The right to health as the basis for universal access to essential medicines:A normative framework and practical examples for national law and policy

Since 2000, access to essential medicines has been widely acknowledged as part of the right to health. Yet, access to essential medicines for the world’s poor and vulnerable has made little progress except for a few specific medicines such as antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS. Political indifference and a lack of legal protection for vulnerable people who rely on government-funded health care, drive these global inequities. Human rights principles and language written in national laws and policies can create a supportive environment for universal access to medicines. This thesis is the first systematic investigation of how international human rights law can be translated into policy lessons about access to medicines for national law and policy makers. This thesis developed a normative compass and policy checklist based on human rights law that can be used as a guide for writing new legislation. Our tool is both a check-list and a wish-list for inserting human rights language in national laws and policies about medicines. National policy makers can use the example legal texts in this thesis as a starting point to design medicines legislation and policy for affordable, equitable, and accountable access to medicines. This policy checklist and these examples may contribute to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development target 3.8 on universal access to essential medicines, and to the World Health Organization’s Medicines & Health Products Strategic Programme 2016-2030 goal 7 to develop model legislation for medicines reimbursement