Vaccine Common Good

COVID-19 Vaccine Global Common Good: Appeal from 100 Influential Global Leaders

More than 100 influential global leaders including 18 Nobel Laureates, 32 former Chief of State and Governments, Political Leaders, Artistes, International NGOs and Institutions have signed a call initiated by Yunus Centre to declare COVID-19 Vaccines as a global common good.

The unified appeal is urging action from governments, foundations, philanthropists and social businesses to come forward to produce and/or distribute the vaccines all over the world for free. We invite all social, political, and health entities to re-affirm our collective responsibility for the protection of ALL vulnerable persons without any discrimination whatsoever.

The COVID-19 pandemic is clearly exposing the strength and weaknesses of healthcare systems in every country and highlights the obstacles and inequities in gaining access to healthcare. The effectiveness of the upcoming vaccination campaign will depend on its universality.

The signatories are pleading to all world leaders including the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director General of the World Health Organization, religious leaders, social and moral leaders, leaders of research laboratories and pharmaceutical companies and the media to join hands and ensure that in the case of a Covid-19 vaccine, we have a global consensus that it must be deployed as a global common good.

We invite everyone to join the pledge at VACCINECOMMONGOOD.ORG .

I hope your esteemed institution will do its best to spread this message.

LIST OF PERSONALITIES WHO SIGNED THE PLEDGE

NOBEL LAUREATES

1 Muhammad Yunus 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate

2 Máiread Maguire 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate

3 Professor Adolfo Perez Esquivel 1980 Nobel Peace Laureate

4 Lech Wałęsa 1983 Nobel Peace Laureate, Former President of Poland

5 Archbishop Desmond Tutu 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate

6 Mikhail Gorbachev 1990 Nobel Peace Laureate, President of the Soviet Union

7 Rigoberta Menchu 1992 Nobel Peace laureate

8 Edmond Henri Fischer 1992 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

9 Sir Richard J. Roberts 1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

10 José Ramos Horta 1996 Nobel Peace Laureate

11 Jody Williams 1997 Nobel Peace Laureate

12 Shirin Ebadi 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate

13 Elizabeth Blackburn 2009 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine

14 Tawakkol Karman 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate

15 Leymah Gbowee 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate

16 Malala Yousafzai 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate

17 Kailash Satyarthi 2014 Nobel Peace Laureate

18 Nadia Murad Basee Taha 2018 Nobel Peace Laureate

19 Dr. Denis Mukwege 2018 Nobel Peace Laureate

FORMER PRESIDENTS

20 Emil Constantinescu President of Romania 1996-2000

21 Ameenah Gurib-Fakim President of Mauritius 2015-2018

22 Tarja Halonen President of Finland 2000-2012

23 Mladen Ivanic President of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2014-2018

24 Gjorge Ivanov President of North Macedonia 2009-2019

25 Ivo Josipovic President of Croatia 2010-2015

26 Aleksandr Kwasniewski President of Poland 1995-2005

27 Petru Lucinschi President of Moldova 1997-2001

28 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President of Brazil 2003-2011

