Syria has made immense progress on improving health outcomes for its people over the past three decades, an indepdendent United Nations (UN) expert says. With regard to maternal and child mortality rates in particular, Syria is nearing parity with developed countries.
The UN has undergone a process of reform in recent years, one of the main tenets of which has been the mainstreaming of human rights into UN programmes and practices. In partial pursuit of its aims of realizing human rights, the UN appointed a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, currently Anand Grover.
Similarly, Syria has moved towards rights-based approaches and incorporated the right to health into its national constitution—a key strategy for ensuring that governments remain accountable to their citizens and provide the economic and social rights important for development.
Mr. Grover commended Syria on its impressive gains on most major health indicators, noting that the progress made by the country was particularly “admirable.” Health care coverage rates in Syria are reported to be above 90%, while hospital evaluations recorded well-maintained and well-staffed hospitals.
The country’s two major health challenges at present include improving the bundle of services offered under the banner of sexual health and reproductive care. Also, Syria needs to overcome the rural-urban divide with regard to inequalities in health-care provision that often leave rural areas underserviced and undersupplied. This is particularly problematic as it is usually the people with the poorest incomes who live in rural areas.
Another challenge identified by Mr. Grover was a reduction in the frequency of gender-based violence. An entire spectrum of interventions must be implemented, he notes, to better protect women’s human rights—from “prevention and treatment [to] rehabilitation.”
Finally, Grover was keen to urge Syrian officials about providing health services to the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees tto whom the country is currently playing host. Along with women, children, orphans and the elderly, refugees constitute a very vulnerable group in society that often do not get the level of care or protection needed. This holds true across the world.
Currently, there are roughly 1.3 million Syrians who are categorized as the “extreme poor.” UNICEF has found that poverty has contributed to the grim reality that 4% of the Syrian population aged 5-14 is engaged in some form of child labour. Part of this is also attributable to the “youth bulge.” The youth bulge is a demographic challenge that Middle-Eastern countries must contend with; it is characterized by a high young population (or, youth dependency ratio) that will need to be educated and will soon require jobs.
Child labour, apart from violating numerous pieces of international law, reduces the amount of time a child spends in school. This reality directly contributes to the likelihood they he/she will earn lower wages doing unskilled work in the future. Ultimately, this is linked to the continuation of the poverty cycle. Depending on the nature of the work, child labour can also have damaging effects on the health of children.
Mr. Grover toured health-care facilities in Damascus, as well as a prison. He reports to the UN Human Rights Council located in Geneva.