This report highlights the human rights situation in 154 countries in 2021. It presents Amnesty International’s documented concerns and recommendations for governments and others. From a human rights perspective, 2021 was largely a story of betrayal and hypocrisy in the corridors of power.

This report argues that, despite receiving billions in public funding, a number of pharmaceutical companies are continuing to put their own business interests before their human rights responsibilities by creating barriers to fair access to their COVID-19 vaccines through their decisions not to share intellectual property and technology.

This work builds on decades of Amnesty International research collecting evidence of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and on publications by Palestinian, Israeli and international organisations.

This report focuses on six leading vaccine developers, assessing each company’s human rights policy, pricing structure, records on intellectual property, knowledge and technology sharing, allocation of available vaccine doses and transparency.

This report documents the human rights situation in 149 countries in 2020, as well as providing global and regional analysis. It presents Amnesty lnternational's concerns and calls for action to governments and others.