Every year on Human Rights Day (10 December), we talk about dignity, equality, and what every person deserves simply by being human. The right to health is one of those rights — not as a luxury, not as a reward for the “right” background, and not as something determined by geography.
At its core, the right to health means this: when you need care, you should be able to reach it, and it should be safe, timely, and respectful. International human rights standards also remind us that health is more than hospitals; it includes access (being able to actually get help) and quality (care that is competent and reliable). OHCHR
When Health Becomes a Matter of Minutes
In real life, the right to health isn’t tested in conference rooms — it’s tested in moments that offer no time to plan. A road crash. A heart problem at home. A workplace incident. A child struggling to breathe. A complicated pregnancy. In these situations, the difference between “people have rights” and “people feel their rights” often comes down to one question:
Can help reach you in time?
Emergency response becomes a human rights issue because access isn’t only about affordability or long-term services. It’s also about what happens before someone reaches a facility, when every delay increases risk.
We can’t discuss the right to health without acknowledging what obstructs it. Sometimes the barrier is distance; at other times, it’s road conditions or the uncertainty of who to call. Capacity also plays a major role — whether systems can meet needs at scale.
A quick reality check shows how uneven access truly is:
These numbers aren’t shared to sensationalise. They highlight a simple truth: health access is not evenly distributed, and emergencies don’t wait for systems to catch up.
Last year, SIEHS 1122 carried out 318,984 critical interventions — each representing a moment where the right to health moved from principle to action. Responders reached people in homes, workplaces, and on the road, without discrimination, when minutes mattered most.
SIEHS 1122 exists to ensure that care doesn’t begin only at a hospital door. It begins where the emergency happens — with trained teams, essential equipment, stabilisation, and safe transfer to the right facility. This is how a phone call becomes protection for life and dignity in real time.
And on Human Rights Day, one message stands above all:We do not discriminate.
In an emergency, help must not depend on who you are, where you come from, what language you speak, what you look like, or what your circumstances may be. The right to health is universal — and emergency care must reflect that value.
Human rights can seem abstract until they translate into everyday outcomes:
This is what “health accessible to all” looks like. Not perfection. Not promises. But a system that shows up — consistently — when it matters most.
On this Human Rights Day, the right to health deserves to be said out loud. More importantly, it must be protected in the only way rights survive:
Through access, without discrimination, for everyone.
