Page 125 - KDU Law Journal Volume 4 Issue 2

KDU Law Journal Volume 04 Issue II
September, 2024
pathways, guidelines for medical treatment, procurement and supply
chain, equitable pricing, monitoring availability, and guaranteeing
safe and appropriate use among other things. In many low-income
3
nations, less than one in 100 people had received a single dosage of
the vaccine, yet one and a half years after the virus first appeared,
high-income countries had agreements in place to secure enough
doses to vaccinate their populations twice again. 4

There are explicit international, regional and territorial protections to
ensure Right to Health. According to the article 25(1) of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights; Everyone has the right to a living
standard that is sufficient for their own and their families’ health
and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and
essential social services. They also have the right to security in the
event that they become unemployed, ill, disabled, become widowed,
become old, or experience other uncontrollable circumstances that
prevent them from earning a living. At the same time article 12 (1) of
5
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
stipulates that, state parties should recognize the right of everyone
to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and
mental health. Moreover, all the steps should be taken by the States
Parties to the present covenant to achieve the full realization of this
right shall include those necessary for the prevention, treatment and
control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases.
6
‘Health’ is a fundamental and indispensable human right and under
the General Comment No.14 on the Right to the Highest Attainable

3 World Health Organization. (‎2019)‎. Roadmap for access to medicines, vaccines and health
product 2019-2023: comprehensive support for access to medicines, vaccines and other
health products. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/330145.
access on 17 May 2023
th
4 United Nations Development Programme ‘Inequality in Access to Essential Health and
Medicine: COVID19 Vaccines’10 February 2023 https://www.undp.org/publications/in-
equality-access-essential-health-and-medicine-covid19-vaccines access on 17th May 2023
5 UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948,217
A (III)
6 United Nations General Assembly,1966, “International covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights’’ Treaty Series, vol. 993
law.faculty@kdu.ac.lk
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