UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Britain distributed a draft resolution to the UN Security Council on Friday demanding that all parties to the conflict immediately institute a “sustained humanitarian pause” to allow people in conflict areas to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The draft resolution reiterates the council’s demand last July 1 for “a general and immediate cessation of hostilities” in major conflicts from Syria and Yemen to the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and Somalia. The appeal was first made by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on March 23, 2020, to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
The draft “emphasizes the need for solidarity, equity and effectiveness and calls for the donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low- and middle-income countries and other countries in need, including through the COVAX Facility”, an ambitious project by the World Health Organization Health to buy and distribute coronavirus vaccines to the world’s poorest people.
The British project emphasizes that “equitable access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines, certified as safe and effective, is essential to ending the pandemic”.
It would recognize “the role of extensive immunization against COVID-19 as a global public health good in preventing, containing and interrupting transmission in order to end the pandemic.”
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, follows British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s appeal to the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday to adopt a resolution calling for a local ceasefire in conflict zones to allow the delivery of vaccines COVID-19.
Britain says that more than 160 million people are at risk of being excluded from coronavirus vaccinations because they live in countries involved in conflict and instability.
“The ceasefire has been used to vaccinate the most vulnerable communities in the past,” said Raab. “There is no reason why we cannot … We have seen in the past distribute polio vaccines to children in Afghanistan, just to set an example.”
At Wednesday’s council meeting, Guterres sharply criticized the “extremely unequal and unfair” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, saying that 10 countries administered 75% of all vaccines and demanding a global effort to vaccinate all people in all nations as quickly as possible.
The UN chief said at the high-level council meeting that 130 countries had not received a single dose of the vaccine and declared that “at this critical time, vaccine equality is the biggest moral test before the global community”.
The coronavirus infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million people. While manufacturers struggle to increase vaccine production, many countries complain of being left out and even wealthy nations are facing shortages and domestic complaints.
Guterres’s call for a ceasefire last March for the delivery of COVID-19 medical items received some initial support, but ceasefires were almost always short-lived.
Although the speed of vaccine development has been impressive, COVAX has already lost its own goal of starting vaccination against coronavirus in poor countries, at the same time that vaccines were launched in rich countries at the end of last year.
WHO says COVAX needs $ 5 billion in 2021.
The draft resolution calls for countries’ COVID-19 vaccination plans to include “those most at risk of developing serious COVID-19 symptoms and the most vulnerable, including frontline workers, the elderly, refugees, internally displaced persons, stateless persons , migrants, people with disabilities, among others, as well as people living in areas under the control of any non-state armed group ”.
The proposed measure calls for greater scientific collaboration on new variants of COVID-19.
It asks Guterres to report at least every 90 days on all impediments to COVID-19’s response, including vaccination programs, in countries where conflicts and humanitarian emergencies occur.
It is not clear whether the resolution will be passed.
Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said on Wednesday that humanitarian organizations and UN agencies need the full support of the council to carry out their work.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, opposed the council focused on equitable access to vaccines, saying this went beyond his mandate to preserve international peace and security. He indicated that Moscow was not interested in a new resolution.