Summary

Guaranteeing informed consent is fundamental to achieving the enjoyment of the right to health through practices, policies and research that are respectful of autonomy, self-determination and human dignity. An enabling environment that prioritizes informed consent links counselling, testing and treatment, creating an effective voluntary health-care continuum. Safeguarding informed consent along the health-care continuum is an obligation placed on States and third parties engaged in respecting, promoting and fulfilling the right to health. This requires States to ensure that information is fully available, acceptable, accessible and of good quality, and imparted and comprehended by means of supportive and protective measures such as counselling and involvement of community networks.

In the present report the Special Rapporteur considers the evolution of informed consent and discusses its main components in section II. In section III he discusses both the role of informed consent in realizing the right to health and the particular issues, duties and obligations required of States and health-care providers in guaranteeing informed consent in clinical practice, public health and medical research. Section IV outlines the need for law, policy and practice to take into account the vulnerability of certain individuals whose rights are compromised owing to deep-rooted power imbalances and structural inequalities, presenting particular responsibilities to States, health-care providers and third parties involved in ensuring non-discrimination in achieving the right to health. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes in the conclusion of this report the importance of prioritizing informed consent as a critical element of a voluntary counselling, testing and treatment continuum in the development of guidance for clinical practice, public health evidence, and medical research protocols, with special attention to the needs of vulnerable groups.