Shadow report to the 80th Session of the CEDAW
The Impact of the EU’s Opposition to the WTO TRIPS Waiver Proposal on COVID 19 Vaccines: Sweden’s Duties as a Member State and Extraterritorial Obligations under CEDAW
COVID-19 is not only a health and economic crisis, but also a human rights crisis with disproportionate gender impacts. It needs concerted international cooperation and solidarity to ensure that everyone, everywhere is protected; the multiple crises in the wake of the pandemic are mitigated; and the pandemic itself is effectively controlled and curbed. Central to this effort is equal, non-discriminatory global access to COVID-19 vaccines, medicines, and other products, and the removal of policy and institutional barriers that block access and exacerbate the adverse gender impacts of the pandemic.
This Shadow Report, submitted in support of the Feminists for a People’s Vaccine Campaign,[1] focuses in particular on the impact of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), administered by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the opposition by a minority of countries, including Sweden through its membership in the European Union (EU), to a waiver from TRIPS implementation of intellectual property (IP) on COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics and other needed medical products. This opposition has severe and disproportionate impacts on the rights of women and girls in low and middle-income countries, raising concerns about Sweden’s compliance with its:
- extraterritorial obligations under CEDAW, including duties to meet the standards of substantive equality and non-discrimination when operating within the multilateral system and as a member of the EU;
- duties of international cooperation and assistance, including refraining from infringing on the ability of other States to fulfill their own human rights obligations; and
- commitments under its Feminist Foreign Policy.
You can find the original version of this shadow report available at the UN Treaty Body Database.