Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng quote

Recording: Covid-19 Vaccines for the Few

The Covid-19 vaccine is the key to renewing the art of the handshake, to listening to live music, to travel, and not least, getting millions of people back to earning an income.

  • The development of effective vaccines has been a unique endeavour. But, how successful is the vaccination roll-out from a human rights perspective?
  • Will vaccination be only for the privileged, leaving many countries and populations left behind?
  • Is it compliant with the right to health, to leave a  such a crucial global public good to the private sector to control, letting market forces and narcissistic states rule?
  • How can we better address the vulnerability of the most marginalised groups?
  • Finally, what can we learn from the Global Aids Strategy?

These and many more questions were addressed at our webinar with a very prominent panel of experts.

Watch the recording here:

This discussion is part of a series of webinars drawing on contributions from the newly released books COVID-19 and Human Rights (Routledge) and the Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty (Elgar), edited by Martha Davis, Morten Kjaerum, and Amanda Lyons.

Covid-19 Vaccines for the Few was cohosted by the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center, Northeastern School of Law Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy, and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng quote

The speakers

Tlaleng Mofokeng

Tlaleng Mofokeng is, since July 2020, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Tlaleng Mofokeng is a medical doctor with expertise advocating for universal health access, HIV care, youth friendly services and family planning.

Tlaleng Mofokeng is a member of the boards of Safe Abortion Action Fund, Global Advisory Board for Sexual Health and Wellbeing, Accountability International. She is also the Chair of the Soul City Institute board. She has experience in advocacy training for healthcare professionals and her areas of focus have been on gender equality, policy, maternal and neonatal health, universal health access, post violence care, menstrual health, and HIV management.

Steven L.B. Jensen

Steven L. B. Jensen is a Senior Researcher at The Danish Institute for Human Rights. Before joining the Danish Institute in 2007 as HIV/AIDS and human rights expert, he held positions with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with UNAIDS based in Geneva.  He holds a PhD in History and is the author of The Making of International Human Rights. The 1960s, Decolonization and the Reconstruction of Global Values which in 2017 was awarded the prizes both for Best Book on Human Rights and Best Book on International Organisation from the International Studies Association.

Brook K.Baker

Brook K. Baker teaches at Northeastern University School of Law, is an honorary research fellow at the University of KwaZuluNatal, and is a senior policy analyst for Health GAP, which campaigns for universal access to HIV treatment. Recently he is working on equitable access to COVID-19 health products and is a civil society representative to the Therapeutics Pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. He writes and consults extensively on intellectual property rights, trade, access to medicines, and related issues.

Amanda LyonsAmanda Lyons

Amanda Lyons, JD, is the Executive Director at the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she teaches a course on Poverty and Human Rights.

Her research and advocacy work has focused on human rights and development, the human right to water and gender justice. Prior to joining the University she worked with human rights organizations in Brazil, Colombia, and the United States.

Martha Davis : panelist

Martha F. Davis

Martha F. Davis is University Distinguished Professor of Law at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, where she is a faculty co-director of the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy.

Davis’s publications include Human Rights Advocacy in the United States (co-author) and Global Urban Justice: The Rise of Human Rights Cities (co-editor). She is co-editor of the Human Rights at Home Law Profs Blog and an affiliated scholar of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.

Morten Kjaerum

Morten Kjærummoderator,  is Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund, Sweden and Adjunct Professor at Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. He was the first director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and Executive Director at the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

He was  a member of the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination from 2002-08. He is Chair of The Board of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and Chairs the Board of Trustees for the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the field of Human Rights appointed by the UN Secretary General. He has consistently written on human rights issues.

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