UN expert on the right to health Anand Grover to study the impact of detention and rehabilitation centres in Viet Nam (25 Nov - 5 Dec)

GENEVA / HANOI (23 November 2011) – United Nations Special Rapporteur Anand Grover will visit Viet Nam from 25 November to 5 December 2011 to consider issues related to the enjoyment of the right to health in the country such as availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of health services, goods, facilities and information. He will also study the impact of detention and rehabilitation centres.

“I will assess the impact of the facilities known as the ‘Centres for social education and labour’ and ‘Centres for post rehabilitation management’ on the right to health of people who are undergoing treatment in those facilities,” Mr. Grover said, announcing the first mission to Viet Nam by an independent expert charged by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor the implementation of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

The Special Rapporteur will also focus on Viet Nam’s progress in ensuring access to medicines and combatting HIV/AIDS, as well as its efforts to apply a right to health approach to providing universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment, counselling and support for affected persons.

Mr. Grover, who visits Viet Nam at the invitation of the Government, will meet with Government officials, members of Parliament and international agencies, as well as with civil society representatives, including non-governmental organizations and academics. He will present a report on his mission to the Human Rights Council in June 2012.

Mr. Grover will share his preliminary conclusions on the visit at a press conference on Monday 5 December at 14:00, at the UNDP Conference Room, 25-29 Phan Boi Chau Street, Hanoi.

The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to help States, and others, promote and protect the right to the highest attainable standard of health (right to health). Anand Grover (India) is co-founder and Director of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit and the Senior Counsel in India.

Learn more about the mandate and work of the Special Rapporteur: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Health/Pages/SRRightHealthIndex.aspx

OHCHR Country page – Vietnam: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AsiaRegion/Pages/VNIndex.aspx

For press inquiries and additional information, please contact Jamshid Gaziyev (+ 41 797 520 483 / srhealth@ohchr.org), or in Hanoi, Pernille Goodall (+84 91 320 9987 / pernille.goodall@undp.org)

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)

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