In late May of this year, representatives of our governments will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to vote on acceptance of two documents that, taken together, are intended to transform international public health and the way states act when the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declares an emergency. These drafts, a Pandemic Agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), are intended to set up legally binding agreements under which states undertake to follow recommendations from the WHO regarding the human rights and healthcare of their own citizens.
Although these agreements will impact on health, economies and human rights in complex ways, they are still being negotiated by various committees less than seven weeks prior to the intended vote. They have been developed with unusual haste and are intended to proceed without countries having time to fully assess their implications, on a premise of an urgent threat that has already been demonstrated to be unfounded or grossly exaggerated.
The agreements are being promoted by wealthy countries as promoting equity. Yet, the rush to vote and implement will inevitably undermine equity by preventing states with fewer resources from equally participating in their development and having time to assess impact on their more fragile healthcare environments. This approach has not been so apparent in international health since the colonial era.
This is a poor and dangerous way to develop legally binding agreements. Rather than designing a coherent pandemic package that is proportionate to risk and burden and sensitive to the legitimate context of individual states, the world risks rapidly institutionalising a confusing set of legal regimes and overriding authorities reflecting the wants of competing global actors who shouted loudest, as evident in a recent public letter. The WHO, when inaugurated, was supposed to represent something better.
What is needed now is for countries– either those of lower income being marginalised once more by this process, or others that still hold that colonialism was wrong – to insist on a postponement of the process in order to simply ensure health, legal and ethical integrity. ‘Equity’, as the WHO Director-General likes to say.
The drafting of the Open Letter below addressing these issues was led by three lawyers with experience with the WHO, within the UN and in international treaty law, Dr. Silvia Behrendt, Associate Professor Amrei Muller, and Dr. Thi Thuy Van Dinh. It simply calls upon the WHO and Member States to extend the deadline for the adoption of the amendments to the International Health Regulations and a new Pandemic Agreement at the 77th World Health Assembly to safeguard the rule of law and equity. To proceed with the current deadline, against the WHO’s own legal requirements, would not just be legally wrong but demonstrate unequivocally that equity and respect for states rights have nothing to do with the WHO’s pandemic agenda.
Dear Dr. Tedros, Director-General of the World Health Organisation
Dear Co-Chairs Dr. Asiri and Dr. Bloomfield of the WGIHR,
Dear Co-Chairs Dr. Matsoso and Mr. Driece of the INB,
Dear national delegates of the respective working groups,
Both the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) (WGIHR) and the International Negotiating Body (INB) negotiating the Pandemic Agreement were mandated to deliver the definite legal wording of the targeted amendments of the International Health Regulations (IHR) as well as of the Pandemic Agreement to the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA), taking place at the end of May 2024. These processes have been ushered through in haste to “capture a post-COVID-19 moment”, despite evidence that there is limited risk of another pandemic occurring in the short-to-medium term. In other words, there is time to get these measures right.
Yet, due to the speed in which these processes have occurred both negotiation processes are threatening to deliver illegitimate policies by violating the very objectives and principles of equity and deliberation which are proclaimed to be safeguarded through the pandemic law-making process under the auspices of WHO. Consequently, the politically set deadline for adoption at the 77th WHA must be lifted and extended to safeguard the lawfulness and transparency of the processes, clarifying the relationship between the amended IHR and the new Pandemic Agreement, and ensuring an equitable and democratic outcome.
The WGIHR’s Non-Compliance with the IHR Excludes a Lawful Adoption at the 77th WHA
The adoption of any amendments of the IHR at the 77th WHA can no longer be achieved in a lawful manner. Currently, the WGIHR keeps negotiating the draft amendments, with the aim to finalise the package of proposed amendments during its eighth meeting scheduled for April 22nd-26th that is then to be presented to the 77th WHA. This modus operandi is unlawful. It violates Article 55(2) IHR which sets out the procedure to be followed for amending the IHR:
The text of any proposed amendment shall be communicated to all States Parties by the Director-General at least four months before the Health Assembly at which it is proposed for consideration.
The deadline for the Director-General to circulate the package of proposed amendments to the IHR to States Parties lawfully in advance of the 77th WHA has passed on January 27th 2024. As of yet, the Director-General has not communicated any amendments to the states.
The IHR is a multilateral treaty binding both states that ratified the IHR and the WHO, including subdivisions of the WHA like the WGIHR. They must abide by the binding procedural rules of Article 55(2) IHR and cannot suspend these rules arbitrarily.
