UN expert says global coordination and more equitable sharing of COVID-19 vaccines key to recovery
GENEVA (22 January 2021) – States and non-state actors must cooperate in an equitable, globally coordinated vaccine distribution programme, such as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) led by the World Health Organization, or risk stalling recovery from the health pandemic, a UN expert said today. Urging an end to individualised approaches and vaccine competition, the UN Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity, Mr Obiora C. Okafor, madethe following statement:
“The last few weeks of 2020 witnessed the historic approval of several COVID-19 vaccines by regulators in various countries, offering much hope to billions of people worldwide. Several states, mostly in the Global North, have already secured large quantities of the approved vaccines and commenced vaccinating their populations.
GENEVA (22 January 2021) – States and non-state actors must cooperate in an equitable, globally coordinated vaccine distribution programme, such as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) led by the World Health Organization, or risk stalling recovery from the health pandemic, a UN expert said today. Urging an end to individualised approaches and vaccine competition, the UN Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity, Mr Obiora C. Okafor, madethe following statement:
“The last few weeks of 2020 witnessed the historic approval of several COVID-19 vaccines by regulators in various countries, offering much hope to billions of people worldwide. Several states, mostly in the Global North, have already secured large quantities of the approved vaccines and commenced vaccinating their populations.
Egypt’s targeting of human rights defenders must stop, says UN expert
GENEVA (22 January 2021) – A UN expert deplored today the arrest and prolonged pre-trial detention of human rights defenders and bloggers, and their accusation of being members of a terrorist organisation, continuing Egypt’s practice to intimidate and criminalise human rights defenders, journalists and their families. “I am extremely concerned by the seemingly unrelenting efforts of the Egyptian authorities to silence dissent and shrink civic space in the country, despite repeated calls from UN mechanisms and the international community,” said Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
GENEVA (18 January 2021) – Two UN human rights experts today saluted the bravery of anti-corruption activist Mr. Alexei Navalny, and decried his arrest on arrival in Moscow. Agnès Callamard, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Irene Khan, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, called on the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr. Navalny and to ensure that his life and well-being are protected. It is believed that Mr. Navalny’s arrest was related to alleged violations of a suspended sentence for a fraud conviction following proceedings that the European Court of Human Rights said in 2018 were arbitrary and unfair. The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia said in a statement that Mr. Navalny missed regular check-ins, required for his suspended sentence, without a valid reason.
A group
of independent UN rights experts released a
condemning the violent
storming of the United States Capitol building in Washington
DC on 6 January, which they described as a shocking and
incendiary attempt to overturn the results of a free and
fair election.
Twenty-three Special
Rapporteurs and members of Working Groups – unpaid
volunteers who are not UN staff – put their names to the
statement, in which they strongly affirmed and expressed
their “solidarity with the American people who stand for
democracy, equality and the rule of law at this critical
moment”.
De-escalate and unify
The group
announced that they stand with the democratic outcomes of