The HAI Statement to INB 12 was delivered by HAI Europe Association member, Patrick Durisch from Public Eye.

Thank you chair,

Health Action International is pleased to take the floor for the first time in this session. We do it, we hope, in the same positive spirit and a constructive tone we have adopted in previous sessions, interactive dialogues and informal conversations over the last two years. And even before that when the idea of an international instrument was first proposed. An instrument that would address the gross inequalities evident in the COVID-19 response and avoid any repetition of the hoarding and profiteering seen then, and promotes health needs over market return.

We note positively how much has been achieved in terms of the agreed text, but cannot help but flag the repeated compromises on critical issues, like IP management, tech-transfer and/or publicly funded R&D. We understand the need for consensus but we do not believe that it can ever be reached through imposition or tactics widely recognised as bullying.

We echo the words of the Friends of Equality and a number of Non-State Actors when asking for an enforceable instrument that can, together with other instruments including the International Health Regulations, allow governments to maximise their responses to health emergencies, secure universal and equitable access to health goods and promotes WHO global health stewardship.
Every process must come to an end. It would be unwise to extend this one without guarantees that the final result would make a difference. We are all responsible and will share the blame if it does not.

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