The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) is demanding an immediate withdrawal of an alleged government requirement for people to produce a national ID for one to access Covid-19 vaccine.

In a statement issued a while ago, CHRR Executive Director, Michael Kaiyatsa, says such a requirement is redundant coming at a time the country desires to see as many citizens vaccinated when a huge number of them do not have the ID.

“Over three million Malawians do not have national IDs…. it is vital that authorities should be removing all obstacles and structural barriers, like the national ID requirement, to ensure that more people access the vaccines, ” observes Kaiyatsa.

Meanwhile, less than two percent of the country’s population are fully vaccinated and vaccine uptake remains low.

Access to health services including Covid-19 vaccines, Kaiyatsa observes, is a basic constitutional human right and should, therefore, not be conditioned upon possession of the national ID.

“… discrimination in any form is prohibited (in the Constitution). In our view, making possession of a national ID a prerequisite for one to receive vaccines is a form of discrimination, and is, therefore, unconstitutional,” he says.

However, reports indicate that people are receiving the jab even in the absence of production of an ID.

-Zodiak-