children and physically disabled persons, while safeguarding the principle of the confidentially
of personal health data. Moreover, the offered facilities, goods and services shall observe medical
ethics and give due regard to the gender perspective and to be culturally acceptable, alongside the
necessity of providing trained health professionals of a high level of competence, and to provided
medications that are suitable for use and scientifically validated, and to provide the hospitals and
medical centres with the necessary medical equipment and devices, and ensure the availability of
safe and healthy drinking water.
11. It is necessary to mention in this regard the widespread erroneous ideas regarding the right to
health, and perhaps most prominently: that the right to health is not itself the right to enjoyment
of good health, where some individuals think that it is incumbent on the State to guarantee good
health to persons while in fact the good health of a person is essentially influenced by numerous
factors beyond the direct control of states, and for instance, the biological constitution of the person
and his/her social and economic circumstances, and hence for the sake of precision the right to
health shall be described as representing the highest standard attainable in terms of physical and
mental health, rather than being the unconditional right to enjoying good health.
12. Moreover, among those widespread ideas is regarding the right to health as being a goal to be
achieved in the long term, for even though the right to health is a programmatic goal where
due regard is given to gradualism in effectuating it, this does not mean that it entails immediate
obligations upon states, where it is on the onus of states to exert all possible efforts within the
limits of their available economic and material resources to effectuate the right to health without
any delay, and there are also obligations arising immediately upon states that do not require the
availability of any material capabilities including, for example, undertaking to guarantee the right
to health in a non-discriminatory manner, and formulating particular legislations that regulate and
protect enjoyment of the right to health, and adopting action plans for full effectuation of this right.
Moreover, it is incumbent on states to provide the minimum level of the essential material elements
of the right to health, such as providing vaccinations, basic medicaments, and maternal and child
health care.
13. In addition to the foregoing there are numerous other instruments and conventions related to
human rights whose contents underscored the right to health, where some of them are characterized
by being general, and others address special issues or segments as relates to human rights, and
reference may be made to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination of 1965 to which the Kingdom of Bahrain acceded according to Decree Number
(8) of 1990, Article (5) paragraph (e) thereof, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) of 1979 to which acceded the Kingdom of Bahrain by
virtue of Decree-Law Number (5) of 2002, Articles (11,12,14), and the Convention on the Rights of
the Child of 1989, to which the Kingdom of Bahrain acceded by virtue of Decree-Law Number (16)
of 1991, Article (24) thereof, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006
ratified by virtue of Law Number (22) of 2011, Article (25) thereof, in addition to the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
of 1990, Articles (43,28,45).
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