The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) launched today its Health and Human Rights Program. The program will conduct research on the right to health in Egypt and advocate the respect, protection and promotion of this right according to the Egyptian Constitution and domestic legislation, and the related international and regional instruments.

The EIPR tackles the right to health as a prerequisite to personal and physical integrity, a personal right that is closely connected to the individual. This program also reflects the EIPR's belief that all human rights are interrelated and indivisible whether they are economic, social, and cultural, or civil and political. The EIPR team recognizes that the defense of the right of the individual to control his/her body and to protect it against violence can not be separated from his/her right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health as stipulated by the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Egypt ratified in 1982.

The Health and Human Rights Program will address the right to access healthcare services and health insurance, the right to non-discrimination on the basis of health status, human rights issues related to HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C, reproductive health and rights, and the relation between violence and health.

The Health and Human Rights Program is the second working program in the EIPR. The first program is the Privacy program which was launched in 2002 with the establishment of EIPR, which published a report entitled: "Freedom of Belief and the Arrests of Shi'a Muslims in Egypt" last month.