Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures. The principle of progressive realisation is ‘a necessary flexibility device, reflecting the realities of the real world’.25 It recognises that some obligations need time to be implemented, and enables government discretion in relation to resourcing priorities and policy choices, within a rights-framework.26 Right to health The right to health includes the enjoyment of a variety of facilities, goods, services and conditions necessary for the realisation of the highest attainable standard of health. It is not to be understood as a right to be healthy (which is something that cannot be guaranteed solely by governments). The right to health extends not only to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health. The right to health contains the following interrelated and essential elements: (a) Availability. Functioning public health and health-care facilities, goods and States are also required to ensure that existing protections of economic, social and cultural rights do not deteriorate unless there are strong justifications for retrogressive measures. For example, a lowering of the minimum wage or social security payments must be rigorously justified.27 Indeed, like ICCPR rights, ICESCR rights can be justifiably limited. Article 4 states that: the State may subject such rights only to such limitations as are determined by law only in so far as this may be compatible with the nature of these rights and solely for the purpose of promoting the general welfare in a democratic society. The following example of the right to health is included to illustrate the full nature of the right in all its constituent parts. services, as well as programs, have to be available in sufficient quantity within the country. (b) Accessibility. Health facilities, goods and services have to be accessible to everyone without discrimination. Accessibility includes: • Non-discrimination: health facilities, goods and services must be accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable or marginalised sections of the population, in law and in fact, without discrimination. • Physical accessibility: health facilities, goods and services must be within safe physical reach for all sections of the population, especially vulnerable or marginalised groups, such as Indigenous populations. Accessibility also implies that medical services and underlying determinants of health, such as safe and potable FREE AND EQUAL A Human Rights Act for Australia 2022 119