Efficacy of constitutional support to enhance access to essential medicines as a human right to health in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Access to essential medicines is an element of the international agreements on the human right to health. This review summarizes the current situation concerning access to medicines in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) by examining the policies, constitutional provisions and other legal instruments of the Member States. The constitutions of 18 out of 22 EMR countries enshrine health as a human right (8 countries have a duty statement, 5 have a programmatic statement and 5 specify entitlement); only 4 EMR countries do not enshrine health as a human right in a clause in their constitution. More than half the countries (i.e. 12) have an official national medicines policy, 4 have a draft policy and 6 have no national medicines policy. A total of 11 countries operate an essential medicines list. Realization of this right to health necessitates that duty bearers take all necessary legislative measures to respect, protect and fulfil this right.