Committee defined normative elements of state obligations to guarantee the right to health. These standards also apply to the underlying determinants, or the preconditions of health, including access to sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health information. See also Committee on the Rights of the Child general comment No. 15, which applied those norms to adolescents. States parties should provide health services that are sensitive to the particular needs and human rights of all adolescents. 14 See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 14, para. 12 (a); and A/HRC/21/22 and Corr.1 and 2, para. 20. 15 Essential medicines are defined by WHO as “those that satisfy the priority health care needs of the population” and that “are intended to be available within the context of functioning health systems at all times in adequate amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality, and at a price the individual and community can afford”. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 14; and WHO, Model List of Essential Medicines, 19th ed. (2015). 4