Global Student to host summit on vaccine justice

The Global Student Forum (GSF) will host the Global Student Summit: Vaccine Justice through Fairness, Trust and Responsibility on July 12.

The summit will be held virtually and participants will come from civil society, researchers, the public and student organisations and movements. The event will feature student leaders and cultural content of Trinidad and Tobago, said a media release.

The GSF said for a just distribution of covid19 vaccines, it supports countries that have lobbied for vaccines to be treated as a public good, free from patents. It said actions by rich nations in obtaining vaccines highlighted the political and economic inequalities that work against the global public good.

"Even as international organisations such as the World Health Organization 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," the GSF said in a media release.

The GSF said its supports the promotion of vaccine use and favours a public education campaign to address vaccine hesitancy.

"Though vaccine justice is critical 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," it said.

"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 covid9 vaccination."

The summit is hosted in partnership with 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 University of the West Indies Guild of Students.

The GSF is a voluntary consortium of democratic and independent student organisations that emerged in 2020. The GSF is the umbrella organisation of the world’s major representative student federations and the only independent, democratic, and representative student governance structure dedicated to promoting democracy, human rights, and solidarity campaigns for students at the global level, the release said.

The summit runs from 9 am-12 pm Port of Spain/ 3 pm-6 pm Central European Summer Time).

Fore more info: www.globalstudentforum.org

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