U.N. urged to seek pause of conflicts in virus hotspots
UNITED NATIONS — Britain circulated a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council on Friday demanding that all warring parties immediately institute a “sustained humanitarian pause” to enable people in conflict areas to be vaccinatedfor COVID-19.
The proposed resolution reiterates the council’s July 1 demand for “a general and immediate cessation of hostilities” in major conflicts from Syria and Yemen to Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and Somalia. The appeal was first made by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 23.
The draft “emphasizes the need for solidarity, equity, and efficacy and invites donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low- and middle-income countries and other countries in need, including through the COVAX Facility,” an ambitious World Health Organization project to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for the world’spoorest people.
The British draft stresses that “equitable access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines, certified as safe and efficacious, is essential to endthe pandemic.”
It would recognize “the role of extensive immunization against COVID-19 as a global public good for health in preventing, containing, and stopping transmission, in order to bring thepandemic to an end.”
The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, follows up on British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s appeal to the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday to adopt a resolution callingfor local cease-fires in conflictzones to allow the deliveryof COVID-19 vaccines.
Britain says more than 160 million people are at risk of being excluded from coronavirus vaccinations because they live in countries engulfed in conflict and instability.
“Cease-fires have been used to vaccinate the most vulnerable communities in the past,” Mr. Raab said. “There’s no reason why we can’t.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, Mr. Guterres criticized the “wildly uneven and unfair” distribution of the vaccines, saying 10 countries have administered 75% of all shots and demanding a global effort to get all people vaccinatedas soon as possible.