School Of Global Relations

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    Global vaccine inequities and multilateralism amid COVID-19: Reconnaissance of Global Health Diplomacy as a panacea?
    (Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, 2023-02-20T00:00:00) Singh, Bawa; Kaur, Jaspal; Chattu, Vijay Kumar
    Background: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown a crystal-clear warning that nobody will be safe until everybody is safe against the pandemic. However, how everyone is safe when the pandemic�s fat tail risks have broken every nerve of the global economy and healthcare facilities, including vaccine equity. Vaccine inequity has become one of the critical factors for millions of new infections and deaths during this pandemic. Against the backdrop of exponentially growing infected cases of COVID-19 along with vaccine in-equity, this paper will examine how multilateralism could play its role in mitigating vaccine equity through Global Health Diplomacy (GHD). Second, given the most affected developing countries� lack of participation in multilateralism, could GHD be left as an option in the worst-case scenario?. Methods: In this narrative review, a literature search was conducted in all the popular databases, such as Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Google search engines for the keywords in the context of developing countries and the findings are discussed in detail. Results: In this multilateral world, the global governance institutions in health have been monopolized by the global North, leading to COVID-19 vaccine inequities. GHD aids health protection and public health and improves international relations. Besides, GHD facilitates a broad range of stakeholders� commitment to collaborate in improving healthcare, achieving fair outcomes, achieving equity, and reducing poverty. Conclusion: Vaccine inequity is a major challenge of the present scenario, and GHD has been partly successful in being a panacea for many countries in the global south. � 2022 The Author(s).
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    COVID-19 Vaccine, TRIPS, and Global Health Diplomacy: India's Role at the WTO Platform
    (Hindawi Limited, 2021-08-27T00:00:00) Chattu, Vijay Kumar; Singh, Bawa; Kaur, Jaspal; Jakovljevic, Mihajlo
    In light of the devastation caused by COVID-19, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and vaccine research and development (R&D) have been occupying a prominent position in the field of global health diplomacy (GHD). Most countries, international organizations, and charitable organizations have been engaged in the R&D of COVID-19 vaccines to ensure timely affordability and accessibility to all countries. Concomitantly, the World Trade Organization (WTO) provides some provisions and enforcements regarding copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical indications, and industrial designs. Given these safeguards, it is considered that intellectual property rights (IPRs) have become major barriers to the affordability and accessibility of vaccines/medicines/technology, particularly to the developing/least developed countries. Realizing the gravity of the pandemic impact, as well as its huge population and size, India has elevated this issue in its global health diplomacy by submitting a joint proposal with South Africa to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for a temporary waiver of IPRs to ensure timely affordability and accessibility of COVID-19 medical products to all countries. However, the issue of the temporary waive off had become a geopolitical issue. Countries that used to claim per se as strong advocates of human rights, egalitarianism, and healthy democracy have opposed this proposal. In this contrasting milieu, this paper is aimed at examining how the TRIPS has become a barrier for developing countries' development and distribution of vaccines/technology; secondly, how India strategizes its role in the WTO in pursuant of its global health diplomacy? We conclude that the IPRs regime should not become a barrier to the accessibility/affordability of essential drugs and vaccines. To ensure access, India needs to get more engaged in GHD with all the involved global stakeholders to get strong support for their joint proposal. The developed countries that rejected/resisted the proposal can rethink their full support. � 2021 Vijay Kumar Chattu et al.