2020 Resolution on global health and foreign policy: strengthening health system resilience through affordable health care for all

75th UNGA
2020-12-14

Res­o­lu­tion A/RES/75/130

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Analysis of precedential value

This res­o­lu­tion was adopted by the UN Gen­eral Assem­bly (UNGA) by a recorded vote of 181 in favor to 1 against in Decem­ber 2020. The UNGA is the pre­em­i­nent gov­ern­ing body of the UN sys­tem and con­sists of all 193 UN Mem­ber States.

Used as precedent

key population and community leadership

• “Rec­og­niz­ing that peo­ple’s engage­ment, par­tic­u­larly of women and girls, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties, and the inclu­sion of all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers is one of the core com­po­nents of health sys­tem gov­er­nance, to fully empower all peo­ple in improv­ing and pro­tect­ing their own health, giv­ing due regard to address­ing and man­ag­ing con­flicts of inter­est and undue influ­ence, con­tribut­ing to the achieve­ment of uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age for all, with a focus on health out­comes” (p. 5)

• “Urges Mem­ber States to strengthen national health sys­tems through ensur­ing afford­able health care for all, with a focus on pri­mary health care, as well as the avail­abil­ity, acces­si­bil­ity and afford­abil­ity of qual­ity health ser­vices and qual­ity, safe, effec­tive, afford­able and essen­tial med­i­cines, vac­cines, diag­nos­tics and health tech­nolo­gies, with a view to imple­ment­ing the most effec­tive, high-impact, qual­ity- assured, peo­ple-cen­tred, with full respect for human rights, gen­der- and dis­abil­ity- respon­sive and evi­dence-based inter­ven­tions to meet the health needs of all through­out the life course” (p. 5)

• “Fur­ther encour­ages Mem­ber States to pur­sue effi­cient health financ­ing poli­cies, includ­ing through close col­lab­o­ra­tion among rel­e­vant author­i­ties, includ­ing finance and health author­i­ties, to respond to unmet needs and to elim­i­nate finan­cial bar­ri­ers to access to qual­ity, safe, effec­tive, afford­able and essen­tial health ser­vices, med­i­cines, vac­cines, diag­nos­tics and health tech­nolo­gies, reduce out-of-pocket expen­di­tures lead­ing to finan­cial hard­ship and ensure finan­cial risk pro­tec­tion for all through­out the life course, espe­cially for the poor and those who are vul­ner­a­ble or in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions, through bet­ter allo­ca­tion and use of resources, with ade­quate financ­ing for pri­mary health care, in accor­dance with national con­texts and pri­or­i­ties” (p. 5)

access to health products

• “Reaf­firm­ing the right to use, to the fullest extent the pro­vi­sions con­tained in the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion Agree­ment on Trade-Related Aspects of Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty Rights (TRIPS Agree­ment), which pro­vides flex­i­bil­i­ties for the pro­tec­tion of pub­lic health and pro­motes access to med­i­cines for all, in par­tic­u­lar for devel­op­ing coun­tries, and the Doha Dec­la­ra­tion on the TRIPS Agree­ment and Pub­lic Health, which rec­og­nizes that intel­lec­tual prop­erty pro­tec­tion is impor­tant for the devel­op­ment of new med­i­cines and also rec­og­nizes the con­cerns about its effects on prices” (p. 5)

• “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, universal health coverage

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to ensure access to med­i­cines as one of the fun­da­men­tal ele­ments of a robust health sys­tem based on uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age, and reaf­firms that States have the pri­mary role and respon­si­bil­ity to deter­mine and pro­mote their own path towards achiev­ing uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age that ensures uni­ver­sal and equi­table access to qual­ity essen­tial health ser­vices and access to safe, effec­tive, qual­ity and afford­able essen­tial med­i­cines, vac­cines, diag­nos­tics and other health tech­nolo­gies for all, with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion” (p. 7)

access to health products, publicly funded research

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to enhance and build con­struc­tive engage­ment and stronger part­ner­ship with rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers from the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors, civil soci­ety and acad­e­mia to pur­sue access to uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age by improv­ing the avail­abil­ity, afford­abil­ity and effi­ciency of health prod­ucts through increas­ing trans­parency of prices of med­i­cines, vac­cines, med­ical devices, diag­nos­tics, assis­tive prod­ucts, cell- and gene-based ther­a­pies and other health tech­nolo­gies across the value chain, includ­ing through improved reg­u­la­tions, in accor­dance with national and regional legal frame­works and con­texts, to address the global con­cern about the high prices of some health prod­ucts, and in this regard encour­ages the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion to con­tinue its efforts to bien­ni­ally con­vene the Fair Pric­ing Forum with Mem­ber States and all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to dis­cuss the afford­abil­ity and trans­parency of prices and costs relat­ing to health prod­ucts as one of the fun­da­men­tal fea­tures of a robust health sys­tem based on uni­ver­sal health cov­er­age” (p. 7)

access to health products, technology transfer

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions and other rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to work col­lab­o­ra­tively at all lev­els to develop, test and scale up pro­duc­tion of safe, effec­tive, qual­ity, afford­able diag­nos­tics, ther­a­peu­tics, med­i­cines and vac­cines, inter alia and as appro­pri­ate through the use of exist­ing mech­a­nisms, such as the Med­i­cines Patent Pool, to pro­mote equi­table, afford­able and timely access to med­ical prod­ucts and health tech­nolo­gies in health emer­gen­cies” (p. 8)