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Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) have finalised a proposal for the World Pandemic Treaty, according to a statement by the global health body. The proposal will be presented at the World Health Assembly on May 19.
The proposal was finalised by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), established in December 2021 to draft and negotiate a convention, agreement or other international instrument, under the WHO Constitution, to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
The proposal has come about after 13 formal rounds of meetings, nine of which were extended, and many informal and intersessional negotiations on various aspects of the draft agreement. It will now be presented to the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly for its consideration.
“The nations of the world made history in Geneva today,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “In reaching consensus on the Pandemic Agreement, not only did they put in place a generational accord to make the world safer, they have also demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well, and that in our divided world, nations can still work together to find common ground, and a shared response to shared threats. I thank WHO’s Member States, and their negotiating teams, for their foresight, commitment and tireless work. We look forward to the World Health Assembly’s consideration of the agreement and – we hope – its adoption.”
The text drafted by the INB include proposals establishing a pathogen access and benefit sharing system; taking concrete measures on pandemic prevention, including through a One Health approach; building geographically diverse research and development capacities; facilitating the transfer of technology and related knowledge, skills and expertise for the production of pandemic-related health products; mobilising a skilled, trained and multidisciplinary national and global health emergency workforce; setting up a coordinating financial mechanism; taking concrete measures to strengthen preparedness, readiness and health system functions and resilience; and establishing a global supply chain and logistics network.
“The proposal affirms the sovereignty of countries to address public health matters within their borders, and provides that nothing in the draft agreement shall be interpreted as providing WHO any authority to direct, order, alter or prescribe national laws or policies, or mandate States to take specific actions, such as ban or accept travellers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures or implement lockdowns,” the statement issued by WHO noted.