Ensuring Equitable, Affordable, Timely and Universal Access for All Countries to Vaccines in Response to the Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) Pandemic

A/HRC/RES/49/25View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2022.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2021–2022

2022A/RES/76/175Ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemicLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/HRC/RES/49/25Ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemicLatestCompare with previous version
2021A/HRC/RES/46/14Ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

9 topics

Covid-19 Disease Control Equality Financing Human Rights International Cooperation Pandemics Right to Health Vaccines

What does this mandate say?

20 operative paragraphs

Emphasizes the urgent need to ensure the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and to facilitate the development of robust health systems and universal health coverage, encompassing universal, timely and equitable access to all essential health technologies, diagnostics, therapeutics, medicines and vaccines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other health emergencies, in order to ensure full access to immunization for all, in particular persons and groups in vulnerable situations, as a matter of global priority for all States;

Calls upon States to take the necessary steps to safeguard and protect health and care workers at all levels, including their physical and mental health, especially in health emergencies, through the equitable distribution of personal protective equipment, therapeutics, vaccines and other health services, effective infection prevention control and occupational safety and health measures within a safe and enabling work environment that is free from racial and all other forms of discrimination;

Calls upon States and other relevant stakeholders to take appropriate measures to guarantee the fair, transparent, equitable, efficient, universal and timely access and distribution of safe, quality, efficacious, effective, accessible and affordable COVID-19 vaccines and to enable international cooperation;

Calls for intensified international cooperation and solidarity to contain, mitigate and overcome the pandemic and its consequences, including the human rights implications, through responses that are people-centred, gender-responsive, multidimensional, coordinated, inclusive, innovative, swift and decisive at all levels, with full respect for human rights, including by supporting the exchange of information, scientific knowledge and best practices and enhancing maintenance capacity, in particular to assist people in vulnerable situations, including all migrants, and the poorest and most vulnerable countries, to build a more equitable, inclusive, sustainable and resilient future and to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;

Encourages States to work in partnership with all relevant stakeholders to increase research and development funding for vaccines and medicines, leverage digital technologies and strengthen the scientific international cooperation necessary to combat COVID-19 and to bolster coordination, including with the private sector, towards the further development, manufacturing and distribution of diagnostics, antiviral medicines, personal protective equipment and vaccines while adhering to the objectives of quality, efficacy, safety, equity, accessibility and affordability;

Recognizes the importance of tools to achieve extensive immunization against COVID-19 as a global public good for health in preventing, containing and stopping transmission, and to bring the pandemic to an end, by ensuring the availability of safe, quality, efficacious, effective, accessible and affordable vaccines;

Calls upon States and other relevant stakeholders to remove unjustified obstacles resulting in an unequal distribution in access to COVID-19 vaccines between developed and developing countries, and to promote equitable global distribution and universal access to vaccines in order to further the principles of international cooperation and solidarity and to promote the realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health;

Urges States to facilitate the production, trade, acquisition, access to and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as a crucial element of their responses to the pandemic, to ensure the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and to support the administration of vaccines to address the pandemic, in accordance with their international human rights obligations and the Sustainable Development Goals and other international legal frameworks, taking into account the principles of non-discrimination and transparency;

Reiterates the call for States to continue to collaborate, as appropriate, on models and approaches that support the delinking of the cost of new research and development from the prices of medicines, vaccines and diagnostics for diseases, to ensure their sustained accessibility, affordability and availability and to support access to treatment for all those in need;

Calls upon States and all relevant stakeholders to promote research and capacity-building initiatives and to enhance cooperation on and access to science, innovation, technologies, technical assistance and knowledge-sharing, to ensure universal, equitable and affordable access for all persons to COVID-19 vaccines, including through improved coordination among mechanisms, especially with developing countries, in a collaborative, coordinated and transparent manner and on mutually agreed terms, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and towards advancing the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Urges States to leverage digital technologies for the response to COVID-19, including in support of efficient, transparent and robust immunization, addressing the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19, paying particular attention to digital inclusion, patient empowerment and the right to privacy and protection of personal data;

Reaffirms the right of States to use the provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and the flexibilities therein, as reaffirmed in the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, in which it is recognized that the agreement should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of the right of States to protect public health, in particular to promote access to medicines for all, to facilitate access for all to COVID-19 vaccines and to bolster coordination, including with the private sector, towards the rapid development, manufacturing and distribution of vaccines while adhering to the objectives of transparency, efficacy, safety, equity, accessibility and affordability;

Calls upon States, other partners and donors to urgently support funding and close the funding gap for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and its mechanisms, such as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility, to support the equitable distribution of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines and to further explore innovative financing mechanisms aimed at ensuring affordable, timely, equitable and universal access to and the fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines for all and the continuity and strengthening of essential health services;

Encourages States and other stakeholders to voluntarily share technology and support the development of voluntary patent pools, such as the World Health Organization COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP);

Calls upon the international community to continue to assist developing countries in promoting the full realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, including through access to medicines that are affordable, safe, efficacious and of quality and through financial and technical support for and training of personnel, while recognizing that the primary responsibility for promoting and protecting all human rights rests with States;

Requests all States, international organizations and relevant stakeholders to commit to transparency in all matters relating to the production, distribution and fair pricing of vaccines, in accordance with national and regional legal frameworks, and urges States to take immediate steps to prevent speculation and undue export controls and stockpiling that may hinder affordable, timely, equitable and universal access for all countries to COVID-19 vaccines;

Recognizes the immense logistical challenges posed by the lack of infrastructure for the distribution of vaccines in developing countries, including the least developed countries, and calls for greater assistance and building the capacities of developing countries, including through effective training programmes in vaccine delivery in this regard;

Strongly urges all States to refrain from taking any economic, financial or trade measures that may adversely affect equitable, affordable, fair, timely and universal access to COVID-19 vaccines, in particular in developing countries;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with States, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, in particular the World Health Organization, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, to prepare a report on the human rights implications of and good practices and key challenges in affordable, timely, equitable and universal access to and distribution of quality, safe, efficacious and affordable COVID-19 vaccines and the impact on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, to submit the report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-second session, to be followed by an interactive dialogue, and to provide an oral update thereon to the Council at its fifty-first session;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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