The first new text is the new Pandemic Accord which needs a two-thirds majority for approval and, if and once adopted, will come into effect after 40 ratifications. WHO’s Pandemic Accord has also been referred to as the Pandemic Treaty, Pandemic Agreement and WHO Convention Agreement + (“WHO CA+”).
The second new text is the amendments to the International Health Regulations (“IHR”) which can be adopted by a simple majority and will be binding on all states unless they recorded reservations by the end of last year.
In December 2021, WHO established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (“INB”) to draft and negotiate a pandemic agreement. From 18 March to 28 March, the ninth meeting of the INB (“INB 9”) has been taking place to negotiate the text of what is currently being called the Pandemic Accord. There are over 30 Articles in the text.
Yesterday, Knowledge Ecology International (“KEI”), a non-profit organisation which focuses on social justice, published a note from its director James Love regarding the negotiations on Article 11 of the Pandemic Accord.
“To get an idea of the challenges of getting agreement on the WHO Pandemic Accord text, consider the state of just one article [Article 11] on Saturday, 23 March 2024 … by the end of the day on Saturday, 50 countries or groups have at least one bracket in the Article,” he wrote.
The “brackets” Love is referring to are text enclosed in square brackets shown after sections of INB’s text. The bracketed text shows proposed edits and abbreviations for the countries that are proposing the edit. “DEL” denotes that a country or countries want to delete INB’s text.
The negotiating text for Article 11 was originally published by Politico, however, it is behind a paywall. To ensure it is widely and publicly available, KEI has uploaded the negotiating text for Article 11 onto its website. That it was published behind a paywall and not made public by WHO is telling. It is typical of the lack of transparency surrounding WHO’s process.
In the video below, Love, who is attending the negotiations at INB 9, explains more about the process and the secrecy that surrounds WHO’s negotiations and proposed text.
“The reason why negotiations are going
badly is because the countries are really divided on matters of
substance,” he said. As at the close of the day on 26 March, there was
“somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 brackets of text.”...<<<Read More>>>....
