HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISORY ON COVID-19 VACCINATION

1 CHR: Dignity of all Commonwealth Avenue, Complex, Diliman 1101 Quezon City Philippines Tel. Nos. (02) 294 8704 (02) 925 3886 HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISORY ON COVID-19 VACCINATION CHR (V) A2021-001 The COVID-19 pandemic is not just a health crisis as it has quickly ballooned into a global HUMAN RIGHTS crisis after response measures, or the lack of it, by duty-bearers have negatively affected the enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural RIGHTS , while disproportionately affecting the most marginalized, disadvantaged, and vulnerable members of society. As of this writing, the Department of Health (DOH) has recorded 505,939 cases of COVID-19 in the country with around 2% mortality rate or 10,042 A survey in May 2020 has shown that nine in ten Filipinos were stressed because of the The same survey showed that at least million families experienced involuntary hunger due to a lack of food to The unemployment rate in April 2020, during the implementation of strict quarantine measures.

2 Was which translates to more than 7 million unemployed Filipinos at that point in The enrollment rate for the school year 2020-2021 was also lower at 88% of last year s These numbers do not even come close to the whole picture as countless others were either directly or indirectly affected by both the actual health risks of the disease and the socio-economic effects of the various crisis response measures implemented by the government and the private sector. On top of these, the marginalization and vulnerability of certain sectors, including migrant workers, farmers and fisherfolks, indigenous peoples, women, persons of diverse SOGIE, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, internally displaced persons, persons deprived of liberty, workers in the informal economy, and health professionals, worsened as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent response of the government, resulting in the current HUMAN RIGHTS crisis.

3 COVID-19 has become such a huge threat to the enjoyment by all persons of their HUMAN RIGHTS that it has become an exigent obligation of the State to implement measures for the prevention and containment of the disease including, and most significantly, through VACCINATION . This obligation arises from the duty of the State under the International Covenant on Civil and Political RIGHTS (ICCPR) to protect the life of all HUMAN beings,6 which implies taking appropriate 1 Department of Health, COVID-19 Tracker as of January 20, 2021, available at 2 Aika Rey, Rappler, 9 in 10 Filipinos stressed with coronavirus pandemic SWS, 13 Jun. 2020, available at 3 Id. 4 Philippine Statistics Authority, Employment Situation in October 2020, Released on 3 Dec. 2020, available at In October 2020, the unemployment rate dropped to which translates to million unemployed Filipinos who are 15 years old and over.

4 Although this is the lowest unemployment rate since April 2020, it is still higher than (or about 2 million unemployed Filipinos) in October 2019. 5 Department of Education, Post from the official Facebook page of DepEd Philippines, posted on 18 Sep. 2020, available at 6 International Covenant on Civil and Political RIGHTS (ICCPR), Art. 6, par. 1. Page 2 of 9 measures to address general conditions in society that may give rise to direct threats to life 7 including the prevalence of life-threatening diseases8 such as COVID-19 . It also arises from the duty of the State under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural RIGHTS (ICESCR) to take steps to achieve the full realization of the right to health including those necessary for the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other This includes the implementation or enhancement of immunization programmes and other strategies of infectious disease control.

5 10 Every person has a right to access a COVID-19 vaccine which is safe, effective and based on the application of the best scientific This right is implied from the right of every person to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health12 which includes access to immunization programs against the major infectious diseases 13 and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress14 which includes access to all the best available applications of scientific progress necessary to enjoy the highest attainable standard of health. 15 These RIGHTS are guaranteed under the ICESCR to which the Philippines is a State Party. The use of COVID-19 vaccines16 and the development and implementation of a national COVID-19 immunization program17 must be approached with HUMAN RIGHTS , along with science, as the primordial consideration.

6 As such, the Commission on HUMAN RIGHTS (CHR), as the country s national HUMAN RIGHTS institution18 and mandated by the 1987 Constitution to protect and 7 UN HUMAN RIGHTS Committee (HRC), General comment no. 36, Article 6 (Right to Life), 3 September 2019, CCPR/C/GC/35, available at 8 Id. 9 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural RIGHTS (ICESCR), Art. 12, par. 2(c). 10 UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural RIGHTS (CESCR), General comment no. 14, Article 12 (Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health), 11 August 2000, E/C/12/2000/4, available at 11 UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural RIGHTS (CESCR), Statement on Universal and Equitable Access to Vaccines for COVID-19 (advanced unedited version), adopted by the Committee on 27 November 2020, , par. 2. 12 ICESCR, Art. 12 & Universal Declaration of HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR), Art.

7 25. 13 UN CESCR, General comment no. 14, supra at par. 36. 14 ICESCR, Art. 15 & UDHR, Art. 27. 15 UN CESCR, General comment no. 25 (2020) on science and economic, social and cultural RIGHTS (articles 15 (1)(b), (2), (3), and (4) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural RIGHTS , 30 April 2020, 16 According to the monitoring and tracking of the University of Oxford (in ), following approvals by their respective regulatory agencies, by the start of 2021, more than 30 countries have already started inoculating their citizens. Israel is leading in terms of VACCINATION doses administered per 100 people in their total population ( of their total population have been vaccinated) while China is leading in terms of total number of VACCINATION doses administered ( million persons in China have been vaccinated or about 45% of the total doses administered by all countries combined). Source: University of Oxford, Our World in Data (online), Coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) Vaccinations as of 4 Jan.)

8 2021, available at 17 The duty to implement a national VACCINATION program rests primarily on the Executive Department headed by the President. Ad-hoc institutional arrangements in this regard were created and assigned within the Executive Department. The Department of Health (DOH), as lead of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), and the vaccine czar, Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr., are leading the implementation of the Philippine National COVID-19 VACCINATION Roadmap and Implementation Plan which was approved on November 5, 2020 (IATF-EID Resolution No. 83, s. 2020). The Roadmap has several considerations which are: safety, efficacy, sensitivity, cost and complexities of the supply chain requirements, access for clinical trials and regions/local production and distribution, complexities on the ground preparation and implementation, and world supply and demand on vaccines.

9 It has seven important stages which will have corresponding government agencies as lead. As explained by the Presidential Spokesperson in an online news release of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (in ): Stage 1 is the scientific evaluation and selection that the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) are heading. The access and acquisition, which will guarantee access to the vaccines, is being spearheaded by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Finance (DOF). Procurement will be done by the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PSDBM) and the DOF. Procurement, shipment, and storage will also be handled by the PSDBM and the Task Group Resource Management and Logistics (TGRML) of the National Task Force. Distribution and deployment of the vaccine will be handled by the PSDBM and TGRML.

10 Stage 6 is the implementation and nationwide VACCINATION will have the DOH as lead agency in cooperation with national government agencies, local government units, among others. The last stage is assessment, evaluation, and monitoring, which will be done by the DOH, DOST, and the University of the Philippines National Institutes of Health. The vaccine roadmap is expected to be implemented in 2021. In an interview given by Secretary Galvez on December 2, 2020, he said that the country s roadmap and timeline for the acquisition of vaccines is on track. In another interview by the Secretary on December 27, 2020, he said that COVID-19 VACCINATION could begin in May 2021 at the earliest. 18 UN Principles Relating to the Status of National Institutions (The Paris Principles), adopted by General Assembly Resolution 48/134, 20 Dec. 1993 Page 3 of 9 promote HUMAN RIGHTS ,19 issues this ADVISORY to ensure the HUMAN RIGHTS -based approach is at the center of all discussions surrounding COVID-19 vaccines and the national COVID-19 immunization program.