During the public webcast of October 2nd 2023, the issue was referred to WHO’s Principal Legal Officer, Dr. Steven Solomon, who explained that since the draft amendments come from a subdivision of the WHA, the four-month requirement of Article 55(2) did not apply. However, his opinion disregards the fact that Article 55(2) does not make any distinction as to which state, group of states or specific part of the WHA propose the amendments. Moreover, in the Terms of Reference of the IHR Review Committee (2022) the timeline of the WGIHR’s work was set at: “January 2024: WGIHR submits its final package of proposed amendments to the Director-General who will communicate them to all States Parties in accordance with Article 55(2) for the consideration of the 77th World Health Assembly.” If the WGIHR and WHO purposefully violate the IHR, the rule of law is indeed undermined, potentially entailing international responsibility for the organisation and individuals in charge.
Inseparable Processes of IHR and New Pandemic Treaty
The available drafts of the WGIHR and INB imply that the two processes of the WGIHR and INB cannot stand independently but are inseparable from each other. Particularly, the new draft Pandemic Agreement cannot be adopted prior to revising the IHR because it needs to build upon the revised structure, material scope and institutions of the IHR (especially given wording of IHR core capacities currently in the March 7th 2024 negotiating text of the Pandemic Agreement). Disrupting challenges like the significant overlap in ratione materiae, the competences and relationships both between the newly established treaty bodies and versus member states, as well as the long-term financial implications for the health budget, etc. – require detailed clarification prior to adoption.
Equity and Democratic Legitimacy
Disregarding procedural obligations under the IHR and leaving the relationship between the amended IHR and new Pandemic Agreement nebulous not only undermines the international rule of law, it also undercuts the spirit of Article 55(2) of the IHR (2005), which guarantees member states four months lead-time to review IHR amendments to promote democratic legitimacy, procedural justice and to better ensure equitable outcomes.
States need at least four months to thoroughly reflect on the implications of proposed amendments for their domestic constitutional legal orders and their financial capacities. They must seek political and parliamentary approval prior to the adoption of the respective resolutions at the WHA. This is especially germane given the unique legal status of adopted IHR amendments that will enter into force automatically unless a state party actively opts out within a very short timeframe of 10 months.
Equity is stated by WHO to be at the heart of the pandemic preparedness and response agenda. Many low- and middle-income countries do not have representatives and experts present in Geneva during the entire parallel negotiation processes, have their representatives’ discussing matters in less familiar languages, and must rely on diplomatic group or regional representations. This introduces inequity to the ability to fully participate in the negotiation process within the WGIHR and the INB developing the Pandemic Agreement. Richer countries have more ability to input into drafts and greater resources to review their implications. These manifestly unfair negotiation processes are contrary to the spirit and stated intent of the entire process. Ensuring equity, transparency and fairness requires an adequate time to discuss and consider what are intended to be legally-binding agreements.
Markedly Exaggerated Urgency Claim
Whilst some have argued that urgency in developing new pandemic management instruments is justified by a rising risk and burden of such infectious disease outbreaks, this has recently been demonstrated to be a markedly exaggerated claim. The evidence bases on which the WHO has relied, and partner agencies including the World Bank and G20, demonstrate that the risk of naturally-derived outbreaks is not currently increasing, and overall burden is probably declining. This suggests that current mechanisms are indeed working relatively effectively, and changes must be viewed carefully, without undue urgency, in the light of the heterogeneity of threat and competing public health priorities across WHO Member States.
Appeal not to Adopt the IHR Amendments or Pandemic Agreement at the 77th WHA
The two working groups are requested to follow the UN Principles and guidelines for international negotiations, UN A/RES/53/101, and to conduct negotiations in a spirit of good faith and “endeavour to maintain a constructive atmosphere during negotiations and to refrain from any conduct which might undermine the negotiations and their progress”. A rational timeline without political pressure for results will safeguard the current law-making process from collapsing and prevent potential political abandonment, as experienced in case of the WHO Research and Development (R&D) Treaty.
One of the original reasons to initiate the amendment process of the IHR (2005) was the WHO’s express concern that states did not comply with their obligations under the IHR during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency of International Concern. With their failure to keep to the four-month review period, the WHO and the WGIHR themselves show their open disregard for their legally binding duties under the IHR. A resolution with proposed amendments to the IHR for adoption at the 77th WHA can no longer be presented lawfully. Consequently, the Pandemic Agreement also needs to be delayed, as both processes are interdependent.
