Guinea

The 2020 Constitution is structured around 19 titles and 156 articles covering a wide array of themes including the State and Sovereignty (title I), rights, freedoms and duties (title II), institutional arrangements including the executive power (title III), the legislative power (title IV), their relation (title V), the Constitutional Court (title VI), the judicial power (title VII), the High Court of Justice (title VIII), the High Council for local collectivities (title XIII), Independent National Institution for Human rights (title XIV), local governance structures (title XV) (non exhaustive list of institutions). Title XVI addresses international treaties and agreements while title XVIII governs constitutional revision processes.

The Constitution provides that Guinea is an independent, sovereign, unitary, secular (laic), indivisible, democratic and social Republic (article 1).

The right to health and physical and mental well-being is specifically provided under article 21 of the Constitution which also refers to the State's duty to promote health and fight epidemics and social disorders. Article 22 refers to the right to a clean environment and also addresses the role of the State in ensuring environment protection and improved access to decent housing.

The right to health and physical and mental well-being is specifically provided under article 21 of the Constitution which also refers to the State's duty to promote health and fight epidemics and social disorders. Article 22 refers to the right to a clean environment and also addresses the role of the State in ensuring environment protection and improved access to decent housing.

This law is structured around 8 titles covering medicines and other health products (title 1), medicines for veterinary use (title 2), the general provisions regarding the practice of the profession of pharmacists (title 3), the conditions and rules governing the practice of pharmacy (title 4), medicines and other health products circuit (title 5), inspection and control (title 6), criminal provisions (title 7) and final provisions (title 8).

Title 1 of the law governs the manufacturing (chapter 2), registration (chapter 3) and approval processes (chapter 5) of health products (defined in chapter 1). It also addresses the issue of counterfeit medical products (chapter 7). Last but not least, a national agency for pharmaceutical regulation is created noting that its attributions, organization and operating modalities are to be defined by decree (article 38).

Title 4 addresses the requirements and rules to practice pharmacy - specific requirements are provided in articles 75 to 78; a National Order for Pharmacists is established (article 79) with the mission is to ensure compliance with the principles of the pharmacist's continuing competence, good character and probity (article 81). Among other things, this Order is qualified to represent pharmacy in its field of activity to the public authorities, aid agencies, and national and international professional organizations.

The Public Health Code is organized around three titles ("Livre")- the First addresses general aspects of public health, the Second is dedicated to Public Health measures (including water, sanitation, and food hygiene) and the Third covers health research ethics.

The first title of the Public Health Code addressing general aspects of public health includes a unique chapter on fundamental principles and provisions. This Chapter refers, among other things, to the development of a health map regulated by the ministry in charge of public health (article 2). It also refers to medical and health protection against endemic and epidemic diseases (including through mandatory vaccination) (article 3). Furthermore, this chapter defines the national health Policy and provides guiding principles to inform its contents e.g., emulation of primary care, public sector prevalence over the private sector (that complements the public sector) and intersectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration (article 4 and article 5).

The second title is dedicated to Public Health and includes 14 chapters covering a broad range of public health aspects. This includes, among other things, public hygiene engineering and public hygiene covering among other things water, sanitation, waste management, pesticide (chapter I) food hygiene (chapter II), health and safety of buildings and development projects (chapter III), prevention and control of communicable diseases (chapter V), border health control (chapter VI), prevention and control of non communicable disease including alcoholism, smoking and drug addiction (chapter VII), maternal and child health (chapter IX), mental health (chapter XI), care for the elderly and the disabled (chapter XII) and emergency care (chapter XIV).

The second title is dedicated to Public Health and includes 14 chapters covering a broad range of public health aspects. This includes, among other things, public hygiene engineering and public hygiene covering among other things water, sanitation, waste management, pesticide (chapter I) food hygiene (chapter II), health and safety of buildings and development projects (chapter III), prevention and control of communicable diseases (chapter V), border health control (chapter VI), prevention and control of non communicable disease including alcoholism, smoking and drug addiction (chapter VII), maternal and child health (chapter IX), mental health (chapter XI), care for the elderly and the disabled (chapter XII) and emergency care (chapter XIV).

This decree includes 13 articles covering the mandate of the ministry of health and public hygiene (article 1) and its organization including the Cabinet, support services, national directorates, autonomous public bodies, and deconcentrated services (article 2 to article 8).

Under article 1, the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene is tasked to conceptualize, develop, and implement the governmental policy for Health and Public hygiene. This includes a wide array of responsibilities including, among other things, the elaboration of legislative and regulatory instruments for health and oversight on their implementation, transfer of competence to local level entities and technical support, health promotion, elaboration of models of care, granting of authorization to health facilities, coordination and technical oversight on primary care, traditional medicine and hospitals, advocacy for resource mobilization, health product supply, continuous training, oversee the implementation of international or regional agreement etc. (non exhaustive list).

This decree establishes under the supervision of the Ministry of Health, a public establishment called National Agency for Health Security ("Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire") that has legal personality and management autonomy (articles 1 and 2).

The mission of the National Agency for Health Security is to implement the strategic orientations of the Ministry of Health in the area of health security; specific attributions to deliver on this overall mission are listed in article 4 of the Decree and include among other things, capacity strengthening in the area of surveillance and response, development of a national surveillance system for health hazards, ensuring the implementation of the International Health Regulations (non exhaustive list).