the 10 Human rights principles
These Principles and their accompanying explanations set out the foundations for the elaboration and content of the proposed Pandemic Treaty. They are deliberately framed at a general level and do not amount to an exhaustive, detailed, or comprehensive list of what the Pandemic Treaty should include.
The States elaborating the Pandemic Treaty and other participants in the drafting process should engage with the full and growing range of diverse inputs from experts, researchers, civil society and community organizations and any other interested stakeholders during the course of treaty deliberations.
States, private actors, international organisations, civil society organisations and all others are encouraged to advocate for the conformity of the proposed Treaty with these principles and international human rights law and standards more broadly. Such advocacy provides an opportunity to ensure effective responses to future pandemics in order to preserve the life, health, dignity, human rights, and livelihoods of all people around the world
the principles
The Pandemic Treaty should be developed through a robust participatory process allowing for the full, equal, meaningful, and effective participation of civil society and community-led organizations on global, regional, and domestic levels from the outset of its development. The Pandemic Treaty itself should provide for procedures on decision making and implementation of national and transnational measures for pandemic preparedness and responses that allow for the full, equal, meaningful, and effective participation of civil society and community organizations at global and domestic levels at all governance and decision-making platforms.
The Pandemic Treaty should enhance, complement, and must not diminish or impair the effective discharge of existing human rights obligations in international human rights law and standards.
Guided by multisectoral One Health and Planetary Health approaches that consider human, animal, and environmental aspects of policies, the Pandemic Treaty should entrench long-term and transformative investments in public health systems of adequate quality, accessibility, acceptability, and availability in all communities. The Pandemic Treaty should effectively regulate private and public sector actions that impact public health in the context of pandemic preparedness and response, while recognizing the benefits of community and national health systems strengthening beyond global health security priorities.
The Pandemic Treaty should expressly prohibit any State or third party action or omission that serves to prevent or cause undue impediments to equitable access to quality diagnostics, medications, vaccines, therapeutics and other relevant health products and services, and reaffirm the positive obligation of States, individually and collectively, to guarantee equitable access to quality diagnostics, medications, vaccines, therapeutics and other relevant health products and services in the context of pandemics.
The Pandemic Treaty should restate and reinforce the international law obligation of States to ensure that any restrictive measures adopted with the purported aim of responding to pandemic threats and other public health emergencies comply with their international human rights law obligations and do not continue to be applied after the end of a pandemic. In general, States should not enact or implement criminal or similarly punitive sanctions to enforce pandemic response measures.
The Pandemic Treaty should reaffirm the principle of equality before the law, equal protection of the law and the prohibition of discrimination on grounds prohibited by international law in the context of preparation for and response to pandemics. It should affirm States’ obligations in the context of pandemics to take proactive measures to realize the human rights of individuals at greater risk of human rights violations, such as those who are criminalized, marginalized and/or groups vulnerable to poor health outcomes as a result of structural barriers.
The Pandemic Treaty should establish dynamic, universal, periodic, and independent review procedures and processes to facilitate
Accountability of duty-bearers under the treaty. The Pandemic Treaty should recall the international law obligation of States to ensure access to justice and effective remedies for human rights violations and abuses, and require States to provide for such access to justice and effective remedies in a timely manner in the context of their domestic pandemic responses.
The Pandemic Treaty should ensure that measures for pandemic preparedness are undertaken with respect for and contribute to the realization of all human rights, including in particular Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR), and that responses to pandemics do not result in violations of any human rights, including ESCR.
The Pandemic Treaty should incorporate the individual and collective obligation of States to engage in international cooperation and assistance, and establish measurable and objective mechanisms to facilitate the universal, collaborative, coordinated and equitable enjoyment of human rights in pandemic preparedness and response measures, including through global solidarity in global health.
The Pandemic Treaty should reaffirm States’ obligation to proactively ensure the accessibility of all public health information necessary in pandemic preparedness and responses, including through public dissemination of disaggregated data. The Pandemic Treaty should provide for an obligation for States to put in place adequate and effective human rights safeguards when data and technology are used with the stated aim of responding to or in preparation for pandemics, particularly in the deployment of new technologies and infrastructure, and new sources of data. Obligations to share information, sequences, or samples should be coupled with obligations to equitably share the benefits of the use of information, sequences, and samples, as well as ensure availability and access to technologies.
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