Access to vaccines A separate ‘Humanitarian Buffer’ of up to 5% of the total number of doses available through COVAX was created to facilitate access to vaccines for high-risk and vulnerable populations, including stateless people,7 in humanitarian settings where there have been unavoidable gaps in national vaccine plans despite advocacy efforts.8 Equitable access within countries In December 2020, the World Health Organization released the Values Framework for the Allocation and Prioritization of COVID-19 Vaccination intended to offer guidance globally on the allocation and prioritization of populations to receive COVID-19 vaccines. The Framework complements the principles on equitable access and fair allocation of COVID-19 vaccines developed for the COVAX Facility. It provides that vaccine prioritization within countries should take into account the vulnerabilities, risks and needs of groups who, because of underlying societal, geographic or biomedical factors, are at risk of experiencing greater burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance suggests that disadvantaged ethnic, racial, gender, and religious groups, vulnerable migrants in irregular situations, nomadic populations and hard-to-reach populations should be prioritized. Many stateless populations fall within these groups given that more than 75% of the world’s known stateless populations belong to minority groups.9 UNHCR is committed to the allocation principles of the COVAX initiative, and has advocated for inclusion of refugees, internally displaced and stateless popu- lations in national vaccination programs10 as well as use of the humanitarian buffer to reach these populations where they would otherwise not be reached. UNHCR is also calling on governments to adopt innovative approaches to overcome some of the potential practical obstacles that stateless persons face to access vaccines, including the lack of legal identity documentation. As of 1 June, UNHCR has at least some information on the national vaccination plans and programs of 157 countries. In the great majority of these, it is unclear from the language of the plans and other information available so far whether stateless persons will be able to access vaccines. This is not unusual or necessarily problematic, as most plans do not single out specific population groups. In some 47 countries, stateless persons would seem to be included according to the language of the plans or based on assurances by the authorities to UNHCR, but there is limited information available concerning actual practice to date. At the same time, of the 157 countries that UNHCR has information about, 2 have stated that stateless persons are excluded from accessing vaccines as part of the national vaccination program. Whether or not the plans specifically mention or envision the inclusion of stateless persons, as a practical matter there are a number of reasons why stateless people and others who may lack certain forms of identification could go unvaccinated. There is therefore a need for urgent attention by States and others to the risks of exclusion of stateless persons, and for greater clarity on the subject as States continue to refine and implement their national plans. Irbid, Jordan: COVID-19 vaccines in a clinic’s cold storage. © UNHCR/Jose Cendon 3 THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON STATELESS POPULATIONS