Baba Aye, PSI’s Health and Social Care Services Sector Officer, delivered a separate intervention on behalf of the Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2), highlighting the need for a truly binding system that prevents biopiracy and guarantees fair access to vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for all countries.

Thank you, chair, 

PSI is a global union federation representing more than 30 million workers around the world, more than half of which are from the health sector. 

This discussion is not about open science or open access. If the countries that are now pushing for unrestricted access to pathogens, genetic sequences and information were concerned with open access, then the TRIPS Waiver would have been approved without delay during the pandemic . Open access means impeding the monopolization and privatization of technologies 

Therefore, biodiverse countries should not be asked to sign an instrument that will institutionalize their sharing without mechanisms preventing the privatization of benefits derived from this.  

This discussion is happening because COVID-19 pandemic proved that there is an unbalance that needs to be made right. PABS databases must have mandatory features like user registration, data access agreements, attaching unique persistent identifiers to PABS materials, and transparent and legally binding onward-sharing provisions. Without this, the PABS system will put the needs of commercial manufacturers first, not patients or health workers. This undermines Article 7’s requirement to ensure "priority access to health technologies” for healthcare and essential workers. Even worse: it will institutionalize the cruel understanding that some lives are worth more than others.  

Countries must work towards a PABS system that operationalizes predictability, legal certainty and global solidarity. A fair and equitable ABS system can save lives. A system with loopholes will sanction continued extractivism and avoidable deaths. Delegations should not be pressured to adopt an unbalanced text that is only in the interests of developed countries and corporations.