Appeal to Declare Covid19 Vaccine A Global Common Good Now
Declare Covid-19 Vaccine A Global Common Good Now
COVID-19 VACCINE FOR ALL
Declare Covid-19 Vaccine A Global Common Good Now
We, the undersigned make this joint appeal to all the global leaders, International Organizations, and Governments to adopt legal measures and make official statements declaring COVID-19 vaccines as a Global Common Good, free from any patent right belonging to anyone. The signatories below include Nobel Laureates and Nobel Laureates Organisations, civil society leaders, world moral leaders from all over the globe.
1. RIGHT TO THE FREE ACCESS TO THE VACCINE FOR ALL
Our right to health can be guaranteed only by our duty to health, both on individual and collective level. As a priority, there is a need for our conceptual recognition, and actual translation into action, of our responsibilities. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across mother earth, there is an explosion of research activities and clinical trials to find cures and vaccines. Indeed, everyone converges on the idea that ultimately the only way to definitively eradicate the pandemic is to have a vaccine that can be administered to all the inhabitants of the planet, urban or rural, men or women, living in rich or poor countries.
Pandemic clearly exposes the strength and weaknesses of healthcare systems in different countries, as well as the obstacles and inequities of access to healthcare. The effectiveness of the upcoming vaccination campaign will depend on its universality. Governments, Foundations, international financial organizations like the World Bank and the regional development banks should work out details of how to make the vaccines available free of cost. Only people who are willing to pay or will donate to a National Covid-19 Fund to finance free distribution may receive special delivery services and the vaccine.
We appeal to governments, foundations, charity organizations, philanthropist individuals and social businesses (that is, business which are created to solve people’s problems without taking any personal profit out of them) to come forward to produce and/or distribute the vaccines all over the world. We invite all social, political, and health entities to re-affirm our collective responsibility for the protection of all vulnerable persons related to poverty, discrimination, gender, illness, loss of autonomy or functionality, or age.
2. TRANSPARENCY IN DETERMINING FAIR RETURN ON RESEARCH INVESTMENTS
The research for a vaccine is a long process. Stipulated time for COVID-19 vaccines is about 18 months or less which would be an absolute speed record.
This research needs immense economic investments. Many private sector research laboratories who are engaged in the vaccine research will be expecting a return on their investments. We must work out an unambiguous procedure to determine what would be a fair level of this return in exchange for putting the vaccine in the public domain. For this reason, information issued by private sector, scientists, authorities, need to be timely, accurate, clear, complete, and transparent. The research results should be in the public domain, making it available any production facility under strict international regulatory supervision.
3. ACTION PLAN
We urge World Health Organization to design a World Action Pan on COVID-19 vaccine. We appeal to them to set up an international committee responsible for monitoring the vaccine research and assure equal access to the vaccine for all countries and all people within a publicly announced pre-determined timeframe.
We appeal to all world leaders, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director General of the World Health Organization, religious leaders, social leaders, moral leaders, leaders of research laboratories, pharmaceutical companies and media leaders to join hands to ensure in the case of Covid-19 vaccine we have a global consensus, far ahead of actual production and distribution of the vaccine.
Signatories:
1. Professor Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate
2. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate
3. Máiread Maguire, 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate
4. Professor Adolfo Perez Esquivel, 1980 Nobel Peace Laureate
5. HE President Lech Wałęsa, Former President of Poland and 1983 Nobel Peace Laureate
6. Sir Richard J. Roberts, 1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
7. Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace laureate
8. José Ramos-Horta, 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate
9. Jody Williams,1997 Nobel Peace Laureate
10. Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate
11. Elizabeth Blackburn, 2009 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine
12. Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate, UN SDG Advocate Alumni
13. Tawakkol Karman, 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate
14. Nadia Murad Basee Taha, 2018 Nobel Peace Laureate
15. Luigino Bruni, Professor, Economics, Libera Università Maria Ss. Assunta (LUMSA), Italy
16. Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
17. Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland
18. Romano Prodi, Former President of EU and Former Italian PM
19. Father Enzo Fortunato Spokesperson of the Sacred Convent and Papal Basilica of Assisi
20. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, UN SDG Advocate, Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University
21. Sharon Stone, Actress, Human Rights Activist
22. Mo Ibrahim, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
23. Father Giulio Albanese, Journalist and Writer
24. Narayana Murthy, Co-Founder, Infosys
25. Hon. Nicola Zingaretti Chairman and leader of the Italian Democratic Party
26. Raffaele Lomonaco Professor of Economics of the, Pontifical Lateran Universit
27. Bujar Nishani, President of Albania 2012-2017;
28. Mladen Ivanic, President of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2014-2018
29. Djoomart Otorbayev, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan 2014-2015
30. Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan 2004-2007
31. Aleksandr Kwasniewski, President of Poland 1995-2005
32. Mirko Cvetkovic, Prime Minister of Serbia 2008-2012
33. Yves Leterme, Prime Minister of Belgium 2008, 2009-2011
34. Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO
35. Abdulaziz Altwaijri, former Director General of ISESCO
36. Rexhep Meidani, President of Albania 1997-2002
37. HRH Prince Turki bin Al-Faisal
38. Filip Vujanovic, President of Montenegro 2003-2018
39. Nathalie de Gaulle, Co-Founder & President NB-INOV, Adviser to the Nizami Ganjavi International Center
40. Eka Tkeshelashvili, deputy Prime Minister of Georgia 2010-2012
41. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius 2015-2018
42. Jadranka Kosor, Prime Minister of Croatia 2009-2011
43. Ivo Josipovic, President of Croatia 2010-2015
44. Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania 1996-2000
45. Petru Lucinschi, President of Moldova 1997-2001
46. Petar Stoyanov, President of Bulgaria 1997-2002
47. Rosen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria 2012-2017
48. Mats Karlsson, Vice President of the World Bank 1999-2002