RES/32/16 Promoting the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health through enhancing capacity-building in public health

GE.16-12340(E)



Human Rights Council Thirty-second session

Agenda item 3

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 1 July 2016

32/16. Promoting the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the

highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

through enhancing capacity-building in public health

The Human Rights Council,

Recalling General Assembly resolutions 58/3 of 27 October 2003, 59/27 of 23

November 2004 and 60/35 of 30 November 2005,

Recalling also the ministerial declaration adopted at the 2009 high-level segment of

the Economic and Social Council on “Implementing the internationally agreed goals and

commitments in regard to global public health”,

Recalling further Human Rights Council resolutions 16/28 of 25 March 2011 and

30/8 of 1 October 2015, President’s statements PRST/27/4 of 26 September 2014 and

PRST/30/2 of 2 October 2015, and other relevant internationally agreed documents in the

context of public health,

Recalling relevant resolutions of the World Health Organization, including

WHA69.20 of 28 May 2016, on children’s medication, WHA67.22 of 24 May 2014, on

essential medicine, and WHA67.19, also of 24 May 2014, on palliative care,

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, and, 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,

Reaffirming also the right of every human being, without distinction of any kind, to

the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and to a

standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one’s family,

including adequate food, hygiene and sanitation, clothing and housing, and to the

continuous improvement of living conditions,

United Nations A/HRC/RES/32/16

General Assembly

Recalling the Declaration on the Right to Development, which, inter alia, affirms

that States should take, at the national level, all measures necessary for the realization of the

right to development and should ensure, inter alia, equality of opportunity for all in their

access to basic resources, such as health services,

Welcoming the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,1 including its Goal 3,

which highlights the importance of ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all

at all ages, and recalling in that regard the adoption on 28 May 2016 by the World Health

Assembly of its resolution WHA69.11 entitled “Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable

Development”,

Welcoming also the efforts of the World Health Organization, in cooperation with

Member States, in enhancing capacity-building in global public health and in meeting the

targets specified in Sustainable Development Goal 3,

Expressing deep concern at the continued deleterious impact of infectious diseases,

such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, tuberculosis and malaria and the increasing number of

epidemics and health emergencies, and non-communicable diseases, which place major

demands on health resources and capabilities, together with a heavy disease burden on

many countries, in particular developing countries, including the least developed countries,

small island developing States and landlocked developing countries,

Recognizing the values and principles of primary health care, including equity,

solidarity, social justice, universal access to services, multisectoral action, transparency,

accountability and community participation and empowerment,

Recognizing also the need to strengthen resilience and to promote integrated national

health systems aimed at ensuring universal access to quality health-care services, universal

health coverage and social infrastructures and services, including access to medicines and

vaccines, to reinforce measures to eliminate discrimination of any kind in respect for and

the promotion, protection and fulfilment of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the

highest attainable standard of physical and mental health on the basis of equality, and in

this regard to enhance access to information and education for all persons, especially for

those in vulnerable situations,

Convinced that strengthening public health is critical to the development of all

Member States, and that economic and social development are enhanced through measures

that strengthen capacity-building in public health, including training, recruitment and

retention of sufficient public health personnel, and systems of prevention of and

immunization against infectious diseases,

Recognizing the importance of substantially increasing health financing and the

recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing

countries, especially in least developed countries, small island developing States and

landlocked developing countries,

Recognizing also the vital and complementary role of civil society in addressing and

resolving challenges and issues that are important to society, including responding to public

health crises,

Stressing the importance of strengthening the participation of women in decision-

making processes and developing gender-sensitive multisectoral health policies and

programmes in order to address their needs,

1 General Assembly resolution 70/1.

Emphasizing the importance of timely international cooperation in the area of health,

and in particular in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, particularly during

outbreaks and emergencies, including the need to cooperate on health research and

development and tackling antimicrobial resistance based on the principles of mutual respect

and equality, and in the context of the International Health Regulations (2005) of the World

Health Organization, with a view to strengthening capacity-building in public health,

especially in developing countries, through, inter alia, the exchange of information and the

sharing of experience, and research and training programmes focusing on surveillance,

prevention, control, response, and care and treatment,

Emphasizing also, in accordance with the International Conference on Population

and Development, the importance of ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive

health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the

integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes,

Noting the ongoing work of the High-level Commission on Health Employment and

Economic Growth, established by the Secretary-General on 2 March 2016,

1. Urges Member States and the international community to increase

investment, building on existing mechanisms and through partnership, to improve health

systems in developing countries and countries with economies in transition with the aim of

providing sufficient health workers, infrastructures, management systems and supplies to

achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030;

2. Calls upon Member States to take the primary responsibility for

strengthening their capacity-building in public health to detect and respond rapidly to

outbreaks of major infectious diseases through the establishment and improvement of

effective public health mechanisms, including full implementation of the International

Health Regulations (2005), and strategies for training, recruitment and retention of

sufficient public health personnel, and systems of prevention and of immunization against

infectious diseases;

3. Encourages States to promote access to medicines for all, including through

the use, to the full, of the provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of

Intellectual Property Rights which provide flexibility for that purpose, recognizing that the

protection of intellectual property is important for the development of new medicines, as

well as the concerns about its effects on prices;

4. Welcomes in this regard South-South, North-South and triangular

cooperation, and recognizes the commitment to explore opportunities for further South-

South cooperation as a complement, not a substitute, to North-South cooperation;

5. Recognizes the fundamental relevant importance of the transfer of

environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favourable terms, including

on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed;

6. Stresses the importance of enhancing international cooperation in the area of

public health in the aftermath of natural disasters to support national efforts to cope in all

phases of the response, and urges Member States and the international community to

strengthen their cooperation programmes, preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery

in this regard;

7. Acknowledges the contribution of aid targeted towards the health sector,

while recognizing that much more needs to be done, and calls upon States to fulfil their

respective official development assistance commitments, including the commitments by

many developed countries to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national income for

official development assistance, and urges those developed countries that have not done so

to make concrete efforts in this regard in accordance with their commitments;

8. Invites Member States to foster public health systems that ensure the

realization of the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of

physical and mental health, including of those in vulnerable situations;

9. Encourages United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, in particular

the World Health Organization as the lead United Nations agency on health, in accordance

with their respective mandates and as appropriate, to continue to address public health

concerns in their activities and programmes, and to actively support capacity-building in

global public health, such as through the provision of technical and other relevant

assistance to developing countries, including the least developed countries, small island

developing States and landlocked developing countries;

10. Encourages the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, especially the

Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable

standard of physical and mental health and the Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Human Rights, within their existing mandates, to continue to address

public health concerns in their activities and programmes, and where feasible to support

capacity-building in global public health, such as through the provision of technical and

other relevant assistance to developing countries;

11. Decides to convene, at its thirty-fifth session, a panel discussion with the

participation of States, relevant United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, academics

and experts and non-governmental organizations, with the objective of exchanging

experiences and practices on realizing the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest

attainable standard of physical and mental health by enhancing capacity-building in public

health, and that the discussion shall be fully accessible to persons with disabilities, and

requests the High Commissioner to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion and

to submit it to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-sixth session.

43rd meeting

1 July 2016

[Adopted without a vote.]