This is an urgent appeal to the WHO and its Member States to safeguard the rule of law and procedural and outcome equity by allowing fair input and deliberation. To do so, it will require lifting and extending the deadline, thus rendering the possibility for a more future-proof legal architecture for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in-line with international law and its normative commitments.
Respectfully yours
Note. This letter was written to be used as states and other parties see best, with or without attribution, to further the cause of equity, proportionality and evidence-based policy making in international public health.
It can be signed by the public, who will be the recipients of harm of this rushed and misguided approach to public health, here.
Dr. David Bell is a clinical and public health physician with a PhD in population health and background in internal medicine, modelling and epidemiology of infectious disease. Previously, he was Director of the Global Health Technologies at Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund in the USA, Programme Head for Malaria and Acute Febrile Disease at FIND in Geneva, and coordinating malaria diagnostics strategy with the World Health Organisation. He is a Senior Scholar at the Brownstone Institute, where this article first appeared.
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I doubt they are at all interested in covid per se, just in the opportunities it presents, same as everywhere else but in spades as they have form. Why would we believe official figures from China about covid, more than any official figures? The idea that they could succeed in suppressing covid to the extent they claim, in a populous, connected country, in simply absurd, as is the idea that it spread around the world from Wuhan but not internally in China.
As a plandemic it worked rather well
Exactly. Most struggle to understand the motivation behind it. Why would anyone care what I’m up to? I have nothing to hide.
But the control freakery used to be understood better. Some people are broken. The unrelenting void in their own minds can only be healed by controlling the world. Many of them gravitate to government and it’s associated organizations.
Almost every single Chinese student I have spoken to over the years has wanted to work for their government or an agency thereof.
Only the wildest dream of an alternative, escaping to America to earn their fortune in the private sector.
Most of them, by far, take rubbish degrees like Business Administration which they pass by learning the “correct answer” by rote. This does not bode well for the future of the Chinese economy or built environment.
Won’t rote learning always be a big part of Chinese culture (whatever political regime they have) because there is no other way to learn how to read Chinese script with its thousands of logograms?
‘They contained it because they were so wonderfully authoritarian, brilliantly barbaric, admirably oppressive and decisively decisive!’
A. Guardian reader.
The sealed countries, including China and New Zealand, will be where omicron mutates as it spreads when it achieves its breakthrough there. The rest of the world will have dropped most or all restrictions and moved on. The danger is then of a highly pathogenic mutant variant appearing in one of these sealed countries. And so, the prospect of China being the source yet again….
What is leaving me completely stunned is that “the west” is passing up a golden opportunity to get one over China big time. All we would need to do is collectively rally behind the idea that covid is over, that it’s just a flu, get rid of literally every single restriction and return to full normality.
China (and whoever wanted to copy it) would then be left completely stuck. Our economies would boom, theirs would languish. Better still, their people, who aren’t idiots and do get outside info, would start getting very restless.
And that’s when I know the WEF, Davos, “conspiracy” narrative is spot on. Because that open approach would be great for the ordinary people, regular businesses. But that is not the priority of people in authority. Their priorities are control of the population and nurturing a cosy relationship with the giant corporations. i.e. The Chinese model.
I have no doubt that the oligarchs, politicians and technocrats running western nations fantasise about implementing Chinese style governance, and see themselves as a westernised, marginally more enlightened CCP.
They don’t want to beat China with western liberal values, they want to copy China and partner up with them.
Precisely. Western liberal values are a bothersome beast – people get such funny ideas about freedom.
They openly talk about the post democratic age, have done for years.
Poor hamsters.
First they came for the hamsters, but I did not speak out
Because I was not a hamster, but my Mother was a hamster so I ought to have spoken out.
Then they came for the elderberries…
It’s a Monty Python meets Martin Niemöller world we live in now. Soon they’ll be coming for Pepper Pig…
It’s time to send Michie to China on an extended research trip; possible duration about 30 years, with no home leave. As Head of the mission, she might include Ferguson, Whitty and Vallance in her entourage, along with any other deserving persons.
Back in the day when Philby, Burgess, Maclean and all that lot were actively pursuing the agenda of a foreign communist power, they had to keep it quiet because it was considered treasonous. These days, it’s done in the open, be it the CCP or the ‘you’ll own nothing and be happy’ WEF.
