Rabat – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet recalled the discrimination and pervasive inequalities in terms of vaccines, in a seminar on good practices, key challenges, and new developments relevant to access to medicines and vaccines.
While only 8% of adults have received the first dose of the vaccine in low-income countries, 65% received it in high-income countries, she described the distribution as “unfair and immoral.”
Bachelet raised concerns over the recent Omicron variant, stressing that due to the vaccine inequity “new variants are far more likely to emerge among largely unvaccinated populations, posing a threat to everyone.”
In her speech, she recalled the importance of achieving global immunity, adding that “The lack of universal and equitable access and distribution of vaccines right now is prolonging the pandemic. This pandemic is a major global crisis, and it requires a united, global response.”
Bachelet also emphasized on policies that make vaccines mandatory, noting that “unless all people have genuine, practical access to vaccines, vaccine requirements will not be consistent with fundamental human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination.”
She insisted that in no circumstances should a vaccine be forcibly administered and that the penalties resulting from the refusal to comply with a mandatory vaccination policy must be “proportionate and subject to review by judicial authorities.”
The vaccination obligation, according to her, must be employed only when necessary “to achieve compelling public health objectives (…) where less intrusive measures such as mask-wearing and social distancing have demonstrably failed to meet such health needs.”
“Vaccine mandates must comply with the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality and non-discrimination,” the representative added, noting that the vaccines must be sufficiently safe and effective to achieve what the public health aims for.
Bachelet concluded her speech by calling for the right to seek a justified exemption and the right to appeal any form of penalty before an independent authority, outlining that “such mandates should be subject to frequent official review to ensure they remain necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory.”
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