L’8 giugno 2010, l’Osservatore Permanente della Santa Sede presso l’Ufficio
delle Nazioni Unite, S.E. Mons. Silvano Maria Tomasi, ha pronunciato alla 14a
Sessione Ordinaria del Consiglio dei Diritti dell’Uomo, in corso a Ginevra, l’intervento
che riportiamo qui di seguito:
INTERVENTO DI S.E. MONS. SILVANO M. TOMASI
Mr.
President,
With
regard to the
right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health, my
delegation wishes to raise additional concerns regarding the need for effective
action in order to guarantee Universal Access to medicines and diagnostic tools
for all persons. The Special Rapporteur focused on this issue during his Report
to the Eleventh Session of this distinguished Council[1].
However, continued vigilance must be maintained in this regard.
As the members of this Council already are well aware, the
right to health is universally recognized as a fundamental right. Article 25 of
the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) includes the right to health
and medical care within the more general rubric of the right “to enjoy an
adequate standard of living.”[2]
Article 12.1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR), however, directly recognizes the right to enjoy the best
physical and mental condition.[3].
The
Committee on Economic and Cultural Rights, in its General Comment No. 14[4],
moreover, identified the following minimum requirements for States to ensure:
(1) the right of access to health care in a non-discriminatory way, (2) access
to basic nutritional level, (3) access to housing, basic sanitation and a
sufficient supply of drinking water, (4) the supply of essential drugs, (5)
an equitable distribution of benefits and health services, and (6) adoption of
national strategies to prevent and combat epidemics.
Mr. President, the Catholic Church provides a major contribution to health
care in all parts of the world – through local churches, religious
institutions and private initiatives, which act on their own responsibility and
in the respect of the law of each country – including the promotion of 5,378
hospitals, 18,088 dispensaries and clinics, 521 leprosaria, and 15,448 homes for
the aged, the chronically ill, or disabled people. With information coming from
these on-the-ground realities in some of the most poor, isolated, and
marginalized communities, my delegation is obliged to report that the rights
detailed in the international instruments already mentioned are far from being
realized.
One major impediment to the realization of these rights is the lack of
access to affordable medicines and diagnostic tools that can be administered and
utilized in low-income, low-technology settings. Among the disturbing trends and
findings reported by the Special Rapporteur are the following: “Diseases
of poverty” still account for 50 per cent of the
burden of disease in developing countries, nearly ten times higher than in
developed countries[5];
more than 100 million people fall into poverty annually because they have to pay
for health care[6];
in developing countries, patients themselves pay for 50 to 90 per cent of
essential medicines[7];
nearly 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines [8].
One group particularly deprived of access to medicines is that of children.
Many essential medicines have not been developed in appropriate formulations or
dosages specific to pediatric use. Thus families and health care workers often
are forced to engage in a “guessing game” on how best to divide adult-size
pills for use with children. This situation can result in the tragic loss of
life or continued chronic illness among such needy children. For example, of the
2.1 million children estimated to be living with HIV infection[9],
only 38% were received life-saving anti-retroviral medications at the end of
2008[10].
This treatment gap is partially due to the lack of “child friendly”
medications to treat the HIV infection.
Thus
the Committee on the Rights of the Child has declared: “The
obligations of States parties under the Convention extend to ensuring that
children have sustained and equal access to comprehensive treatment and care,
including necessary HIV-related drugs … on a basis of non-discrimination.[11]”
My
delegation is well aware of the complexities inherent in the intellectual
property aspects related to the issue of access to medicines. These
considerations, including the flexibilities available to applying the Agreement
on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, are well documented in
the 2009 Report of the Special Rapporteur. We
further recognize that serious
efforts already have been undertaken to implement the Global Strategy and Plan
of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, established in
2008 by the 61stWorld Health Assembly. However, the intense debates
recently pursued at the 63rd World Health Assembly demonstrate that
the international community has not yet succeeded in its aim to provide
equitable access to medicines and indicate the need for further creative
reflection and action in this regard.
Mr. President, my delegation urges this Council to renew its commitment as
a key stakeholder in efforts to assert and safeguard the right to health by
guaranteeing equitable access to essential medicines. We do so with a firm
conviction that “…
treatment should be extended to every human being” and as an essential element
of “the search for the greatest possible human development… and with a
strong belief that “[t]his ethical perspective [is] based on the dignity of
the human person and on the fundamental rights and duties connecte with it
…”[12]
[1]
Report of the Special Rapporteur
on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health to the Eleventh Session of the Human Rights
Council, Eleventh Session, A/HRC/11/12, 31 March 2009
[5]
World
Health Organization, Public Health Innovation and Intellectual Property
Rights, A Report of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights,
Innovation and Public Health (
Geneva
, 2006) p. 3.
[00923-02.01] [Original text: English]
[B0408-XX.01]
INTERVENTO DELLA SANTA SEDE ALLA 14a SESSIONE ORDINARIA
DEL CONSIGLIO DEI DIRITTI DELL’UOMO SULL’ACCESSO ALLE MEDICINE
, 21.06.2010