45,000 Petitioners Urge Australia To Back TRIPS Waiver To Ensure Fair Global Access To Vaccines
Ahead of the WTO TRIPS Council meeting, a group of civil society organisations including Amnesty International Australia, GetUp!, NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, AFTINET, Public Services International and the Humanism Project will gather outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Sydney to hand over tens of thousands of signatures in support fair access for vaccines for all.
The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international treaty which regulates intellectual property rights.
In October 2020, India, South Africa, Kenya and Eswatini proposed a temporary waiver on provisions of the TRIPS Agreement due to the ongoing COVID-19 emergency. This waiver would entail the removal of the hefty barriers to research, creation and supply, which are large obstacles to the ‘prevention, containment and treatment’ of COVID-19.