Armenia to join Oviedo Convention

ArmInfo.  Armenia intends to become a party to the Oviedo Convention. The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia will discuss in the first reading the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine (Oviedo  Convention), submitted for ratification, at a plenary session on  April 18.

According to Lena Nanushyan, First Deputy Minister of Health of the  Republic of Armenia, the Convention was opened for signature on April  4, 1997 and entered into force on December 1, 1999. The Republic of  Armenia signed it on May 16, 2024. The purpose and subject of the  Convention is to protect human dignity in the application of biology  and medicine without any discrimination, guaranteeing personal  inviolability and other rights and fundamental freedoms of every  person. This is the only Convention in the field of health dedicated  to human rights.

According to the Deputy Minister, the treaty nature of the document  obliges the states that have ratified it to adopt legislation or  bring their current domestic legislation into line with the  fundamental principles of the Convention. The provisions of the  document are of a framework nature and define the main guiding  principles for the protection of human dignity, rights and freedoms  in the field of biomedicine, on the basis of which the most sensitive  and vulnerable relationships related to human dignity, rights and  freedoms in the field of biomedicine are constantly subject to  international legal regulation.

"It is important to note that the Convention establishes minimum  requirements guaranteeing the protection of rights in the field of  using the achievements of biology and medicine, which must be ensured  by the states parties to the Convention," the Deputy Minister noted.  She added that the Convention establishes rules on such issues as the  patient's informed consent to any medical intervention, the need to  maintain medical confidentiality, the ban on financial gain in organ  or tissue transplantation, as well as a number of other provisions  concerning the rights of patients.

The Deputy Minister also reported that the convention has already  been ratified by more than 35 countries.