2022 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

HRC 49th ses­sion
2022-04-01

Res­o­lu­tion A/HRC/RES/49/25

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Used as precedent

key and vulnerable, populations gender equality

• “Deeply con­cerned about the dis­pro­por­tion­ate and neg­a­tive impact of the COVID-19 pan­demic on the enjoy­ment of human rights by women and girls and on gen­der equal­ity world­wide, includ­ing due to the increased inci­dence of domes­tic vio­lence and inter­rupted access to sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health, and under­scor­ing the need to ensure a human rights-based and gen­der-respon­sive approach to recov­ery, mind­ful in par­tic­u­lar of the need to ensure the full enjoy­ment by women and girls of their human rights” (p. 3)

key and vulnerable populations

• “Rec­og­niz­ing that per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties face ableism and a greater risk of COVID-19 infec­tion and have higher mor­tal­ity rates, and face aggra­vated bar­ri­ers to access to timely and qual­ity health care and ser­vices” (p. 4)

• “Deeply con­cerned that the COVID-19 pan­demic per­pet­u­ates and exac­er­bates exist­ing inequal­i­ties and that those most at risk are per­sons in vul­ner­a­ble and mar­gin­al­ized sit­u­a­tions, such as older per­sons, migrants, refugees, inter­nally dis­placed per­sons, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties, per­sons belong­ing to minori­ties, indige­nous peo­ples, per­sons deprived of their lib­erty, home­less per­sons and per­sons liv­ing in poverty, and rec­og­niz­ing the need to ensure non-dis­crim­i­na­tion and equal­ity while stress­ing the impor­tance of age-respon­sive, gen­der-respon­sive and dis­abil­ity-sen­si­tive mea­sures in this regard” (p. 4)

• “Empha­siz­ing the need for full respect for and the pro­tec­tion and ful­fil­ment of human rights, and stress­ing that there is no place for any form of stigma­ti­za­tion, dis­crim­i­na­tion, racism and xeno­pho­bia in response to the pan­demic, fur­ther exac­er­bat­ing the neg­a­tive impact on the right to health, includ­ing men­tal health” (p. 4)

access to health products, pharmaceutical transparency

• “Stress­ing the impor­tance of improv­ing the trans­parency of mar­kets for med­i­cines, vac­cines and other health prod­ucts across the whole value chain, and tak­ing note of World Health Assem­bly res­o­lu­tion WHA72.8 of 28 May 2019” (p. 4)

access to health products

• “Encour­ages States to work in part­ner­ship with all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to increase research and devel­op­ment fund­ing for vac­cines and med­i­cines, lever­age dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies and strengthen the sci­en­tific inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion nec­es­sary to com­bat COVID-19 and to bol­ster coor­di­na­tion, includ­ing with the pri­vate sec­tor, towards the fur­ther devel­op­ment, man­u­fac­tur­ing and dis­tri­bu­tion of diag­nos­tics, antivi­ral med­i­cines, per­sonal pro­tec­tive equip­ment and vac­cines while adher­ing to the objec­tives of qual­ity, effi­cacy, safety, equity, acces­si­bil­ity and afford­abil­ity” (p. 5)

• “Reaf­firms the right of States to use the pro­vi­sions of the World Trade Orga­ni­za­tion Agree­ment on Trade-Related Aspects of Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty Rights (TRIPS Agree­ment) and the flex­i­bil­i­ties therein, as reaf­firmed in the Doha Dec­la­ra­tion on the TRIPS Agree­ment and Pub­lic Health, in which it is rec­og­nized that the agree­ment should be inter­preted and imple­mented in a man­ner sup­port­ive of the right of States to pro­tect pub­lic health, in par­tic­u­lar to pro­mote access to med­i­cines for all, to facil­i­tate access for all to COVID-19 vac­cines and to bol­ster coor­di­na­tion, includ­ing with the pri­vate sec­tor, towards the rapid devel­op­ment, man­u­fac­tur­ing and dis­tri­bu­tion of vac­cines while adher­ing to the objec­tives of trans­parency, effi­cacy, safety, equity, acces­si­bil­ity and afford­abil­ity” (p. 5)

access to health products, technology transfer

• “Calls upon States and all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to pro­mote research and capac­ity-build­ing ini­tia­tives and to enhance coop­er­a­tion on and access to sci­ence, inno­va­tion, tech­nolo­gies, tech­ni­cal assis­tance and knowl­edge-shar­ing, to ensure uni­ver­sal, equi­table and afford­able access for all per­sons to COVID-19 vac­cines, includ­ing through improved coor­di­na­tion among 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 real­iza­tion of the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals” (p. 5)

• “Encour­ages States and other stake­hold­ers to vol­un­tar­ily share tech­nol­ogy and sup­port the devel­op­ment of vol­un­tary patent pools, such as the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion COVID-19 Tech­nol­ogy Access Pool (C-TAP)” (p. 6)

access to health prod­ucts, pharmaceutical transparency

• “Requests all States, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions and rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to com­mit to trans­parency in all mat­ters relat­ing to the pro­duc­tion, dis­tri­bu­tion and fair pric­ing of vac­cines, in accor­dance with national and regional legal frame­works, and urges States to take imme­di­ate steps to pre­vent spec­u­la­tion and undue export con­trols and stock­pil­ing that may hin­der afford­able, timely, equi­table and uni­ver­sal access for all coun­tries to COVID-19 vac­cines” (p. 6)

access to health products, alternative R&D models

• “Reit­er­ates the call for States to con­tinue to col­lab­o­rate, as appro­pri­ate, on mod­els and approaches that sup­port the delink­ing of the cost of new research and devel­op­ment from the prices of med­i­cines, vac­cines and diag­nos­tics for dis­eases, to ensure their sus­tained acces­si­bil­ity, afford­abil­ity and avail­abil­ity and to sup­port access to treat­ment for all those in need” (p. 5)

digital health

• “Urges States to lever­age dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies for the response to COVID-19, includ­ing in sup­port of effi­cient, trans­par­ent and robust immu­niza­tion, address­ing the socioe­co­nomic impact of COVID-19, pay­ing par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to dig­i­tal inclu­sion, patient empow­er­ment and the right to pri­vacy and pro­tec­tion of per­sonal data” (p. 5)