UN General Assembly 2023: Political declaration on pandemics approved, critics call it 'rhetoric'

The United Nations member states adopted September 20, 2023 a historical political declaration to ensure that the world is better prepared for future pandemics, at a High-Level Meeting during the ongoing UN General Assembly.  

The aim of the declaration is to prevent catastrophic health and socio-economic impacts that were experienced during COVID-19, the members noted. 

The draft of the political declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response was formally approved by the President of the 78th UN General Assembly Dennis Francis at the first-ever summit of its kind.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “I welcome this commitment by world leaders to provide the political support and direction needed so that WHO, governments, and all involved can protect people’s health and take concrete steps towards investing in local capacities, ensuring equity and supporting the global emergency health architecture that the world needs."

The declaration encourages, “fair, equitable, and timely sharing of benefits of pathogens with pandemic potential, including genomic sequences and information, through a multilateral system.”

Speaking at the summit,  UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: 

We must not repeat the mistakes of the past when the next pandemic strikes — as we know it will — and other health threats emerge.

It called on member nations, “to improve timely and equitable access to quality, safe, effective and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other health technologies, inter alia, through building capacity for local and regional production, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”

It resolved to address the global shortfall of health workers in accordance with the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030 by investing in education and employment.

The declaration emphasised that health workers should be protected from all forms of violence, attacks, harassmen, and discriminatory practices.

Furthermore, it committed to utilise innovative technologies, including remote mental health services, by promoting equitable access to telemedicine and other essential and cost-effective technologies. This is in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, and considering the lasting impacts of pandemics

It recognised the need to support developing countries in building expertise as well as local and regional manufacturing capacities. This can be done, for instance, by building on efforts under the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility, the declaration suggested.

Importantly, the adopted draft recognised the critical role of international collaboration in research and development, including in multi-country clinical and vaccine trials, as well as rapid diagnostics test and assay development. It also acknowledged the need for further rigorous scientific evidence, protocols and standards.

To this effect, Tedros explained at the summit, “We must learn how to protect our communities better and to engage, inform and empower them to be part of the solution. We need to build stronger clinical care systems that can save lives. Doing so requires concrete actions to ensure equitable access to medical countermeasures, sustainable and adequate financing, empowered and engaged communities, and robust, trained and equipped health workers.”

The declaration also called on member nations to take measures to counter the effect of health-related misinformation, disinformation, hate speech and stigmatisation, especially on social media platforms, on people’s physical and mental health, including vaccine hesitancy.

Finally, the political declaration sought the conclusion of negotiations on a formal agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, known also as the Pandemic Accord, by May 2024. Further discussions on the Pandemic Accord’s text will take place in November, December and January.

It also urged governments to continue their work on amending the International Health Regulations (2005), the only legally binding global rules in existence for health emergencies. 

Goal pathway not defined

The absence of heads of state in important countries, who were instead represented by ministers of health, drew criticism. This is the reason some world leaders expressed at the summit that they believe UN forums, as opposed to the WHO, would have more political clout when it comes to tough action required in a pandemic response, according to Health Policy Watch, an independent news organisation.

Critics have also called the text "rhetorical without commitments". At a side meeting, Alejandro Solano Ortiz, representing Costa Rica, called it a non-binding declaration, which needs to establish more concrete steps.

Former President of the General Assembly Csaba Kőrösi approved the text before his term ended on September 5. This is despite objections raised by developing countries through the Group of 77 (G77) as well as some member states on their own regarding equity and access to both finance and healthcare, according to the Third World Network (TWN),  an independent non-profit international research and advocacy organization.

It also said that leaders of a few developed countries have enforced the status quo and ignored the demands of developing nations. While Paragraph 32 calls for equity, social justice and social protection mechanisms to ensure universal and equitable access to timely and quality health services, there is no mentioned pathway on how to achieve these goals, TWN said.

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