In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Statement by H.E. Ms. Zahra Ershadi, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

Before the General Assembly

Agenda item 125: Global health and foreign policy

Political Declaration of the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (A/78/L.2) Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (A/78/L.3) Political Declaration on the High-Level Meeting on the Fight Against Tuberculosis (A/78/L.4) - Action on the draft resolutions

Mr. President,

We align ourselves with the statement made by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on behalf of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations and the statement delivered by Cuba on behalf of the Group of 77 plus China and would like to present our statement in national capacity as the explanation of position on the resolutions and three health-related political declarations as annexed thereto, under this agenda item.

Mr. President,

The United Nations, as per the Charter, is based on the sovereign equality of all its Member States; the views and priorities of Member States matter and should be highly respected. Nonetheless, we witnessed during the negotiations of the said political declarations and the processes onwards that this very fundamental principle was frequently disregarded; priorities of few were accommodated to the detriment of many other Member States and even large groups of developing countries; agreed languages were altered for the benefit of few while the proposals of developing countries were ignored; and in general, one-sidedness, deliberate obscurity, and ignorance, unfortunately prevailed over neutrality, transparency and inclusiveness.

My delegation engaged in the negotiations of the health-related draft political declarations in good faith and in the spirit of flexibility expecting that there would be transparent, inclusive, and fair processes that would allow an outcome that every delegation would be generally satisfied with. Nevertheless, the results, in particular given the exclusion of one of our important priorities, proved otherwise. These circumstances made many Member States including large groups of developing countries break silence procedure in many instances twice. The statement delivered on behalf of the G77 and China for the political declaration on tuberculosis is demonstrative of the extent of frustration and discontent suffered by two third of the United Nations as a result of such circumstance.

As a case in point and of a particular importance to my delegation, I would like to refer to the Unilateral Coercive Measures (UCMs) which deleterious and severe negative impacts on the health of people are axiomatic and reflected in many relevant UN documents and more importantly are felt directly on a daily basis by innocent people who have lack of access to medicine, medical products and vaccines resulting from such unlawful measures. As evinced by the Special Rapporteur on the negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, the UCMs result in the violation of all categories of economic, social, and cultural rights, including the rights to life, health, food, adequate standard of living, education, and the right to development.

Such detrimental impacts, affect lives, health and physical and mental wellbeing of affected people including women, children, and the elderly. In addition, unilateral coercive measures undermine the ability of targeted States to meet their obligations and commitments in the area of health while diminishing the resources and capacities in the health sector and beyond. Therefore, a progressive, concise, and action-oriented text on health should indeed address this pressing challenge which above all other external impediments and barriers have a dramatic and obvious negative impact on the health of people.

To just mention an instance of such impacts, I would like to refer to the situation caused by Unilateral Coercive Measures for patients with epidermolysis bullosa, a chronic skin disease that also affect children causing the skin to be fragile and to blister very easily. A certain medical products manufacturer stopped all exports to the Islamic Republic of Iran as a result of UCMs in 2018. As reflected in the report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, the halt in exports, I quote, “included…bandages made only by that company which were vital for patients with epidermolysis bullosa, a horrendous chronic skin disease. This led to greater suffering and even deaths among those children, compromising their rights to health and to life.” Unquote. Many similar barriers in accessing, procuring, and delivering life-saving medicines and medical devices to treat other rare and severe diseases exist due to the unilateral coercive measures.

Distinguished colleagues,

Unilateral Coercive Measures violate human rights and unfortunately continue to inflict immeasurable harm on the health of people. Nothing could ever justify such horrific measures against people, nothing could justify the death of a child who could simply not have a medical product due to UCMs, yet again, we visibly observed during the negotiations few states justifying such unlawful measures while trying to avoid any discussion that would reveal how inhumane such measures are. My delegation along with many other delegations who favored the inclusion of a language addressing this acute challenge in the three draft political declarations constructively engaged in the negotiations and proposed relevant languages on this topic with the idea to improve the text of declarations by giving due regard to one of the major health challenges resulting from such unlawful measures, but even the agreed languages on the UCMs derived from the relevant documents which had been accepted by all UN Member States, were disrespected.

Mr. President,

The extent of frustration among many Member States on the way the three health-related processes have been handled is visible. But unlike the few certain western countries who are the reason for this frustration and situation, we do not intend to be part of the problem rather given the underlying status of the three political declarations in the health context, we decide to join the consensus on the present resolutions with the understanding that such unfair, non-transparent and one-sided processes would not set any precedence in future and will not happen again. With that in mind, please allow me to touch upon a few points as to the substance of the three political declarations, respectively.

We reaffirm the importance of national ownership and the primary role and responsibility of governments at all levels to determine their own path towards achieving universal health coverage and pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response as well as in the area of tuberculosis, in accordance with their national laws, contexts and priorities. We further emphasize on international cooperation, in particular, in supporting and strengthening the capacity of developing countries including through enhanced official development assistance as well as financial and technical support, upon request, and also ensuring unhindered access of developing countries to quality and affordable medicines, medical products and health technologies.

At the end, we would like to clarify a position regarding the present resolutions and the political declarations on the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Universal Health Coverage and Tuberculosis annexed thereto which are going to be adopted by the General Assembly today under this agenda item. In this respect, we would like to reiterate that the consideration and implementation of the provisions of the said political declarations by the Islamic Republic of Iran is subject to and contingent upon its national laws, regulations, policies, and priorities as well as its religious, cultural, and social specificities and values.

I thank you.