Most vaccines have been applied in and reserved for developed and high income countries, whereas vaccination in many least developed and developing countries has not even started. This situation not only represents a discrimination in the right to access to vaccination at the global level but also undermines progress on achieving Sustainable Development Goals”
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “Statement on Universal Affordable Vaccination against Coronavirus Disease COVID-19, International Cooperation and Intellectual Property” (2021) 10 International Human Rights Law Review 180, para 1
Explain and critically analyse the right to health, considering in particular the implications of this right for access to vaccination against Covid-19 in low-income countries and taking into account the issues raised by this quotation.
Suggested starting points
We recommend reading and making notes on these sources as a starting point. It’s still essential to demonstrate your capacity for independent research, by using academic books and law journal articles (available online from Lexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline and Law Trove, as well as in the Law Library).
• UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “Statement on Universal Affordable Vaccination against Coronavirus Disease COVID-19, International Cooperation and Intellectual Property” (2021) 10 International Human Rights Law Review 180 (available from HeinOnline)
• Barbara Stark, ‘Inequality, COVID-19, and Human Rights: Whose Lives Matter?’ (2021) 27 ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law 25 (available from HeinOnline)
• Diane Desierto, “Equitable COVID Vaccine Distribution and Access: Enforcing International Legal Obligations under Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Right to Development”, EJIL Talk (blog of the European Journal of International Law), February 2, 2021,
