WCC NEWS: Webinar will explore “Human Rights and Health Equity: Addressing Stigma and Neglect Faced by Vulnerable Populations”

A webinar on 7 July will explore “Human Rights and Health Equity: Addressing Stigma and Neglect Faced by Vulnerable Populations.” Photo: Marcelo Schneider/WCC 01 July 2026 The dialogue will be held in conjunction with the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council, which runs from 15 June–7 July. The webinar is being co-organized by the World Council of Churches, with the NGO Committee on the Status of Women Geneva Working Group on Health, Medical Women’s International Association, International Cancer Expert Corps, Oxford University, World Federation for Mental Health, and United Voices for Global Impact. The main speaker will be Nicoletta Dentico, who heads the Global Health Programme at the Society for International Development and serves as co-president of the Geneva Global Health Hub, bringing decades of experience in international development, global public health, and advocacy for the right to health. As an Italian journalist, writer, and senior policy analyst in global health, known for her leadership on global health justice, access to medicines and civil society engagement in WHO and wider global health governance, she will bring a civil society perspective to global health debates and initiate a dialogue on the right to health. Discussions will explore how stigma and structural discrimination undermine the right to health for people living with both long-term, neglected conditions such as leprosy and emerging outbreak-prone diseases, including Ebola and future pandemics. It will highlight destigmatisation as a deliberate human rights strategy for health equity, showing how combating stigma is integral to prevention, early diagnosis, care-seeking, treatment adherence and public trust in health systems. Rather than treating each disease in isolation, the discussion will connect health, gender, racial discrimination, and advocacy in a single, coherent conversation. The webinar will underscore how stigma and discrimination restrict access to services, erode confidence in public institutions, and violate the dignity and rights of affected persons. It will draw particular attention to those communities and regions most affected by these dynamics—often marginalised, under-resourced, and rarely prioritised for sustained, long-term responses.  Finally, the conversation will incorporate a faith-based perspective on destigmatisation and human rights, examining how religious and community leaders can help shift norms, support inclusion, and strengthen rights-based public health action. This perspective will highlight the ethical and moral imperatives for protecting the rights of all persons while advancing effective, equitable responses to both neglected and emerging health threats. Register here See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland