UN Security Council takes on vaccine inequality

World

Published: 2021-02-14 16:27

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 16:48


Source: AL Jazeera
Source: AL Jazeera

The UN Security Council will discuss on Wednesday the issue of distributing coronavirus vaccines against COVID-19 and is supposed to address a number of issues that could cause division among its members.

Among the questions raised is how to ensure the global distribution of vaccines and prevent rich countries in the northern hemisphere from getting priority in the global race. Other questions to be discussed include: should priority be given to vaccinating peacekeepers who are deployed in some 15 operations and members of UN agencies, including in countries where vaccines do not reach? Who should do that: the United Nations, country of origin or country of deployment?

Currently, wealthy countries control over 90 percent of the vaccine supply. 

"Vaccines and vaccination are not really among the tasks of the UN Security Council," said the ambassador of one of the council’s member states, who asked not to be identified. But he added that "the council can make a contribution," but it is unlikely that a decision will be adopted by the ministerial session that is taking place this week.

The UN Security Council is charged with ensuring peace and security in the world and does not have any specific mandate in the field of global health.

Diplomats said Britain recently introduced a draft decision on vaccine administration to a few countries. One of them stated, "There is a draft resolution and the negotiations are just beginning and will take some time."

The Swedish ambassador of the European Union to the United Nations, Olof Skog, confirms that vaccination "is the biggest challenge at the moment" and "it will take a long time before everyone is vaccinated."

He recalled that the European Union had helped establish the COVAX mechanism, which is supposed to allow the United Nations to "deliver at least two billion doses before the end of 2021, including at least 1.3 billion in 92 low-income countries."

- No discrimination in distributing vaccines -

"What we don't want is an apartheid vaccine," Scroog said, with a north that has it and a south that cannot get its doses, as South Africa recently reported.

He added that negotiations on a UN Security Council resolution could be "complicated", as many countries do not support the idea of "transparency."

Several countries, including China, Russia, and some Gulf countries have already launched "vaccine diplomacy" by promoting their national production or facilitating access to doses.

In his speeches, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, affirms that with the spread of the virus and its variables, security will only be guaranteed if everyone enjoys the same degree of protection. He calls for vaccines to become "common public property" but without actually achieving this yet.

In response to a question about the role of the United Nations in issuing a "vaccination certificate" that cannot be forged, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the international organization, said that there is "a need for international standardization and coordination" in this regard.

He added, "The other worrying issue is the criminal factor. People who visit vaccination certificates or worse, who provide people with fake vaccines," stressing the importance of "international cooperation in this field."


Also read: In Arab world, vaccine inaccessibility exacerbates regional inequality