UN committee calls on rich nations to waive Covid vaccine patents, cites racial discrimination concerns

A committee within the United Nations (UN) has called on wealthy nations, including Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States, to waive the patents on coronavirus vaccines.

The antiracism committee argues that these patents violate a guarantee against racial discrimination.

Covid vaccines and patents

Previously, in June 2022, member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to allow developing nations to lift COVID-19 vaccine patents for a period of five years. However, subsequent talks on this matter have got nowhere.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is a group of 18 independent human rights experts, has expressed dissatisfaction with the dated agreement.

The group of experts whose view are not binding said that the agreement has not done enough to address the disparities in vaccine access.

Vaccine disparity

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO), only 32 per cent of people around the globe have received at least one booster or additional vaccine dose.

It also states that in some developing countries such as Gabon, Papua New Guinea, Burundi and Madagascar, this figure remains at less than one per cent.

The UN committee remarked that the rich nations' "persistent refusal" to waive intellectual property rights "raises concerns" about their obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

AFP reports that the committee further emphasised that"COVID-19 remains a serious public health issue with devastating negative impacts", which has a disproportionate "devastating" impact on people of African or Asian descent, ethnic minorities, Roma communities, and Indigenous peoples.

Remedies the committee suggested

The committee suggests that these inequalities could be "significantly mitigated" by sharing access to intellectual property rights for life-saving vaccines, treatments, and technologies, which are "currently reserved by a few countries in the global North".

It further urged State parties to prioritise human rights concerns and to include robust human rights safeguards, including establishing a mechanism that makes it obligatory for governments to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights during health crises.

It called upon "States parties in the global North to provide resources to enable poorer States to satisfy the core medical capacities that they are now expected to have in place under the International Health Regulations and to enable vaccines, relevant medicines and other necessary equipment and supplies to be available to all."

(With inputs from agencies)

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