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Tunisia signs the MEDICRIME Convention

Today, Tunisia signed the MEDICRIME Convention.

In total, there are 23 Parties to the Convention and a further 20 are signatories. Tunisia is the 14th non- Council of Europe member state having signed the MEDICRIME Convention.

This signature of the MEDICRIME convention testifies to Tunisia's strong desire to strengthen the fight against the scourge of falsified medicines and represents the culmination of the work carried out by the Tunisian authorities and supported by the Council of Europe in particular through the joint project EU/CoE “Protecting human rights, the rule of law and democracy through shared standards in the southern Mediterranean” (South Program V), which aims in particular to align national legislation with European standards and to support the creation of a common legal space between Europe and the southern Mediterranean region. This process was supported by the International Association of French-speaking Customs Officers (AIDF) and the Secretariat of the Committee of the Parties to the MEDICRIME convention.

Strasbourg 7 February 2024
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Covid 19

At a time when the Covid-19 epidemic is posing unprecedented challenges to the health sector, the Council of Europe calls on governments to be extremely vigilant against counterfeit or falsified medicines and medical products. Faced with this threat, states can rely on the MEDICRIME Convention to safeguard public health and target the criminal behaviour of those who, like criminal networks, take advantage of the loopholes in our systems and of the current crisis.

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"In recent years, occurrences of counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes have increased worldwide. These crimes endanger public health, and affect patients and their confidence in the legal marketplace.

Even more profitable than drug trafficking, this new form of crime has an undeniable advantage for criminals: they go largely unpunished or receive only mild sanctions. Even when states take strict measures to regulate the production and distribution of medical products and devices, these measures often prove insufficient, especially when criminal networks find gaps in national legislations allowing them to make substantial profits at the expense of people’s lives and health. The MEDICRIME Convention was drafted to protect vulnerable patients and their right to safe access to medicines of appropriate quality, and to fight against organised crime. As the first and only international treaty dealing with this problem, the convention aims at prosecuting the counterfeiting of medical products and similar crimes, protecting the rights of victims and promoting national and international co-operation."

Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni
Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe