A Declaration on the Right to Universal Access to All Forms of Safe and Effective Medicine
WHEREAS Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts that every person has the right “to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family”;
WHEREAS, Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a binding treaty ratified by 170 States, recognizes the right of everyone to "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health";
WHEREAS both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights specify a number of means necessary to realise these rights, including medical care;
WHEREAS medical care includes access to those medicines necessary to preserve health and well-being;
NOTING that many medicines grow without human intervention in nature and therefore form part of the commons owned and shared by the human family;
RECOGNISING the primary role of the medical and allied professions in preserving and enhancing the health and well-being of the individuals and communities they serve – and that in the pursuit of those noble ends they should have access to the full suite of remedies and tools that nature and human ingenuity have produced:
1. WE CALL UPON ALL GOVERNMENTS to make available, to all persons, every reasonably accessible form of safe and effective medicine – regulated only for reasons of safety and efficacy and then only to the extent strictly necessary.
