T
he 11th of March 2021 marked the oneyear anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The pandemic has caused devastation across the globe: killing over 2.69 million people and bringing economies to a standstill. There is, however, a flicker of hope as various effective vaccines have been developed. Unfortunately, this flicker is being snuffed out by wealthier countries in the Global North whose actions have created a system of “Vaccine Apartheid” – a term used to describe the inequitable access and distribution of vaccines across the world. Dr Tedros, the WHO Director general, has classified this as a ‘catastrophic moral failure’ for which the price will be disproportionately paid by poorer countries in the Global South. This, however, is not simply a moral conundrum as access to essential medicines is provided for under the right to health which is recognised both internationally and domestically. International law instruments such as the United Nation (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (often referred to as the ‘Ruggie Principles’) have emphasised that while states are the primary duty bearers, companies have 4
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a responsibility to respect human rights. While the Ruggie Principles are soft law, it has been widely supported by states, civil society and even various corporations. More specifically, in the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in Relation to Access to Medicines, the former UN Special Rapporteur – Paul Hunt, stated that pharmaceutical companies who are patent holders of life-saving medicines bear additional duties especially when the patented medicines have been developed with great aid from publicly funded research and laboratories. Wealthier countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom have had the opportunity to pre-order vaccines from various pharmaceutical manufacturers. This has left other countries with no option but to wait at the back of the vaccine queue. Canada, for instance, has procured five times the amount of vaccines necessary for its population size. Vaccine hoarding by wealthier countries threatens global immunity, and to a large extent, Priyanka Naidoo
