PHM-Exch> Press Release Civil Society Report Raises Concerns About Proposed WHO Pandemic Treaty

[Claudio Schuftan]

*Press Release*

*Civil Society Report Raises Concerns About Proposed WHO Pandemic Treaty*

** Current International Health Regulations shouldn't be ignored**

**Focus should remain on tackling COVID-19 pandemic**

30 November, 2021

Geneva, Switzerland



Civil society organizations have raised concerns on the rush to negotiate
the proposed pandemic treaty at the
World Health Assembly Special Session (WHASS), which began yesterday
<https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHASSA2/SSA2_CONF1-en.pdf>, as the
world is going through multiple waves of COVID-19 pandemic. A report
released <https://g2h2.org/posts/24-november-2021/> ahead of the WHASS
by Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2), an independent platform of civil
society organizations committed to advancing the right to health, unpacks
the geopolitical complexities behind the treaty proposal and the drivers of
this diplomatic initiative.



The research report titled ‘The Politics of a WHO Pandemic Treaty in a
Disenchanted World
<https://g2h2.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/G2H2-Politics-of-a-WHO-Pandemic-Treaty-Conference-version.pdf>’
includes interviews with 23 international policymakers, health diplomats,
civil society actors, academic representatives and public health
professionals from across the globe. According to the
report’s co-researcher Priti Patnaik, Founding Editor, Geneva Health Files,
“This report gives voice, nuance and context to the concerns raised by many
developing countries around the diplomatic process and motivations of
negotiating new rules for future health emergencies.”



Patnaik added that by showcasing perspectives from a range of experts and
diplomats, both from the global North and the South, the research presents
a careful and complex picture on countries’ views on the ongoing
discussions for a new pandemic treaty as well as analyzes the different
narratives and triggers that envelope the promotion of the demarche pushed
forward at the WHO.



While civil society organizations have traditionally advocated for the need
of binding norms in the global health domain because the right to health
shouldn’t hinge on voluntary arrangements only, the original motivation
behind the treaty and the hurried nature of the negotiations need to be
questioned. Nicoletta Dentico, Head of Global Health Justice Program, Society
for International Development (SID) and G2H2 co-chair said, “The treaty
discussion is full of good intentions, but lacks evidence. The mechanics of
the current treaty proposal have been enacted at full speed without a
serious assessment of the reasons why the implementation of the current
binding arrangement on health emergencies – the 2005 International Health
Regulations - have been so broadly neglected and disregarded by all
countries in the world. What’s the real advantage of starting a negotiation
on the same topic again?”



The report also highlights that this a pandemic of “inequalities and
inequities” between and within countries and genders. WHO needs to
recognize the new organizing principles that COVID-19 has brought into the
health domain in the context of managing the emergency, namely health and
social justice, planetary boundaries and the need for encompassing racial,
gender and digital justice.  Research respondents from the global South
expressed the need for immediate concrete action in dealing with the
current pandemic and related inequities, including access to
countermeasures like vaccines.



With the announcement of the new Omicron variant and the prevailing vaccine
apartheid, Dentico questioned, “How can treaty proponents like the EU
justify their frenzy at the WHO, in the name of saving multilateralism,
while at the World Trade Organization (WTO) they paralyze multilateralism
and health equity by blocking the proposal to suspend the intellectual
property rights during the pandemic tabled by India and South Africa?”.  She
added if the world aims to address pandemic preparedness and response it
must focus on issues like the proprietary knowledge economy based on
monopoly rights because these issues prevent access to science, which is
developed with massive public funding and should be used for public good.



There is a push for influential private actors to become a permanent part
of future pandemic responses as hinted by several respondents in the
report. It emphasizes the risk of institutionalizing these actors in the
WHO through a binding treaty, a move that can come as a major blow to the
global health governance.



There is evidence that a pandemic treaty would not make a difference or
that countries would act any different according to Remco van de Pas,
Institute for Tropical Medicine Antwerp and co-researcher of the report. “There
are often lofty cosmopolitan goals on pandemic governance but the last
decades have shown that richer countries will go their own way in
implementing it, despite what they have agreed upon with WHO. It is hence
understandable that lower and middle-income countries are taking a cautious
and skeptical approach to the treaty proposal”, he added.



Many low- and middle-income countries are already struggling with the
reality of fragile or non-existent public healthcare systems often
connected to service repayment of their burgeoning debt. Cancelling this
debt to creditor countries, mostly the ones proposing the pandemic
treaty, would
enable investments in pandemic preparedness and response instead of
reliance on private players.



The report clearly identifies that despite apprehension the proponents of
the treaty have clearly managed to drum up support for the idea in these
initial stages. As discussions on the treaty go ahead with the power
imbalance in decision-making further exacerbated by the inevitable practice
of online diplomacy it is important to note that according to several
experts interviewed for the report, developing a strong and resilient
public health systems should be the high priority on the WHO agenda and for
the international health community.



*Additional Resources*

Launch event video
<https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/PEkoz9fveQYl2Ax-anHmzzC_NOd8jokNQO96hzsSpjUle-GgI1Bpvhjo_9SpYjxd-dt3pCq-i6uDFh30.L5LPs0nMCFH0-g55?startTime=1637756717000&_x_zm_rtaid=MWsS1D9SRB6OrHCO1X6Iqg.1638198771387.158e7aeb1e7a1a112ec665339da43ef1&_x_zm_rhtaid=78>


Presentation of findings
<https://g2h2.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Geneva-slides-final.pdf>





*About Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2) *

The Geneva Global Health Hub is a membership-based association created in
Geneva in 2016 to provide a space and enable civil society to meet, share
knowledge and create initiatives to advocate for more democratic global
health governance. The values that guide and drive its work are belief in
democracy with equity in diversity; dignity; accountability and
transparency; and ethics and justice. Website: g2h2.org Twitter: @
G2H2_Geneva <https://twitter.com/G2H2_Geneva>


*For media enquiries please contact*

Neha Gupta, nehag at sidint.org
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