Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you for this invitation.
Amnesty International, as an organization that defends human rights, became involved from the very beginning of the pandemic in order to call for unwavering international solidarity by all states, including Canada. Along with many other stakeholders, we have been calling for vaccine equity and the temporary patent waiver at the World Trade Organization, or the WTO, for more than two years. This is the third time that I have personally appeared before a parliamentary committee on this issue. In the meantime, Canada's position has not changed, COVID‑19 is still present and continues to result in deaths, although we talk about this less and less. The gap between rich and poor countries is growing, and pharmaceutical companies continue to reap huge profits.
Amnesty International wants to remind everyone that under international human rights law, governments have an obligation to provide the financial and technical support necessary to implement the right to health, particularly in light of the international spread of a disease.
Therefore, we call on Canada once again to provide strong support for the temporary waiver on intellectual property rights for health technologies related to COVID‑19 proposed by South Africa and India in October 2020 at the WTO.
However we are deeply concerned about a draft text, which was leaked to the media in late March, proposing a compromise for this waiver between the European Union, the United States, India and South Africa. As written, this text will never ensure the supply and transfer of technologies necessary for equal access to health tools to combat COVID‑19 and the protection of the right to life and health. We urge Canada not to endorse this text.
Initially, India and South Africa called for a waiver to the WTO's TRIPS Agreement—specifically provisions relating to intellectual property rights and trade—to democratize the production of products that combat COVID‑19 until global herd immunity is achieved.
The World Health Assembly recognized the “role of extensive immunization against COVID‑19 as a global public good for health in preventing, containing and stopping transmission in order to bring the pandemic to an end”.
Yet, pharmaceutical companies around the world continue to pursue a business-as-usual approach, limiting production and supply capacity.
We will have tolive with COVID‑19 for years to come. Everyone must have access to vaccines, and also to treatments. We must democratize production, especially now that new treatments are becoming available.
By supporting the removal of intellectual property protections for vaccines and other products to combat COVID‑19, Canada would be putting the lives of people around the world, including Canadian lives, before the profits of a few pharmaceutical giants and their shareholders.
The only way to end the pandemic is to end it globally, and the only way to end it globally is to put people before profits.
The international standards of human rights to which Canada subscribes and the regulations governing international trade clearly stipulate that the protection of intellectual property must never come at the expense of public health.
The COVID‑19 crisis is also a human rights crisis. It cannot be overcome without true commitment to one of the Sustainable Development Goals: to leave no one behind. Based on the premise that “none of us will be safe until everyone is safe”, Canada has an opportunity today to make a decision that will make that goal a reality.
Amnesty International is reiterating the specific request it made to the Canadian government to support a waiver not just for vaccines but also for all necessary medical technologies, and not just for certain countries but for all those with the means to contribute to vaccine production. Nor should other discussions about other waivers be postponed for six months or more.
We are asking Canada to show exemplary leadership on international solidarity.
Thank you.