A/68/297 III. Availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health facilities, goods and services 17. Availability, accessibility and acceptability of quality health facilities, goods and services are critical in times of conflict. A functioning health system, including health-care workers, is vital to the enjoyment of the right to health of people affected by and/or involved in conflict. A. Non-discrimination and medical impartiality 18. The right to health framework obliges States, including public health-care workers, to ensure access to health facilities, goods and services, without discrimination. Refusal to treat persons wounded in conflict or providing preferential treatment to people of the same allegiance constitutes a direct violation of the right to health. 19. Moreover, acceptability requires health facilities, goods and services to be in line with medical ethics. This includes provision of impartial care and services by health professionals to people affected by conflict. 15 Medical impartiality in treating wounded people is also mandated by international humanitarian law. 16 Therefore, health professionals have obligations vis-à-vis provision of health services to people affected and/or involved in conflict. 20. The right to health framework requires that prisoners and detainees be allowed equal access to health facilities, goods and services. International humanitarian law also requires prisoners and detainees to be treated humanely with access to medical care. 17 Yet in many conflict situations, prisoners and detainees are restricted from accessing health facilities, goods and services. This contravenes the non-discriminatory protections afforded to them under the right to health. 18 B. Legal barriers 21. States may enact laws that impose a duty on health-care workers to report persons who may have committed a crime. However, some States have enacted laws and policies restricting or criminalizing provision of medical care to people opposing the State, such as political protestors 19 and non-State armed groups. Laws criminalizing support for terrorists or others opposing the State may also be inappropriately applied to the provision of medical care. Consequently, doctors and other health-care workers have been arrested, charged and sentenced for acting __________________ 15 16 17 18 19 13-42297 World Medical Association, Regulations in Times of Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Violence, paras. 1-3. ICRC, “Health care in danger: the responsibilities of health-care personnel working in armed conflicts and other emergencies” (Geneva, 2013), p. 35. See common article 3, Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the protection of victims of war and Additional Protocol II thereto. OHCHR and United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, “Treatment of conflict-related detainees in Afghan custody” (Geneva, October 2011), p. 3. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), “Under the gun: ongoing assaults on Bahrain’s health system” (Cambridge, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., 2012), p. 5. 7/24