A/HRC/14/30 A. The right to health 76. States are obligated under international human rights law to provide essential primary health care for migrants, including preventative and palliative care, irrespective of their immigration status. To this end, there is a need to clarify or define the entitlements of the right to health for migrants at the national level, as well as the scope and function of the existing public reimbursement schemes. A distinction must be made between entitlement and access to health services for migrants. 77. States should work to reduce obstacles to health care for migrants by ensuring that access to health services is not conditioned upon one’s immigration status. Access to health services for migrants should also be ensured while in detention. In this regard, States should work to remove legal and other impediments such as the “obligation to denounce” or similar provisions in their national laws which impede the enjoyment of access to health by migrants. 78. States should also provide adequate information through campaigns and outreach, commit sufficient funds and promote implementation measures relevant to migrants’ health issues. These policies should also (a) include the promotion of health services that are culturally and gender sensitive and conducive to reducing linguistic, communication and cultural barriers, and (b) be aimed at facilitating increased confidence and awareness of health services among migrant communities. 79. States should provide appropriate training to civil servants working in the area of migration and health and sensitize them on the issues of discrimination against migrants, particularly with respect to migrant women and girls and children. States must ensure that migrants are not denied access to health care due to uncertainty among public service providers, such as nurses and doctors, about what the law allows them to do for migrants. 80. In view of the fact that migratory processes and living conditions of migrants in host States may have negative effects on their mental health, States should ensure that migrants’ access to health care includes mental health care. In this regard, States should pay particular attention to improving the mental well-being of migrants by creating services that are integrated and appropriate to their needs. Further studies into the mental health needs of migrants, which recognize the crucial interrelationship between social circumstances and mental health and help provide an insight into relevant mental health care and assistance, in particular to migrant women, migrant children and migrants in detention, are required. 81. Sending, transit and receiving countries should have inclusive health access programmes to address the health requirements of migrants in a continuum. Such interventions must move beyond emergency care, and address physical, mental and social well-being, including reproductive health and infectious diseases, while providing adequate health education and information for migrants. 82. In view of the specific health risks to which migrant women and girls are exposed, the gender dimension often involved in migration and the structural power relationships which frequently govern women’s access to health care, States should provide adequate, appropriate and specialized medical assistance to migrant women and girls. States of origin should also provide free or affordable gender-sensitive pre- 20 GE.10-12615