PICUM Health Care Seminar (22 & 23 March 2001)
Conclusions and Recommendations
OTHER
Shadow
report on Health Care for undocumented migrants in Germany for the Committee
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of
the United Nations
The
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a UN Treaty that
has been ratified or signed by more than 150 nations, includes a comprehensive
statement on the right to health in international human rights law. According to
Article 12(1), State parties recognize “the right of everyone to the enjoyment
of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”. All
governments are invited to submit reports to the Committee responsible for
Article 12 every 4 years, detailing the health care situation in their country.
The committee also welcomes ‘shadow’ reports from other sources, such as
non-governmental organisations. The General Comment gives such organisations the
opportunity to call into question government reports on issues of importance,
challenging human rights organisations to submit authoritative shadow reports,
preferably in a standardised form.
Last Summer FIAN Germany (the German section of the international FoodFirst Information and Action Network) and the Büro für Medizinische Flüchtlingshilfe wrote a shadow report to the UN in Geneva about the lacking medical help for illegalized migrants in Germany. The report was presented in front of the commission in July. However, when the commission presented her concluding observations at the end of August, the problem of illegalized migrants was not even mentioned. One of the reasons for this very disappointing result seems to be that not enough pressure has been put on the Commission concerning this theme.