By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Fifteen human rights organizations are urging President Joe Biden personally to engage in a long-running battle to enact an intellectual waiver for COVID-19 vaccinations at the World Trade Organization. They call his leadership “a moral imperative.”

Amnesty International (Human Rights Watch), Oxfam, Public Citizen, and Oxfam all wrote Biden to inform him that an urgent waiver is needed in order combat the pandemic. The letter noted that only 7% of low-income people had received COVID-19 vaccinations and more vaccines are still in short supply.

COVID-19 has claimed the lives of more than 5 million people worldwide since December 2019 when first reported cases in China.

Biden reversed previous U.S. positions to approve a waiver in may. It caught some allies out by surprise but has not seen much progress. Britain, the European Union and Switzerland continue to oppose such waivers, saying that it would undermine years of research and investment.

Last month, the White House called upon all WTO member countries to approve a temporary waiver. WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo–Iweala wants to reach a compromise at the WTO ministerial in Geneva between Nov. 30 and Dec. 3.

Rights groups stated that they are “very disappointed” by the Biden administration’s inability to negotiate a waiver text agreement since May’s strongly worded statement.

They wrote that “U.S. Passivity has empowered close U.S. Allies – The European Union on behalf of Germany and Switzerland – to block Progress even as millions become seriously ill or die waiting for effective vaccines, treatments, and therapies.”

They asked Biden to increase his personal engagement with the issue and help the rest of the world reach a lasting agreement. They said that this would end the pandemic, and help restore U.S. credibility around the globe.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to the Friday-dated letter.

It would be completely unacceptable for the ministerial meetings to conclude without any waiver agreement,” said the groups. The groups claimed that drugmakers used their intellectual property rights for global market segmentation instead of maximising generic production scale.

In the absence of any meaningful waiver on property rights, they said that a separate attempt to issue a declaration on trade and “health” by David Walker (the New Zealand ambassador to the WTO) would “further undermine and legitimize the WTO’s relevancy and legitimacy”.