COVID-19 Pandemic

November 1: At the close of the G20 Rome Summit, global civil society has condemned the inertia of world leaders in tackling medicines monopolies.

October 28, 2021: Ahead of the G20 Leaders’ Summit this week in Rome, trade union leaders from G20 countries, representing millions of workers worldwide, have made a joint statement through the Labour 20 (L20) Summit calling on G20 governments to support the TRIPS waiver proposal

In the lead-up to crucial negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in November and December, The People’s Vaccine have released a viral video calling on political leaders to take action for global vaccine equity.

October 21, 2021: Last week’s meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council failed to decide on the temporary waiver on monopoly rights for COIVD-19 vaccines and related products, despite support from over 100 WTO member countries and numerous reports and protests urging it to do so.

October 14: Coinciding with the WTO TRIPS Council meeting in Geneva this week, activists across Europe and the globe have mobilised to call on European countries to #StopTheBlock of a waiver on intellectual property monopolies on COVID vaccines.

October 13: Ahead of this week’s meeting of the WTO’s Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), Labor has called on the Government to co-sponsor a waiver on medical monopolies.

October 11, 2021: Two major reports have exposed the failings of the current system of global vaccine production and distribution, recommending both increased emergency donations of vaccines and the temporary waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to enable production of cheap vaccines in low-income countries.

October 6, 2021: The campaign for a “TRIPS Waiver” has been featured across ABC News, with AFTINET Convenor Dr. Patricia Ranald telling ABC Radio National AM that the COVID pandemic represents an enormous challenge for the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the international community:

“If the WTO cannot respond to the needs of the majority of people in the world … who are saying, 'We need this waiver of monopolies in order to be able to save millions of lives,' then I think this will be a significant failure for the World Trade Organization."

October 5, 2021: Since the TRIPS Waiver was put to the WTO one year ago, more than 3.6 million people have lost their lives since the proposal was first introduced to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on 2 October 2020.

29 September 2021: As the COVID pandemic continues to devastate low-income countries, 206 major civil society groups have called on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to change WTO rules for monopolies on vaccines that result in “vaccine apartheid”, and to work towards “a new vision of multilateralism which will result in ecological stability and shared prosperity”. The WTO is preparing for a Ministerial meeting in November.