The Chinese don’t need Michie or Ferguson so after maybe receiving a few CCP honours they will end up like Kim Phillby, cooped up in a tiny flat ekeing out two bottles of Chinese vodka over a week.
The very nature of Zero Covid policy means that countries following it don’t admit immigrants, so it’s unlikely that any of its advocates in the West would be able to go into exile in a country more amenable to their values.
Not at all like Philby (who eventually found a home in the Soviet Union) or even the Nazi war criminals who found refuge in South America.
I, rightly or wrongly, have now mentally filed the last two years under ‘Virus Hoax – Morons Inc. 2020-2022’, where it will join many other compressed files, for reference purposes only.
2022 – you must be a glass half full type.
Good line. I’m going to nick it.
It was only the epilogue I’m afraid.
Hubris and hamsters – ummm – USA, UK, most of mainland europe for two years and at least a handful for the other 198 (at least).
The key lesson is to convince those immersed in BBCland that the Covid virus was to usher in the passports and associated social control measures, not the other way around. In this china has succeeded, although they already had their evolving social control methods already in place.
I don’t hold out much hope for this as I recall how many people around me only got injected with experimental drugs so they could book a holiday not because they lived in mortal fear of a deadly pathogen. That is the truly depressing part of this, how cheaply they were bought. How readily they embraced astonishingly poor propaganda. Like most people I literally don’t know anyone who died from this thing, and know only two people who got it and had heavy colds with zero longterm effects. Despite my own energetic maskless attempts to expose myself I never succumbed. My Vitamin D and zinc, magnesium and K2 regimen unfortunately saddled me with a robust immune system
What to do? For me the only meaningful takeaway is to understand some people will always be immune to the propaganda. That’s all. Most will succumb. That is the real virus.
Yes, we desperately need a propaganda vax to prevent contagion, it’s not enough just to turn off the tv.
Exactly greenpass was extended by a year in EU!
Vitamin D.
Note the first ‘linked article’ on the Dail Mail article above this one. GoFundMe
“Vitamin D works after all !”
Wow, thanks DM, who else knew?
(Well it was a couple of hours ago but it’s gone now. Can’t imagine why.)
They were like Esau and, in effect, sold their birthright for a mess of pottage.
There’s an increasing number of articles here in the UK reporting about dogs catching convid.
The regime has followed the communists every step of the way over the last two years, let’s hope they don’t even think about suggesting animals need to be culled.
Ferguson already has a horrifying track record on using his dodgy stats to cull enormous numbers of healthy animals in the past.
Avian flu outbreaks in areas that just coincidentally have 5G masts installed, with warning posters on them saying that radiation exposure causes flu-like symptoms.
Avian Flu spread prevention orders are commonplace in the UK; last year it spread from S/W England to cover the whole country but were never revoked so remain in place.
5G installation also spread over the last 2 years….
Evidence for a connection between coronavirus disease-19 and exposure to radiofrequency radiation from wireless communications including 5G
That would really throw a spanner into the brains of the modern, metro person. If dogs were suddenly considered a major spreader of covid, would they finally accept to live with the virus rather than culling them?
What am I saying… they’d plug them with 3 doses of Moderna and pretend that there is nothing unusual about young dogs dying of heart attacks.
If they go after people’s dogs, then that really would cause a revolution!
That would be a dream come true for me. I hate dogs, they are noisy, irritating and shit everywhere.
A bit like peolpe.
You’d think that it would have occurred to someone in China to create a Vaccine whilst it was creating a virus wouldn’t you? I love the “It was in a letter” bit, brings a whole new meaning to Viruses being in the Mail! That kind of thing has made me laugh all the way through with ideas like “YOu won’t catch it sitting down, it only gets you as you go the loo” and “You’re safe in the swimming pool but on the side of the pool”.
I’ve a strong suspicion that any lockdowns in China were strictly performative and staged in fairly random locations for the benefit of the idiot Western media. The CCP would have had the data early on and I simply don’t believe that a regime of this nature would wreck its economy over a possible 10% max increase in all cause mortality over a short period of time. Given the brutality of its one child policy (nice name for mass infanticide and millions upon millions of forced abortions), it just doesn’t make sense.
The argument against that I suppose is that the CCP right back to the sparrows campaign and the Great Leap Forward has a long history of insane, hugely damaging policies of self harm. We’ll never really know.
Indeed – why would anyone think the CCP leadership care much about notionally saving a few lives?
