United Nations
General Assembly
A/HRC/RES/17/14
Distr.: General
14 July 2011
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Seventeenth 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∗
17/14 The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health in the context of
development and access to medicines
The Human Rights Council,
Reaffirming that the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health is a human right as reflected in, inter alia, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as, with respect
to non-discrimination, in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and that
such a right derives from the inherent dignity of the human person,
Recalling Human Rights Council resolution 15/22 of 30 September 2010 and all
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, and Council resolution 12/24 of 2 October 2009 on
access to medicine in the context of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health,
Emphasizing the importance of the promotion and protection of all human rights for
all and their interrelationship with global public health, development, poverty eradication,
education, gender equality and the empowerment of women,
Recalling 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
∗
The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of
the Council on its seventeenth session (A/HRC/17/2), chap. I.
GE.11-14854