The Council of Europe Convention on the Counterfeiting of Medical Products and Similar Crimes involving Threats to Public Health
Falsified medical products are a danger to public health and can violate the right to life enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. They can cause irreparable harm to millions of unsuspecting consumers via legal supply chains and the internet, and undermine public confidence in health-care systems.
To stop this, the first step is to criminalise the activities connected with the falsification of medical products. This is the aim of the
MEDICRIME Convention (the Council of Europe Convention on the Counterfeiting of Medical Products and Similar Crimes involving Threats to Public Health).
Under the convention, which entered into force in January 2016, intentionally manufacturing, supplying, offering to supply and trafficking of falsified medicines is considered a criminal act. This innovative treaty calls for multilateral collaboration across nations, disciplines and sectors, and lays the ground for co-operation with and between international bodies such as INTERPOL, Europol, UNODC, the WCO and WHO, in order to put a stop to this international threat to public health.
Falsifying medical products is a transnational crime which does not recognise boundaries – therefore each new ratification strengthens the convention’s power to combat this scourge. Your parliament and your country can only benefit from becoming party to the
convention, thus protecting not only your own health but also public health more generally