Closing Remarks – Director General for Human Rights and Rule of Law

Palais de l’Europe, Room 1

Dear participants,

As we come to the close of this conference, I want to thank you all for your active participation and for the quality of our exchanges. These discussions have made one thing clear: health is not just a matter of policy – it is a matter of human rights.

This is at the heart of the Council of Europe’s mission. Through our human rights-based approach, we place health protection where it belongs – at the centre of dignity, equality, and trust in our democratic institutions.

Over today's proceedings, we have looked closely at the challenges we face – growing inequalities, environmental degradation, demographic change, global crises, and misinformation. We have also seen that science and technology bring great opportunities, but they demand ethical vigilance and responsible governance.

Above all, we have been reminded that protecting health is a shared responsibility. It calls for solidarity – between States, institutions, experts, civil society and citizens, at every level from local to international.

This conference has reaffirmed our collective commitment to ensure that no one is left behind, and that solidarity, equality and dignity remain the foundations of health protection in Europe.

It has also shown the vital contribution of the Council of Europe – from fighting the counterfeit of medicines and organ trafficking, to ensuring that artificial intelligence serves people’s health and rights, from health literacy to quality of medicines and healthcare, from tackling addictions and mental health to providing ethical responses to health-related challenges. In doing so, we advance the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 3 and give concrete meaning to the Secretary General’s New Democratic Pact for Europe.

Dear friends,

Let us take from this conference the same sense of purpose and cooperation that has marked our discussions. Together, let us make the right to health protection not only a principle we affirm, but a reality for all.

I thank you all for your contributions not only to this conference but to the work of advancing the mission of the Organisation and upholding the very values it stands for.