news,45 06/20 |
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 20 (IPS) - The 164-member World Trade Organization (WTO) has implicitly rubber-stamped a widely-condemned policy of âvaccine apartheidâ which has discriminated the worldâs poorer nations, mostly in Africa and Asia, depriving them of any wide-ranging intellectual property rights.
As Max Lawson, Co-Chair of the Peopleâs Vaccine Alliance and Head of Inequality Policy at Oxfam, said at the conclusion of the WTOâs ministerial meeting last week: âThe conduct of rich countries at the WTO has been utterly shamefulâ.