Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Decolonising human rights

How intellectual property laws result in unequal access to the Covid-19 vaccine

Bibliographic Data

ID21881738
AuthorsSharifah Sekalala (0000-0002-5434-5245, University of Warwick, corresponding author), Lisa Forman (0000-0002-4200-9359, University of Toronto), Timothy Hodgson (0000-0002-0860-8892, International Commission of Jurists, Johannesburg, South Africa), Timothy Fish Hodgson, Moses Mulumba (0000-0001-5351-4687, Center for Health, Human Rights and Development), Hadijah Namyalo-Ganafa (Makerere University), Benjamin Mason Meier (0000-0002-9870-1387, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Year2021
Volume6
Issue7
Pagese006169
Publication date2021-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBMJ Global Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2059-7908 • E-ISSN: 2059-7908
PublisherBMJ (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006169
PMID34253631
OpenAlexW3180102914
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited27

The recent rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines offers hope in addressing the worst pandemic in a hundred years. However, many countries in the Global South face great difficulties in accessing vaccines, partly because of restrictive intellectual property law. These laws exacerbate both global and domestic inequalities and prevent countries from fully realising the right to health for all their people. Commodification of essential medicines, such as vaccines, pushes poorer countries into extreme debt and reproduces national inequalities that discriminate against marginalised groups. This article explains how a decolonial framing of human rights and public health could contribute to addressing this systemic injustice. We envisage a human rights and global health law framework based on solidarity and international cooperation that focuses funding on long-term goals and frees access to medicines from the restrictions of intellectual property law. This would increase domestic vaccine production, acquisition and distribution capabilities in the Global South

Commodification · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Global health · Health care · Human rights · Inequality · Injustice · Intellectual property · Law and economics · Political science · Public health · Right to health · Sociology · Solidarity · Global Maternal and Child Health · Human Rights and Development · International Human Rights and Reproductive Law · Law · Medicine

  • Propiedad intelectual y salud pública en países en desarrollo

    Open Access•María Cecilia Sanmartin•Hipertextos•2023

  • Intellectual Property, Covid-19 Vaccines and Equity

    Open Access•Binoy Kampmark•Australian and New Zealand…•2022

  • Extraction, exploitation, expropriation and expulsion in the domestic colonial relations of the British welfare state in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

    Open Access•F Williams•British Journal of Sociology•2022

  • Coloniality of Waithood

    Open Access•Ampson Hagan•African Studies Review•2023

  • Understanding and addressing Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in low and middle income countries and in people with severe mental illness

    Open Access•Clara Gitahy Falcão Faria, Ursula Medeiros Araujo de Matos et al.•Frontiers in Psychiatry•2022

  • Barriers to Covid-19 Health Products in Low-and Middle-Income Countries During the Covid-19 Pandemic

    Open Access•Ezekiel Boro, Béat Stoll•Frontiers in Public Health•2022

  • Missing in action

    Open Access•Tiffany Nassiri-Ansari, Emma L M Rhule•BMJ Global Health•2024

  • Colonialism in the new digital health agenda

    Open Access•Sharifah Sekalala, Tatenda Chatikobo•BMJ Global Health•2024

  • A critical analysis of Covax alliance and corresponding global health governance and policy issues

    Open Access•Anjali Pushkaran, Vijay Kumar Chattu et al.•BMJ Global Health•2023

  • Vaccine equity in Covid-19

    Open Access•Julia Borowicz, Zheting Zhang et al.•BMJ Global Health•2022

  • TRIPS flexibilities help change policy and practice to increase access to medicines

    Open Access•Montgomery Dunn, Ellen ‘t Hoen et al.•BMJ Global Health•2026

  • The political autoimmunity of the Covid-19 response

    Open Access•Ben van Enk, H Van Houtum et al.•BMJ Global Health•2023

  • Designing the global vaccine supply chain

    Open Access•Sung-Pil Park, Sung‐Pil Park et al.•BMJ Global Health•2023

  • A framework for the promotion of ethical benefit sharing in health research

    Open Access•Anja Bedeker, Michelle Nichols et al.•BMJ Global Health•2022

  • Feministische und dekoloniale Perspektiven auf Corona und Care – Einleitung

    Open Access•Friederike Beier, Gülay Çağlar et al.•FEMINA POLITICA – Zeitschrift für…•2023

  • Global Duties in Crisis Response

    Open Access•Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée•Progress in Development Studies•2026

  • Landscapes of inequities, structural racism, and disease during the Covid-19 pandemic

    Open Access•Andrea Rishworth, Kathi Wilson et al.•Health & Place•2024

  • Newspaper coverage on solidarity and personal responsibility in the Covid-19 pandemic

