«Il n‘y a pas un monde développé et un monde sous-développé, mais un seul monde mal développé»
PRESS RELEASE
Geneva / Madrid, the 23rd of June 2025
Three residents of a working-class neighborhood in the Community of Madrid took part in the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to denounce the alarming deterioration of the public healthcare system in their region. As members of the “Vecinas y Vecinos por la Sanidad Pública” platform and the “Asamblea Popular de Carabanchel”, they relayed the fundamental claim from hundreds of thousands of people affected by the privatization of the public health sector, the closure of health centers, unacceptable waiting times, staff shortages and growing inequalities in access to care.
This initiative is part of a long-standing popular mobilization against the systematic dismantling of public healthcare in Spain, particularly in the Madrid region. In August 2024, members of the “Asamblea Popular de Carabanchel” cycled to Geneva to alert international institutions. With the support of CETIM, meetings were held with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization (WHO), diplomatic missions, municipal officials and journalists in Geneva.
One of the representatives from Madrid spoke at the Human Rights Council’s plenary meeting during the Interactive Dialogue with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to health. She described an increasingly critical situation: more than 760,000 people without a family doctor or pediatrician, a collapse of local medical services, and a regional policy that allocates only 10.7% of its health expenditure to general medicine, while the WHO recommends 25%.
“When you don’t have a doctor, you end up in overcrowded emergency rooms, or you simply don’t have access to care. This is a violation of the fundamental right to health”, said Riánsares Gómez Olmedilla, one of the speakers.
The message conveyed in Geneva is clear: the policies pursued by the Madrid authorities are exposing a growing proportion of the population to serious health risks. Working-class neighborhoods are the first to be affected. The Human Rights Council is therefore called upon to intervene with the Spanish authorities to ensure that they respect their international commitments and guarantee genuine universal access to a decent public healthcare system.
Contacts :
Ana Encinas, “Vecinos y Vecinas por la Sanidad Pública y la Asamblea Popular de Carabanchel“, +34 630 203 505
Raffaele Morgantini, Representative of CETIM at the UN, raffaele@cetim.ch, +41 79 660 65 14
