When?
Monday 12th July 2021 [9:00 – 12:00 Port-of-Spain/ 15:00 – 18:00 Central European Summer Time]
Where?
Register here: https://tinyurl.com/bkx5t2jd
What?
This summit will be held virtually for participation by members of the public, civil society, researchers and student organisations and movements. The summit was originally planned to be hosted in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. However, in light of the recent national COVID-19 restrictions, the summit will be delivered fully in a virtual format and feature student leaders and cultural content from the twin island Caribbean nation.
Who?
The summit is hosted in partnership with the All-Africa Students Union (AASU), Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership (CIWiL), Students’ Guild of Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, Commonwealth Students’ Association (CSA), European Students’ Union (ESU), Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU), Organización Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes (OCLAE), Tobago Youth Council (TYC) and the University of the West Indies Guild of Students.
For a just distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the Global Student Forum supports countries that have lobbied for vaccines to be treated as a public good free from patents. Even as international organisations such as the WHO have called for the support of the COVAX Facility to support a more even distribution of vaccines, especially to the poorest countries, governments in richer countries have raced to secure vaccines for their national interest and deployed vaccines as a bargaining chip in vaccine diplomacy. These developments illustrate the persistence of global political and economic inequalities that put up barriers to serving the global public good.
An unfair and uneven distribution of vaccines globally can worsen the immediate and long-term harms of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. For this reason, the Global Student Forum is hosting a student summit on vaccine justice. This summit will reiterate demands to global leaders and governments for economic fairness and a just distribution of patent free vaccines.
Though vaccine justiceritical to the public health systems globally, it is equally important to promote the use of vaccines through informed, culturally sensitive, positive messaging that builds trust in communities. As students, we therefore acknowledge the role of public education in achieving these aims. Having understood the multiplicity of factors that produce vaccine hesitancy, we believe that ongoing engagement by civil society, which includes students’ and youth organisations, can empower communities with information about COVID-19 vaccination.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Registration information is available at www.globalstudentforum.org
For further information, contact Amílcar Sanatan at amilcar@globalstudentforum.org