    Open Access•Bettina Zimmermann, Alena Buyx et al.•SSM - Population Health•2023

  • Exposed and unprotected

    Open Access•Carolien Jeanette Aantjes, Vasco Muchanga et al.•Global Public Health•2022

  • Achieving equitable access to health technologies during a pandemic

    Open Access•Ayolola Eni‐Olotu, Rebecca Hotchkin et al.•Global Public Health•2025

  • Advancing vaccines justice through international regulatory pathways

    Open Access•Katrina Perehudoff, Pramiti Parwani et al.•Global Public Health•2025

  • Challenges implementing technology transfer as a viable pathway for equitable vaccine production and access

    Open Access•Omowamiwa Kolawole, Caroline B Ncube et al.•Global Public Health•2025

  • Cinemeducation

    Open Access•Moritz Trieb, Lisa M Pfadenhauer et al.•Medical Education Online•2025

  • Islamic Theological Perspectives on Human Rights

    Open Access•Arifinsyah Arifinsyah, Maulana Andinata Dalimunthe et al.•Pharos Journal of Theology•2025

  • Transforming trade for vaccine equity

    Open Access•Toby Pepperrell, Meri Koivusalo et al.•PLOS Global Public Health•2025

  • A critical juncture for human rights in global health

    Open Access•Benjamin Mason Meier, Luciano Bottini Filho et al.•PLOS Global Public Health•2023

  • Expanding global vaccine manufacturing capacity

    Open Access•Sanjana Mukherjee, Kanika Kalra et al.•PLOS Global Public Health•2023

  • Covid-19 Aşısına Maliye Teorisinden Bakmak

    Open Access•Servet YILDIRIM, Servet Akyol•Politik Ekonomik Kuram•2022

  • Strategic solidarity

    Open Access•Katerini T Storeng, Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée et al.•Globalization and Health•2026

  • Which roads lead to access? A global landscape of six Covid-19 vaccine innovation models

    Open Access•Adrián Alonso Ruiz, Anna Bezruki et al.•Globalization and Health•2024

  • Decolonising human rights and global health

    Anuj Kapilashrami, Amelia Taholo et al.•The International Journal of…•2026

  • Green energy transitions under financial subordination

    Open Access•Stefan Zylinski•Review of International Political…•2026

  • The legal determinants of health

    Open Access•Lawrence O Gostin, John T Monahan et al.•The Lancet•2019

  • Drug development for neglected diseases

    Open Access•Patrice Trouiller, Piero Olliaro et al.•The Lancet•2002

  • Covid-19: Make it the Last Pandemic

    Open Access•Editors Editors•New Zealand Science Review•2021

  • Developing Covid-19 Vaccines at Pandemic Speed

    Nicole Lurie, Melanie Saville et al.•New England Journal of Medicine•2020

  • Decolonising Global (Public) Health

    Open Access•Clara Affun‐Adegbulu, Opemiposi Adegbulu•BMJ Global Health•2020

  • Soft Law and Global Health Problems

    Open Access•Sharifah Sekalala•Soft Law and Global Health Problems•2017

  • Decolonising global health

    Open Access•Ali Murad Büyüm, Cordelia Kenney et al.•BMJ Global Health•2020

  • Covid-19 reveals weak health systems by design

    Open Access•Sriram Shamasunder, M Holme et al.•Global Public Health•2020

  • The Necessity for a Business and Human Rights Treaty

    Open Access•David Bilchitz•Business and Human Rights Journal•2016

  • Asian American critique and Moana Nui 2011

    Candace Fujikane•Inter-Asia Cultural Studies•2012

  • Legislating for universal access to medicines

    Open Access•Katrina Perehudoff, S Katrina Perehudoff et al.•Health Policy and Planning•2019

  • Populist Nationalism Threatens Health and Human Rights in the Covid-19 Response

    Christopher R Williams, Caitlin R Williams et al.•American Journal of Public Health•2020

  • Neo-Colonialism. The Last Stage of Imperialism

    Lionel Tiger, Kwame Nkrumah•International Journal Canada s…•1966

  • Provincializing Europe

    R Bin Wong, Dipesh Chakrabarty•The American Historical Review•2001

  • Market Fundamentalisms

    Upendra Baxi•Human Rights Law Review•2005

  • On the coloniality of global public health

    Open Access•Eugene T Richardson•Medicine Anthropology Theory•2019

  • The Many Faces of Cosmo-polis

    Walter D Mignolo•Public Culture•2000

Unique citing works32
Citations per year8
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 28
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae