First Topic - The Right to Enjoy the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (the Right to Health) Preface: 1. The right to health is one of the most fundamental human rights. The enjoyment of individuals of this right is not only confined to access to health care and the absence of disease or disability, but also is closely related to the realization of other human rights, including the right to food, housing, work, education, human dignity, life, non-discrimination, equality, prohibition of torture, privacy, and the right to organize. These rights and freedoms, as well as other rights, are inseparable from the right to health, which altogether lead to the enjoyment of the highest level of health. 2. The World Health Organization has defined health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. States should guarantee freedoms and entitlements; freedoms include the right to control one’s health and body, and to be free from interference, for example, free from torture and non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation. Entitlements include the right to use a system of health services, and access to suitable health care facilities, as well as for States to take adequate measures regarding the social and economic determinants of health such as food, water, sanitation, safe and healthy working conditions, housing, and poverty.12 3. Hence, this topic is addressed in two requirements, where the first requirement is intended to cover the international and national grounds related to the right to health, while the second requirement will highlight the NIHR’s efforts in protecting the right to health. 12 General Comment No. (14) of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Economic and Social Council, published on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): https://www.ohchr.org/AR/Issues/Health/Pages/AboutRightHealthandHR.aspx 54