Oral statement on the human rights situation in Africa at the 69th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Around this time last year, three pharmaceutical companies announced that their vaccine candidates were effective against Covid-19, allowing us to hope that the end of the pandemic could be in sight. However, one year on, the vastly unequal global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines serves as a stark reminder of how the pandemic has magnified existing global inequalities. While wealthy countries have fully vaccinated more than 66% of their populations, in Africa only 6.7% of people are fully vaccinated.

In this oral statement Amnesty International calls on the African Commission to (1) urge wealthy states who have stockpiled Covid-19 vaccines to immediately redistribute surplus vaccines and as soon as possible before their expiry dates to allow effective rollout to be planned; (2) urge pharmaceutical companies to deliver at least 50% of vaccines they produce between now and 31 December to low and lower-middle income countries; (3) urge wealthy states and pharmaceutical companies to urgently increase the global supply of Covid-19 vaccines through temporary suspension of intellectual property rights; (4) urge AU member states to ensure transparency on their health budgets and implementation of plans to distribute and administer Covid-19 vaccinations; and (5) in the absence of sufficient supplies of Covid-19 vaccines, to urge AU member states to take effective measures to continue to prioritise vaccination of groups most at risk from the virus.

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