A/HRC/RES/41/10
associated with high prices, which impede progress towards achieving universal health
coverage for all,
Recalling the Declaration on Primary Health Care, adopted in October 2018 in
Astana, which recognizes the need to address the inefficiencies and inequities that expose
people to financial hardship resulting from their use of health-care services by ensuring
better allocation of resources for health, adequate financing of primary health care, and to
work towards the financial sustainability, efficiency and resilience of national health
systems, appropriately allocating resources to primary health care based on the national
context,
Noting with concern that, for millions of people throughout the world, the full and
equal enjoyment of the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
remains a distant goal,
Concerned about the interrelatedness between poverty and other social and
economic determinants of health and the realization of the right of everyone to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, in particular the
fact that ill health can be both a cause and a consequence of poverty,
Recognizing that universal health coverage implies that all people have access
without discrimination to nationally determined sets of needed promotive, preventive,
curative, palliative and rehabilitative essential health-care services, and essential, safe,
affordable, effective and quality medicines and vaccines, while ensuring that the use of
these services does not expose users to financial hardship, with special emphasis on the
poor, vulnerable and marginalized segments of the population,
Welcoming General Assembly resolution 72/139 of 12 December 2017, in which the
Assembly decided to convene the upcoming high-level meeting on universal health
coverage, and resolution 73/131 of 13 December 2018, in which the Assembly defined its
scope, modalities, format and organization,
Recognizing the need for States, in cooperation with international organizations and
civil society, including non-governmental organizations, philanthropic foundations,
academic and research institutions and the private sector, involved at all stages of the
pharmaceuticals value chain, including research and development, manufacture,
distribution and supply of pharmaceutical products, to create favourable conditions at the
national, regional and international levels to ensure the full and effective enjoyment of the
right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,
Recalling that the Doha Ministerial Declaration on the World Trade Organization
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement)
and Public Health confirms that the Agreement does not and should not prevent members
of the World Trade Organization from taking measures to protect public health, and that the
Declaration, accordingly, while reiterating the commitment to the Agreement, affirms that
it can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of the rights of
members of the Organization to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access
to medicines for all, and further recognizes, in this connection, the right of members of the
Organization to use to the full the provisions of the above-mentioned Agreement, which
provide flexibility for this purpose,
Welcoming the entry into force of the protocol amending the TRIPS Agreement,
which adapts the rules of the global trading system to the public health needs of people in
poor countries, thus contributing to the realization of the right to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, particularly regarding poorer
populations,
Regretting the high number of people still without access to affordable, safe,
effective and quality medicines and vaccines, and underscoring that improving such access
could save millions of lives every year, and noting with deep concern that, globally, two
billion people have no access to the medicines they need, while recognizing that the lack of
access to medicines and vaccines is a challenge that affects people not only in developing
countries but also in developed countries, even though the disease burden is
disproportionately high in developing countries,
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