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

1. Agenda de las Mujeres

2. ALC Noticias

3. AMMAR- Sindicato de Trabajadorxs Sexuales de Argentina

4. Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos – APDH

5. Asociación Argentina de Educadoras/es Sexuales

6. Asociación Civil CineMigrante

7. Asociación Civil Colectiva Feminista La Revuelta

8. Asociación Civil s/f.l. La Grieta

9. Asociación Metropolitana de Equipos de Salud

10. Asociación Yanapacuns

11. Bloque de Trabajadorxs Migrantes

12. Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales – CELS

13. Ciudad Futura

14. Comisión Memoria Verdad y Justicia Zona Norte

15. Coordinadora de Abogadxs de Interés Público (CAIP)

16. CTAA Capital Regional Norte

17. CUESEB – Centro de estudios de salud, economía y bienestar Universidad Nacional del Comahue

18. Equifem Equipo de investigación feminista

19. Fondo de Ayuda Toxicológica

20. Frente Popular Darío Santillán

21. Fundación El Gran Vidrio

22. Fundación Empoderada

23. Fundación Igualdad

24. Fundación para el Desarrollo de Políticas Sustentables (Fundeps)

25. Ges Asociación Civil

26. Grupo Matamba-lbtiq

27. Instituto de Física de Rosario (IFIR)

28. Instituto de Políticas Públicas LGBT+

29. LatFem periodismo feminista

30. Mariposas naranjas

31. Memoria Abierta

32. MNCI Somos Tierra

33. Museo de la Memoria de Rosario

34. Ni Una Menos

35. Núcleo de Estudios Migratorios, IDAES, Universidad Nacional de San Martín

36. OMEP – Organización Mundial para la Educación Preescolar

37. Organizaciones Libres del Pueblo – Resistir y luchar

38. Proyectarg

39. Red Argentina para el Desarme

40. Red Nacional de Migrantes y Refugiadxs en Argentina

41. Revista Furias

42. Secretaria de Salud de la Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos

43. Servicio Habitacional y de Acción Social

Bolivia

1. Asociación de familiares de detenidos desaparecidos y mártires por la liberación nacional – ASOFAMD

2. Centro de Estudios y Apoyo al Desarrollo Local

3. Centro de Gestión Cultural Pukañawi

4. CIES Salud Sexual Salud Reproductiva

5. Instituto de Terapia e Investigación sobre las Secuelas de la Tortura y la Violencia de Estado (ITEI)

6. Organización No Gubernamental de Desarrollo Integral MUSUQ ÑAN

Brazil

1. Articulação Pacari Raizeiras do Cerrado

2. Artigo 19

3. Centro de Direitos Humanos e Cidadania do Imigrante (CDHIC)

4. Conselho Indigenista Missionário – Cimi

5. Fórum Justiça

6. Instituto Marielle Franco

7. Laboratório de Direitos Humanos da UFRJ

8. Movimento Nacional de Direitos Humanos – MNDH Brasil

9. MTST – Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto

10. Núcleo de Preservação da Memória Política

11. Terra de Direitos

Chile

1. Fondo Alquimia

2. Fundación 1367 Casa Memoria José Domingo Cañas

3. Observatorio Ciudadano

4. Observatorio de Equidad de Género en Salud, OEGS

5. Observatorio de Género y Equidad

Colombia

1. Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo” – CAJAR

2. Dejusticia

Ecuador

1. COCASEN Coalición Contra el Abuso Sexual

2. FUNDACIÓN ACCIÓN SOCIAL INTEGRAL MULTISECTORIAL (FASIM)

3. Misión Scalabriniana

4. Servicio Jesuita a Refugiados Ecuador

5. Surkuna

Honduras

1. Centro de Derechos de Mujeres

2. Comité de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)

Mexico

1. FIAN México

2. Global Initiave for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

3. Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos

4. Poiesis, SC.

5. ProDESC (Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales)

Paraguay

1. CONAMURI

2. DECIDAMOS, Campaña por la Expresion Ciudadana

3. Organización de Mujeres Campesinas e Indígenas CONAMURI

4. SERPAJ-PY (Servicio Paz y Justicia Paraguay)

Peru

1. Asociación Centro Loyola Ayacucho

2. INPPARES

USA

1. Guías de Salud Hesperian

2. Oficina en Washington para Asuntos Latinoamericanos (WOLA)

3. University Network for Human Rights

Venezuela

1. SURES

Regional

1. RedTraSex LAC (Red de mujeres trabajadoras sexuales de Latinoamérica y El Caribe)

International

1. Global Initative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

2. Sexual Rights Initiative