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Resolution 2114 (2016)
The handling of international public-health emergencies
1. Europe and other continents have
seen significant progress in recent decades as regards health. However,
in recent years the world has suffered three international public-health
emergencies (linked to the H1N1, Ebola and Zika viruses) with a
huge impact on essential human rights, including the right to life
and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. In an
increasingly globalised world, diseases are more likely to spread
at high speed.
2. Today’s health security threats arise from at least six sources:
the emergence and spread of new microbes; the globalisation of travel
and food supply; the rise of drug-resistant pathogens; the inadvertent
or intentional release of pathogens; the acquisition, development
and use of biological agents by terrorists; and natural disasters
followed by epidemics. These major health hazards have the capacity
to threaten national and international security and stability, constrain
economies and put pressure on health-care systems.
3. The world is woefully ill-prepared to handle international
public-health emergencies. New ways of working to face international
health crises before they happen need to be explored urgently. The
existing worldwide health-system architecture needs to be strengthened
with an empowered, well-governed and accountable World Health Organization
(WHO) at its apex, and efficient, equitable and resilient national
health systems at its foundation. Political decisions must be taken
in order to change health systems and effectively protect people’s
health.
4. All political decision makers at all levels (including the
Parliamentary Assembly, the European Union and WHO) need to agree
to improve international emergency preparedness, including through
legislative changes. The Parliamentary Assembly thus recommends
that member States work together with these political decision makers
to:
4.1. make WHO the lead institution
in handling international public-health emergencies, and ensure that
it has the necessary powers and stable financing to effectively
implement and monitor the International Health Regulations and reinforce
its rapid response mechanism;
4.2. ensure effective co-operation, co-ordination and follow-up
between WHO, the European Union, other specialised agencies of the
United Nations, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
and relevant international non-governmental organisations;
4.3. actively participate in the World Health Assembly with
a view to ensuring good governance of WHO, as well as promoting
and monitoring reform efforts, including transparency in the composition
of expert panels;
4.4. build up resilient health-care systems at the national
level, with strategies in place to prevent and handle major public-health
hazards, including early detection, accurate data collection, availability
of diagnostic and treatment tools, and real-time continuous monitoring
to improve results in accordance with international recommendations;
4.5. put in place a financial structure for pandemic risk management
able to disburse sufficient resources to respond to priority needs,
and provide adequate financial support for programmes promoting
public health at local, regional, national and international level;
4.6. promote community engagement and mobilisation as essential
elements of any action plan to deal with international public-health
emergencies;
4.7. develop partnerships between the public and private sectors,
particularly in the areas of communication, information-management
systems, logistics, provision of necessary medical supplies and
mobilisation of health-care workers;
4.8. create and collaborate with international rapid response
medical emergency teams, including specialists in public health,
doctors, nurses and other community health workers, who should be adequately
protected against risks and be specifically trained, ensuring that
they can be safely evacuated if necessary;
4.9. facilitate access to scientific knowledge and information
to all stakeholders in a timely manner, including an open data-sharing
system for epidemiological, genomic, clinical and anthropological evidence,
from academia to the front line;
4.10. promote research and development of medicines, diagnostic
kits and vaccines, in a spirit of solidarity, with adequate research
ready to be tested during an epidemic, with a view to creating fast-track
authorisation procedures and ensuring that any medicines or vaccines
thus developed are accessible and affordable, in particular to vulnerable
groups, and keeping a reasonable stock whilst adhering to strict
security conditions;
4.11. in the case of a public-health emergency created by a
transmissible disease, carefully design and implement any public-health
control measures for disease mitigation (such as quarantining, social distancing,
border controls and travel restrictions) which could impinge on
individual rights and freedoms;
4.12. following a public-health emergency, arrange rehabilitation
and psychological help in order to avoid further discrimination
of survivors or stigmatisation of disabled patients.
5. The Assembly calls on member States to support political actions
and legislative changes at world level to promote reducing, at source,
risks of zoonotic potential, including food-borne diseases and severe
animal diseases.
6. The Assembly recognises the role of the European Directorate
for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM) of the Council
of Europe as an organisation contributing to quality health care,
and promoting and protecting human and animal health. It thus invites
its member States and its governing bodies to consider involving
the EDQM in preventing and dealing with international public-health
threats and designing appropriate public-health strategies, in particular
in the field of medicines, vaccines and diagnostic tools, possibly
with the help of a mandatory levy on sales and activities.
7. The Assembly calls on the member States to commit to the international
target set by the United Nations of providing 0.7% of gross national
income as official development assistance, with a view to strengthening basic
health systems and enabling the most affected and at-risk countries
to better withstand future public-health emergencies.