{"id":202955,"date":"2021-09-23T16:36:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T14:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/president-urges-world-leaders-to-support-equitable-access-to-vaccines\/"},"modified":"2021-09-23T16:36:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T14:36:07","slug":"president-urges-world-leaders-to-support-equitable-access-to-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/president-urges-world-leaders-to-support-equitable-access-to-vaccines\/","title":{"rendered":"President urges world leaders to support equitable access to vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa has once again told world leaders that vaccines are the greatest defence that humanity has against the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is, therefore, a great concern that the global community has not sustained the principles of solidarity and cooperation in securing equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines,\u201d he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

President Ramaphosa delivered a brief address during the General Debate of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA76).<\/p>\n

The UNGA76, which is currently underway, is taking place under the theme: \u201cBuilding resilience through hope \u2013 to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalise the United Nations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The President has since described it as an indictment on humanity that more than 82% of the world\u2019s vaccine doses have been acquired by wealthy countries, while less than 1% has gone to low-income countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless we address this as a matter of urgency, the pandemic will last much longer and new mutations of the virus will spread and emerge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The First Citizen took the opportunity to reaffirm South Africa\u2019s call for fair and equitable distribution of vaccines.<\/p>\n

He urged all Member States to support the proposal for a temporary waiver of certain Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreements to allow more countries, particularly poorer nations, to produce COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this interconnected world, no country is safe until every country is safe,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to prepare now for future pandemics and work with greater determination towards the goal of universal health coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Special Drawing Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n

While President Ramaphosa said he welcomed the International Monetary Fund\u2019s approval for an allocation of $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights, the largest such disbursement in history, he said it was still insufficient to meet the extent of the need.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa, therefore, reiterates its call for 25% of the total allocation, amounting to around $165 billion, to be made available to the African continent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Climate change<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shifting his focus to climate change, he said although poor countries bear the least responsibility for causing climate change, African countries are among those that carry the greatest cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate change is an existential crisis for the entire world, yet poor countries are particularly vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believed that the upcoming 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP) should adequately respond to the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pandemic has been a stark reminder of our mutual dependency, and that instability in one region of the world inevitably impacts its neighbours,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Peacebuilding<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he reiterated South Africa\u2019s efforts to contribute to international peace and security through its membership of the Peacebuilding Commission and involvement in UN peacekeeping.<\/p>\n

He put the spotlight on the Palestinian people, who said they had a right to self-determination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that there shall be no peace and no justice until the Palestinian people are free from occupation and can exercise the rights for which this United Nations stands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The President repeated the country\u2019s position that the people of Western Sahara also have the right to self-determination in line with the relevant African Union decisions and UN Security Council resolutions.<\/p>\n

He also affirmed solidarity with the Cuban people and called for a lifting of the sanctions that are crippling Zimbabwe and crippling its economy. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Cyril Ramaphosa has once again told world leaders that vaccines are the greatest defence that humanity has against the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. \u201cIt is, therefore, a great concern that the global community has not sustained the principles of solidarity and cooperation in securing equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines,\u201d he said on Thursday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":202956,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-202955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/president-urges-world-leaders-to-support-equitable-access-to-vaccines.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}