The Council of Europe’s Medicrime Convention (https://bit.ly/3kaB06k ) will be presented at the ‘Paris Peace Forum’ which will take place online from 11 to 13 November (https://bit.ly/36hD8US ).
Dedicated to the coronavirus response, this 3rd edition of the Forum will welcome, among others, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, in charge of the ‘Green Deal’.
The only international legal instrument criminalising the manufacture and distribution of falsified medical products, the Medicrime Convention was opened for signature in 2011 and entered into force in 2016. It now has 18 ratifications, 14 Council of Europe Member States, as well as Belarus and three African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso and Guinea).
The stakes are high in a context where mass distribution of falsified medical products is now a lucrative and low-risk industry, facilitated by the Internet. No country is spared and the Covid-19 pandemic has rolled out the red carpet, as the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe pointed out in an op-ed published in early May. Marija Pejčinović Burić reported on the ‘Pangea’ operation launched by Interpol at the beginning of the health crisis in March. This resulted in 121 arrests and the seizure of potentially dangerous pharmaceutical products worth more than 13 million euros. And this is only the “tip of the iceberg”, the Secretary-General pointed out, referring to ineffective masks, fancy “coronavirus kits”, fake test kits, etc., sold anonymously, but not hesitating to usurp the names of international organizations or well-known brands.
Faced with this plight, the Medicrime Convention proposes a three-pronged response: - full use of the criminal justice system to incriminate the perpetrators of these heinous offences; - national (customs, law enforcement, agencies, regulatory bodies, hospitals, pharmacies, etc.) and international cooperation (sharing of evidence and information); - protection of victims’ rights.
Accession to the Medicrime Convention helps governments to equip themselves with the right tools to combat counterfeiting and the distribution of medical products, which are at best ineffective, at worst dangerous and even fatal, says the Council of Europe, which is determined to promote this text which, in its view, represents “a unique means of achieving genuine global governance of public health”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)