2020 Resolution on comprehensive and coordinated response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

74th UNGA
2020-09-11

Res­o­lu­tion A/RES/74/306

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Analysis of precedential value

This res­o­lu­tion was adopted by the UN Gen­eral Assem­bly (UNGA) by a recorded vote of 169 in favor to 2 against, with 2 absten­tions in Sep­tem­ber 2020. The UNGA is the pre­em­i­nent gov­ern­ing body of the UN sys­tem and con­sists of all 193 UN Mem­ber States.

Used as precedent

key and vulnerable populations

• “Rec­og­niz­ing that the COVID-19 pan­demic has a dis­pro­por­tion­ately heavy impact on women, older per­sons, youth and chil­dren, as well as the poor, vul­ner­a­ble and mar­gin­al­ized seg­ments of the pop­u­la­tion, and that responses to the COVID-19 pan­demic need to take into account mul­ti­ple and inter­sect­ing forms of vio­lence, dis­crim­i­na­tion, stigma­ti­za­tion, exclu­sion and inequal­i­ties” (p. 5)

• “Calls for inten­si­fied inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion and sol­i­dar­ity to con­tain, mit­i­gate and over­come the pan­demic and its con­se­quences through responses that are peo­ple-cen­tred, gen­der-respon­sive, with full respect for human rights, mul­ti­di­men­sional, coor­di­nated, inclu­sive, inno­v­a­tive, swift and deci­sive at all lev­els, includ­ing by sup­port­ing the exchange of infor­ma­tion, sci­en­tific knowl­edge and best prac­tices through, inter alia, the devel­op­ment of new inter­op­er­a­ble data tools and the strength­en­ing of plat­forms to inform mit­i­ga­tion and response actions and con­tin­u­ously mon­i­tor the impact of the pan­demic, espe­cially to assist peo­ple in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions and the poor­est and most vul­ner­a­ble coun­tries, to build a more equi­table, inclu­sive, sus­tain­able and resilient future and to get back on track to real­ize the 2030 Agenda for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment” (p. 5)

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to ensure pro­tec­tion for those most affected, women, chil­dren, youth, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, peo­ple liv­ing with HIV/AIDS, older per­sons, indige­nous peo­ples, refugees and inter­nally dis­placed per­sons and migrants, and the poor, vul­ner­a­ble and mar­gin­al­ized seg­ments of the pop­u­la­tion, and pre­vent all forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion, espe­cially in the con­text of timely, uni­ver­sal, inclu­sive, equi­table and non-dis­crim­i­na­tory access to safe, qual­ity, effec­tive and afford­able health care and ser­vices and med­ical sup­plies and equip­ment, includ­ing diag­nos­tics, ther­a­peu­tics, med­i­cine and vac­cines, and to leave no one behind, with an endeav­our to reach the fur­thest behind first, founded on the dig­nity of the human per­son and reflect­ing the prin­ci­ples of equal­ity and non-dis­crim­i­na­tion” (p. 8)

digital health

• “Express­ing con­cern about the spread of dis­in­for­ma­tion and pro­pa­ganda, includ­ing on the Inter­net, which can be designed and imple­mented so as to mis­lead, to vio­late human rights, includ­ing the right to pri­vacy and to free­dom of expres­sion, and to incite vio­lence, hatred, dis­crim­i­na­tion or hos­til­ity, and empha­siz­ing the impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion of jour­nal­ists and media work­ers in coun­ter­ing this trend” (p. 5)

uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to strengthen efforts to address com­mu­ni­ca­ble dis­eases, includ­ing HIV/AIDS, tuber­cu­lo­sis, malaria and hepati­tis, as part of uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age and to ensure that the frag­ile gains are sus­tained and expanded by advanc­ing com­pre­hen­sive approaches and inte­grated ser­vice deliv­ery and ensur­ing that no one is left behind” (p. 7)

access to health products, publicly funded research

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States to work in part­ner­ship with all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to increase research and devel­op­ment fund­ing for vac­cines and med­i­cines, lever­age dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies, and strengthen sci­en­tific inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion nec­es­sary to com­bat COVID-19 and to bol­ster coor­di­na­tion, includ­ing with the pri­vate sec­tor, towards rapid devel­op­ment, man­u­fac­tur­ing and dis­tri­bu­tion of diag­nos­tics, ther­a­peu­tics, med­i­cines, includ­ing antivi­ral med­i­cines and med­ical sci­ence-based treat­ment pro­to­cols, and vac­cines, and per­sonal pro­tec­tive equip­ment, and explore ways to con­sider inte­grat­ing, as appro­pri­ate, safe and evi­dence-based tra­di­tional and com­ple­men­tary med­i­cine ser­vices, accord­ing to national con­text and pri­or­i­ties, adher­ing to the objec­tives of effi­cacy, safety, equity, acces­si­bil­ity, and afford­abil­ity, while tak­ing into account and sup­port­ing exist­ing mech­a­nisms, tools and ini­tia­tives, such as the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accel­er­a­tor, and rel­e­vant pledg­ing appeals” (p. 7)

• “Reaf­firms the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion Agree­ment on Trade-Related Aspects of Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty Rights (TRIPS Agree­ment) as amended, and also reaf­firms the 2001 World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion Doha Dec­la­ra­tion on the TRIPS Agree­ment and Pub­lic Health, which rec­og­nizes that intel­lec­tual prop­erty rights should be inter­preted and imple­mented in a man­ner sup­port­ive of the right of Mem­ber States to pro­tect pub­lic health and, in par­tic­u­lar, to pro­mote access to med­i­cines for all, and notes the need for appro­pri­ate incen­tives in the devel­op­ment of new health prod­ucts” (p. 7)

access to health products, local and regional manufacturing, publicly funded research

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States and all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to pro­mote research and capac­ity-build­ing ini­tia­tives, as well as to enhance coop­er­a­tion on and access to sci­ence, inno­va­tion, tech­nolo­gies, tech­ni­cal assis­tance and knowl­edge- shar­ing, includ­ing through improved coor­di­na­tion among exist­ing 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 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals” (p. 11)

key population and community leadership

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to build, strengthen and pro­mote health sys­tems, includ­ing pri­mary health care, that are strong, resilient, func­tional, well gov­erned, respon­sive, account­able, inte­grated, com­mu­nity-based, peo­ple-cen­tred and capa­ble of qual­ity ser­vice deliv­ery, sup­ported by a com­pe­tent health work­force, ade­quate health infra­struc­ture and essen­tial pub­lic health func­tions and capac­i­ties, enabling leg­isla­tive and reg­u­la­tory frame­works, as well as suf­fi­cient and sus­tain­able fund­ing, calls upon donors and other rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to sup­port coun­tries that lack the capac­ity to imple­ment such mea­sures, rec­og­nizes the value of an inte­grated One Health approach that fos­ters coop­er­a­tion between the human health, ani­mal health and plant health, as well as envi­ron­men­tal and other rel­e­vant sec­tors, and under­lines the urgent need for con­tin­ued close work between the long-stand­ing Tri­par­tite, together with other rel­e­vant parts of the United Nations sys­tem and rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers in this regard” (p. 12)

same as above

• “same as above” (same as above)