A/RES/71/159
Global health and foreign policy: health employment and economic growth
Recognizing that health is a precondition for and an outcome and indicator of
all three dimensions of sustainable development and that, despite progress made,
challenges in global health, including major inequities and vulnerabilities within and
among countries, regions and populations, still remain and demand persistent
attention,
Underscoring the fact that global health is also a long-term objective which is
national, regional and international in scope and requires sustained attention,
commitment and closer international cooperation, beyond emergencies,
Reaffirming the right of every human being, without distinction of any kind, to
the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and
to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s
family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous
improvement of living conditions, with particular attention to the alarming situation
of millions of people for whom access to medicines remains a distant goal, in
particular vulnerable populations and destitute people,
Welcoming the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including
Sustainable Development Goal 3, “Ensure healthy lives and promote well -being for
all at all ages”, reaffirming its specific and interlinked targets , as well as other
health-related Goals and targets, and noting that they can contribute to progressively
realizing the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health,
Recalling Human Rights Council resolution 32/16 of 1 July 2016 on promoting
the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical
and mental health through enhancing capacity-building in public health, 4 and that
economic and social development are enhanced through measures that strengthen
capacity-building, including the training, recruitment and retention of sufficient and
suitably qualified health workers,
Recalling also Human Rights Council resolution 32/15 of 1 July 2016 on
access to medicines in the context of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, 4 which recognizes, inter
alia, that access to medicines, in particular essential medicines that are affordable ,
safe, efficacious and of quality, is one of the fundamental elements in achieving
progressively the full realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,
Recalling further the World Health Organization global strategy and plan of
action on public health, innovation and intellectual property, 5 designed to promote
medicinal innovation, build capacity and improve access to medicines, and
reiterating that health research and development should be needs -driven, evidencebased, guided by the core principles of affordability, effectiveness, efficiency and
equity and considered a shared responsibility,
Recognizing the importance of the social and health sectors in economic
growth and the collective need to increase health employment, and that investing in
health workers is one part of the broader objective of strengthening health systems
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4
See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/71/53),
chap. V, sect. A.
5
World Health Organization, document WHA61/2008/REC/1, resolution 61.21, annex, and document
WHA62/2009/REC/1, annex 4.
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