December 8, 2021: One hundred and twenty-eight civil society groups from around the world last week sent an open letter to the Director General of the World Trade Organisation asking the WTO to resume urgent negotiations and decide to waive monopolies on COVID1-19 vaccines and related products.
December 7, 2021:The World Health Organisation treaty for handling future pandemics initiated last week should include waiving rules on vaccine monopolies and sharing knowledge to enable developing countries to produce their own vaccines, but the timetable is too slow and too late to save lives in the COVID-19 pandemic.
December 1, 2021: While rich countries like Australia are reaching 80% or more double vaccination rates, less than 5% of people in many low income countries have received COVID-19 vaccines. Millions are dying while new more infectious strains of the virus like Omicron develop, reports AFTINET Convenor Patricia Ranald in Michael West Media.
The global federation of nurses and carers unions, Global Nurses United (GNU), has appealed to the United Nations to conduct a mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to investigate the role of member states in blocking access to COVID19 vaccines for low-income countries.
November 29: An alliance of health, human rights, fair-trade and labour rights advocates have warned Trade Minister Dan Tehan that global efforts to lift COVID-19 vaccine patent monopolies would be undermined by a draft statement that Australia sponsored before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Meeting which was due to meet this week.
November 22, 2021:An alliance of health, human rights and fair-trade organisations have today joined forces to rally today at 12 pm outside Pfizer Australia’s office at 151 Clarence St, Sydney. They are calling for the pharmaceuticals giant to put the Covid-19 vaccination needs of millions of people in low and lower-middle income countries ahead of its own revenue targets
November 20, 2021: Ahead of crucial World Trade Organisation (WTO) meetings in Geneva this month, advocates for global vaccine equity have slammed sluggish progress of negotiations for a waiver on intellectual property rules which would allow low-income countries to produce their own vaccines.
November 11, 2021: At the AFTINET 2021 AGM, our special guest Dr. Deborah Gleeson gave a keynote speech on the campaign for global vaccine equity. In her speech, Deborah updated AFTINET supporters on campaign developments in the leadup to the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Meeting at the end of November, and she spoke about the next steps the world must take to secure vaccine equity through a waiver on medicines monopolies at the WTO
In the lead-up to crucial negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in November and December, Amnesty International Australia is calling on pharmaceutical companies to stop blocking initiatives that could deliver vaccine equity for low-income countries, including the temporary waiver on WTO monopoly rules.
November 11, 2021: Ahead of critical meetings in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) this month, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has published a legal opinion detailing the human rights obligations of countries in regards to the proposed TRIPS Waiver on COVID-19 vaccine monopolies.