BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 24
Trend:
We suggest establishing a UN High-Level Panel on Global Recovery from the COVID-19, which could prepare recommendations on global measures for post-pandemic period, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in a speech presented during the annual General Debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the level of heads of state and government, Trend reports.
"On numerous occasions, Azerbaijan has publicly expressed its discontent with stockpiling of vaccines by some wealthy countries. We reiterate our dismay on the persistent "vaccine nationalism" and deepening inequality in access to vaccines between developing and developed countries. Such actions prevent developing countries from protecting their populations. According to international reports, so far, more than 75 percent of the world’s vaccine doses have been purchased by 10 wealthy countries, while vaccine coverage of low-income countries is less than 2 percent.
To call international attention to this challenge, Azerbaijan, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, initiated a resolution on ensuring equitable and universal access for all countries to vaccines in the UN Human Rights Council, which was unanimously adopted this March.
Azerbaijan plans to initiate a resolution at the UN General Assembly on the same topic during this session.
We believe that there is a need to take strong, cohesive and targeted global actions to recover better from the COVID-19. In this regard, we suggest establishing a UN High-Level Panel on Global Recovery from the COVID-19, which could prepare recommendations on global measures for post-pandemic period," the head of state said.