Covid-19 patent waivers are urgent to avoid further catastrophe | GI-ESCR signs inter-American joint statement

GI-ESCR is amongst the 92 Latin American and global civil society organisations co-signing a statement that calls for the temporary suspension of patents on products for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19.

Share and spread this call with the hashtags:

#NoCovidMonopolies | #LiberenLasPatentes | #LiberemAsPatentes

THE statement

A global response that recognizes vaccines as a common good of humanity is urgent. The temporary suspension of patents is a mandatory step to massively produce the supplies necessary to face the pandemic in the world and guarantee the right to health and life in all countries.

The remedies, supplies and vaccines for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 exist and are inaccessible to the vast majority of the world’s population. The greed of a small group of countries and the business lobby prevent the production of medicine and vaccines from democratizing. This sought and sustained concentration and the opacity surrounding production costs and pricing criteria are prolonging the pandemic and deepening the social and economic crisis in Latin America and the world.

Next Thursday, representatives of the member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will meet to discuss the suspension of intellectual property rights of products for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19. More than 100 WTO member countries and hundreds of civil society organizations accompany the initiative of India and South Africa, calling for the suspension of some rules on intellectual property for vaccines, drugs and medical technologies in order to face the pandemic.

Despite the repeated recommendations of international human rights mechanisms and the WHO itself, a handful of rich countries and companies continue to block the deconcentration of production. The United States, Switzerland, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, members of the European Union repeat the arguments of the pharmaceutical industry: they allege that the laws of the market are sufficient to sort out the distribution of vaccines.

Today we see that under these rules, almost half of the more than 200 million vaccines already administered in the world were applied in the seven richest countries, where 10% of the planet’s population lives. By competing for doses sold at market price, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative has had nearly no impact.

The pandemic has already caused more than 800,000 deaths in Latin America and is radically widening social gaps in the region. It is estimated that 33.7% of the population or 209 million people now live under the poverty line. Extreme poverty rates are at their highest in the last 20 years and hunger and malnutrition are increasing. The only way to begin to reverse this scenario is mass immunization of the population. However, beyond the level of success of government efforts, vaccines are not arriving at the necessary speed.

The economic logic that has been imposed on the right to health puts us before a new global division between immunized and not immunized countries, due to unequal access to vaccines and a fake scarcity that a patent release could revert.

Signatories

Argentina

Agenda de las Mujeres
ALC Noticias
AMMAR- Sindicato de Trabajadorxs Sexuales de Argentina
Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos – APDH
Asociación Argentina de Educadoras/es Sexuales
Asociación Civil CineMigrante
Asociación Civil Colectiva Feminista La Revuelta
Asociación Civil s/f.l. La Grieta
Asociación Metropolitana de Equipos de Salud
Asociación Yanapacuns
Bloque de Trabajadorxs Migrantes
Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales – CELS
Ciudad Futura
Comisión Memoria Verdad y Justicia Zona Norte
Coordinadora de Abogadxs de Interés Público (CAIP)
CTAA Capital Regional Norte
CUESEB – Centro de estudios de salud, economía y bienestar Universidad Nacional del Comahue
Equifem Equipo de investigación feminista
Fondo de Ayuda Toxicológica
Frente Popular Darío Santillán
Fundación El Gran Vidrio
Fundación Empoderada
Fundación Igualdad
Fundación para el Desarrollo de Políticas Sustentables (Fundeps)
Ges Asociación Civil
Grupo Matamba-lbtiq
Instituto de Física de Rosario (IFIR)
Instituto de Políticas Públicas LGBT+
LatFem periodismo feminista
Mariposas naranjas
Memoria Abierta
MNCI Somos Tierra
Museo de la Memoria de Rosario
Ni Una Menos
Núcleo de Estudios Migratorios, IDAES, Universidad Nacional de San Martín
OMEP – Organización Mundial para la Educación Preescolar
Organizaciones Libres del Pueblo – Resistir y luchar
Proyectarg
Red Argentina para el Desarme
Red Nacional de Migrantes y Refugiadxs en Argentina
Revista Furias
Secretaria de Salud de la Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos
Servicio Habitacional y de Acción Social

Bolivia

Asociación de familiares de detenidos desaparecidos y mártires por la liberación nacional – ASOFAMD
Centro de Estudios y Apoyo al Desarrollo Local
Centro de Gestión Cultural Pukañawi
CIES Salud Sexual Salud Reproductiva
Instituto de Terapia e Investigación sobre las Secuelas de la Tortura y la Violencia de Estado (ITEI)
Organización No Gubernamental de Desarrollo Integral MUSUQ ÑAN

Brazil