Annex 1 General Comment Provisions related to Reproductive Rights Paragraphs 36 and 37 deal with the obligation to fulfil: “Public health infrastructures should provide for sexual and reproductive health services, including safe motherhood, particularly in rural areas. States have to ensure the appropriate training of doctors and other medical personnel, the provision of a suffi cient number of hospitals, clinics and other health-related facilities, and the promotion and support of the establishment of institutions providing counselling and mental health services, with due regard to equitable distribution throughout the country.” The core obligations with respect to health, meaning the ­obligations that cannot be derogated from, are set out in Paragraph 43, “In General Comment No. 3, the Committee confi rms that States parties have a core obligation to ensure the satisfaction of, at the very least, minimum essential levels of each of the rights enunciated in the Covenant, including essential primary health care. Read in c­ onjunction with more contemporary instruments, such as the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Alma-Ata Declaration6 provides compelling guidance on the core ­obligations arising from article 12. Accordingly, in the Committee’s view, these core obligations include at least the following obligations: 1. To ensure the right of access to health facilities, goods and ­services on a non-discriminatory basis, especially for vulnerable or ­marginalized groups; 2. To ensure access to the minimum essential food which is ­nutritionally adequate and safe, to ensure freedom from hunger to everyone; 3. To ensure access to basic shelter, housing and sanitation, and an adequate supply of safe and potable water; ­ 6 The Declaration of Alma-Ata was adopted at the International Conference on Primary Health Care, ­Alma-Ata, USSR, 6-12 September 1978 131