It’s never made any sense to me on those terms. Spreading the foul, insane and evil doctrine of lockdown to the West had its uses though. This is worth a read:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/china-covid-lockdown-propaganda
Looks like the CCP downtick bots are on the case
They’re famous for snooping and spying on everything.
Up yours you lying sneaky bastards!!!! Snoop on that
No, no. The lockdowns were real.
Beijing had pretty substantial restrictions for several months and work from home guidance for many months.
Absolutely. Many think the CCP are geniuses. They are but much in the same way that Mao was. A genius at taking control, keeping it and abusing the population without them saying a peep.
My hunch is that there is also a strong incentive to hide any infections in the municipalities. The CCP has made it clear that any hint of a breakout will be considered a failure and result in a destructive containment strategy. Therefore, any right thinking citizen or member of the CCP is going to do everything they can to hide infections from the central authority.
Started watching the winter olympics but had to switch off as I could stand seeing mass masking.
I saw a snippet of Women’s Ice Hockey and it was dismal – empty arena. Even in Canada I imagine no-one is much interested in it, so perhaps it was empty because it’s not very appealing to locals, but maybe the whole thing will largely be spectator-free. Elite sport in general is unwatchable for me now – virtue signalling, politics, corruption, whingeing, entitled athletes. corporate bollocks, and now covid nonsense.
Just reading about Nadal’s win made me want to throw something.
Just been for a walk in a University city that has a lot of chinky students, well over 90% of them masked up just walking around outside. They must be reveling in bringing their pathetic “culture” here
Read the book ‘Hidden Hand’ about the slow stealthy CCP takeover of the west. It amplifies the brief details here.
It’s sometimes hard to know whether a particular person is reporting to the CCP or the WEF.
I’ve read it and it just confirms what I’ve been saying for 2 decades. I use to travel with my job and I was concerned 20 years ago about the influence of China around the world. In Pakistan I use to go to the Chinese restaurants as the quality of the food was much better than in local restaurants.
I guess Pakistan’s bitter rivalry with India (of course one of the baleful legacies of British colonialism) will have made it easier for China to puppetize Pakistan…
Clean North Sea Gas v Dirty Russian Gas
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/02/05/clean-north-sea-gas-v-dirty-russian-gas/
by Paul Homewood
Saturday 5th February 2pm
Windsor Great Dog Walk for Freedom
behind one simple sign
“Covid Rules Are Barking”
All Canines and Humans welcome
Even if you don’t own a dog please come along
meet Alexander Park (near Bandstand) Barry Rd/Goswell Rd
Windsor SL4 1QY
Stand in the Park Sundays 10am make friends, ignore the madness & keep sane
Wokingham Howard Palmer Gardens Cockpit Path car park Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Henley Mills Meadows (at the bandstand) Henley-on-Thames RG9 1DS
Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Zero covid policy is a hybrid economical warfare against the rest of the world! Just look how many items and raw materials we are dependent on. So in name of covid they limit export and collapse the supply chain.
I think in the long run, they’re doing us a favour, tbh.
As I’ve been saying for nearly two years; in his goterdamerung moment bozo will command the slaughter of all newborn domestic pussycats.
This will be his revenge against those who failed to save him at the ballot box out of some ‘pussyfooting’ concern about him eating cake in No.10s Rose Garden.
Constitutional experts and later historians will be living off that for ages as Mirror Group News buys up the husk of Myspace for archive photos of Cute Cats to.print some every day by way of illustration.
“The U.S. Defense Dept developed SARS-CoV-2 in North Carolina. The 4th Branch (Intelligence Community) wanted to use it. The Pentagon restarts funding for development of SARS-CoV-2 in partnership with Wuhan, China – setting up the cover story. The 4th Branch (Intelligence Community) then uses the virus by releasing it in/around Wuhan. Everything after that is simply part of the 4th Branch covering their tracks. Wuhan, China becomes the patsy.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/10/02/did-the-fourth-branch-of-government-release-sars-cov-2-then-blame-china/
Ron Unz articles supporting and predating most of the above and the main articles series all listed here.
https://www.unz.com/runz/is-the-tide-finally-turning-on-covid-as-an-american-biowarfare-attack/
I hate the Chinks with a passion, people are waking up far too slowly to what they’re all about and cutting them too much slack.
When I think it’s bad in England at least I be glad I don’t live in China, (or Scotland haha). A good article worth reading in full just for the song lyrics at the end. Made me smile, something I definitely need these days.