A/HRC/RES/23/14
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
24 June 2013
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Twenty-third session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council∗
23/14.
Access to medicines in the context of the right of everyone to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health
The Human Rights Council,
Reaffirming the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Reaffirming also that the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health is a human right that derives from the inherent
dignity of the human person,
Recalling Human Rights Council resolution 17/14 of 17 June 2011 and all previous
resolutions and decisions on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health adopted by the Council, the General Assembly and
the Commission on Human Rights, as well as Assembly resolution 67/81 of 12 December
2012 on global health and foreign policy,
Recalling also the Declaration on the Right to Development, which, inter alia,
establishes that States should take, at the national level, all measures necessary for the
realization of the right to development and should ensure, inter alia, equality of opportunity
for all in their access to basic resources, such as health services,
Noting with concern that, for millions of people throughout the world, the full
enjoyment of the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
remains a distant goal and that, in many cases, especially for those living in poverty, this
goal is becoming increasingly remote,
∗
GE.13-15049
The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of
the Council on its twenty-third session (A/HRC/23/2), chap. I.