KABUL (SW) – The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that around the world, the right to health of millions is increasingly coming under threat.
On occasion of World Health Day, the organization shared a report saying that the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All has found that at least 140 countries recognize health as a human right in their constitution. Yet countries are not passing and putting into practice laws to ensure their populations are entitled to access health services.
“This underpins the fact that at least 4.5 billion people — more than half of the world’s population — were not fully covered by essential health services in 2021,” said WHO in its report.
WHO mentioned the burning of fossil fuels is simultaneously driving the climate crisis and taking away our right to breathe clean air, with indoor and outdoor air pollution claiming a life every 5 seconds.
“Diseases and disasters loom large as causes of death and disability,” the organization added.
WHO said that to address these types of challenges, the theme for World Health Day 2024 is ‘My health, my right’.
In 1948, at the first World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization decided to name April 7 as World Health Day.
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