29 Rexhep Meidani President of Albania 1997-2002

30 Bujar Nishani President of Albania 2012-2017

31 Rosen Plevneliev President of Bulgaria 2012-2017

32 Romano Prodi President of EU Commission 1999-2004

and Italian Prime Minister of Italy 1996-1998, 2006-2008

33 Vicente Fox Quesada President of Mexico 2000-2006

34 Mary Robinson President of Ireland, 1990-97

35 Rosalia Arteaga Serrano President of Ecuador 1997

36 Petar Stoyanov President of Bulgaria 1997-2002

37 Vaira Vike-Freiberga President of Latvia 1999-2007

38 Filip Vujanovic President of Montenegro 2003-2018

FORMER PRIME MINISTERS

39 Shaukat Aziz Prime Minister of Pakistan 2004-2007

40 Marek Belka Prime Minister of Poland 2004-2005

41 Sali Berisha Prime Minister of Albania 2005-2013, President 1992-97

42 Gordon Brown Prime Minister of UK 2007-2010

43 Helen Clark Prime Minister of New Zealand 1999-2008

44 Mirko Cvetkovic Prime Minister of Serbia 2008-2012

45 Jan Fisher Prime Minister of the Czech Republic 2009-2010

46 Chiril Gaburici Prime Minister of Moldova 2015

47 Jadranka Kosor Prime Minister of Croatia 2009-2011

48 Yves Leterme Prime Minister of Belgium 2008, 2009-2011

49 Peter Medgyessy Prime Minister of Hungary 2002-2004

50 Mahathir Mohamad Prime Minister of Malaysia 1981-2003, 2018-2020

51 Djoomart Otorbaev Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan 2014-2015

52 Oscar Ribas Reig Prime Minister of Andorra 1982-84; 1990-94

53 Eka Tkeshelashvili Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia 2010-2012

ARTISTES & SOCIAL ACTIVISTS

54 Shabana Azmi Actor and Human Rights Activist

55 Andrea Bocelli Tenor, Singer-Songwriter

56 Bono Singer, Activist

57 Lily Cole Actress, Activist

58 George Clooney Actor, Human Rights Activist

59 Richard Curtis UN SDG Advocate, Founder, Project Everyone

60 Matt Damon Filmmaker & Co-founder Water.org & WaterEquity

61 Sharon Stone Actress, Human Rights Activist

62 Jimmy Wales Founder, Wikipedia

63 Forest Whitaker Actor, Founder, Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative

BUSINESS LEADERS

64 Sir Richard Branson Founder, Virgin Group

65 Emmanuel Faber Chief Executive Officer, Danone

66 Mo Ibrahim Philanthropist, Founder of Mo Ibrahim Foundation

67 Paul Polman Co-founder & Chair, IMAGINE, Former CEO, Unilever

68 Azim Premji Chairman, Wipro Limited

69 Narayana Murthy Co-Founder, Infosys

70 Ratan Tata Former Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group

POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS, LEADERS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, ACTIVISTS & ACADEMICS

71 Father Giulio Albanese Journalist and Writer

72 Abdulaziz Altwaijri Former Director General, ISESCO

73 Jean Baderschneider Chair of the Board of Directors, Global Fund to End Modern Slavery

74 Thomas Bach President, International Olympic Committee (IOC)

75 Luigino Bruni Professor, Economics, Libera Università Maria Ss. Assunta (LUMSA)

76 Margaret Chan President, Boao Global Health Forum

77 James Chau International Broadcaster and Host of The China Current

78 Susan M. Elliott President and CEO, National Committee on American Foreign Policy

79 HRH Prince Turki bin Faisal Chairman, King Faisal Foundation’s Center for Research and Islamic Studies

80 Father Enzo Fortunato Spokesperson of the Sacred Convent and Papal Basilica of Assisi

81 Father Mauro Gambetti Custodian of the Papal Basilica and Sacred Convent of Assisi

82 Ron Garan Former Astronaut

83 Nathalie de Gaulle Co-Founder & President NB-INOV

84 Ann Hidalgo Mayor of Paris

85 Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu Former Secretary General, OIC

86 Garry Jacobs CEO, President World Academy of Art and Sciences

87. David Jones, Co-Founder, One Young World, Founder, You&Mr. Jones

88 Adeeba Kamarulzaman President-elect, International AIDS Society

89 Mats Karlsson Vice President of the World Bank 1999-2002

90 Kerry Kennedy President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

91 Vanessa Kerry Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Founder, Seed Global Health

92 Salman Khan Founder, Khan Academy

93 Guilherme Leal Co-Founder, Natura Cosmeticos, B Team Leader

94 Sharon Lewin Director, The Peter Doherty Institute of Infection & Immunity, University of Melbourne

95 Justin Yifu Lin Former Vice President of the World Bank

96 Raffaele Lomonaco Professor of Economics of the Pontifical Lateran University

97 Marina Mahathir Writer, Human Rights Activist

98 Alaa Murabit UN SDG Advocate, The Voice of Libyan Women

99 Rovshan Muradov Secretary General, Nizami Ganjavi International Center

100 Edward Ndopu UN SDG Advocate, Founder, Beyond Zero

101 Samia Nkrumah President of Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Centre

102 Elsa Papademetriou Former Vice President of the Hellenic Parliament

103 Jeffrey Sachs UN SDG Advocate, Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University

104 Ismail Serageldin Co-Chair Nizami Ganjavi International Center

105 Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO

106 Gary White CEO & Co-founder, Water.org & WaterEquity

107 Nicola Zingaretti Chairman & Leader of the Italian Democratic Party