2023-06-05 10:30:00
HEALTH/RIGHT – A slip or a true “declaration of intent”? During a round table organized on May 22, 2023 on the sidelines of the 76th General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, the co-president of a working group of this international body openly called on the Member States to equip themselves with “measures which would restrict individual freedoms”, in order to fight against the next pandemics.
The 76th World Health Assembly kicked off on May 22 in Geneva. This edition is dedicated to the Treaty on Pandemics, which provides “to empower WHO to fulfill its mandate as the directing and coordinating authority for international health work, including for pandemic preparedness and response”.
This is one of the proposals put forward in June 2022 by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (OIN), initiated in December 2021 by the 194 Member States of the WHO and “responsible for drafting and negotiating a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response”.
After this first meeting in June 2022, this body met again in July 2022 to agree that this Pandemic Treaty will be adopted under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution and will be “legally binding” for the signatories.
A decision welcomed by the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The importance of a legally binding instrument cannot be overstated: it will be part of our collective legacy for future generations”he said.
A report from this OIN, a copy of which was sent to Member States on February 1, 2023, was examined during this 76th World Health Assembly. The ISO hopes to conclude the agreement in May 2024, allowing the WHO to declare pandemics and subject member states to its authority “directing and coordinating international health work”.
“Restrict freedoms”… “It’s necessary”
Several round tables around this Treaty were organized on the sidelines of this Assembly. The first onerelating to “strengthening prevention, preparedness and response to pandemics”, was held on May 22, 2023 and brought together several WHO decision-makers, starting with its head, Tedros A. Ghebreyesus. However, it is not his statement that is causing controversy. This is the intervention of Dr Abdullah Assiri, co-chair of a working group on amendments to the International Health Regulations (WGIHR) (From 3:00 p.m.) which raises questions, even fears.
Abdullah Assiri first took stock of the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005, “the only binding document we have“. “The IHR have been in effect for 16 years. Its implementation was the most problematic component of the process, but the world has moved on”he said.
After recalling the genesis of the OIN, he declared that the Member States had examined the 300 amendments proposed by this body, intended to allow “the implementation of the IHR, which will enable member countries to detect public health emergencies, respond and reduce the risk of pandemics”.
Nevertheless, the WHO needs, he says, a “another level of legal mandates”. It evokes “a treaty to manage a possible pandemic” who must not only “prioritize certain measures” more “Who’s gonna do it”. He quotes “a restriction of individual freedoms”, the “shares information and resources and most importantly, the provision of funds for pandemic relief efforts.”
“All this is necessary”, justifies the one who has held many positions in the Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia. But “the means to achieve these objectives are not available at the moment”, continues Dr Assiri, without giving further details, resuming his summary of the timetable leading to the examination of the IHR amendments at the next Assembly in 2024.
To refer to this intervention, stated in the presence of the boss of the WHO, the latter openly assumes a desire to restrict individual freedoms among the populations of the Member States in the name of a fight against the next pandemics. Is this a misunderstanding? Did Dr Assiri misstate one of the purposes of the Pandemic Treaty or is he expressing a personal opinion?
His passage, which aroused strong reactions, especially reinforces the fears already expressed by many parties, such as the professor of international law, Francis Boyle, Republican senators in the United States or medical associations in Europe.
A “global police health state”
In a “Debriefing” pour France-Evening, Francis Boyle asserted that this WHO Treaty “would violate the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties”, because the text would circumvent the consent of national parliaments. He warned of the risk posed by the WHO’s access to “these dictatorial powers”.
In his opinion, this organization “will be able to order to undertake so-called medical measures which you (..) will not cure you (…) They will be able, during a pandemic, to order confinements, masks or even more vaccines”. This Treaty, once in force, will establish “a world state, police, medical and scientific” whose authority “will override that of the States and their constitutions”.
The Treaty was rejected as soon as the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body was set up. On April 22, 2022, the Association of Polish Independent Physicians and Researchers met at the Warsaw Press House to warn the international population against this project. “What’s going to happen when the head of the WHO hits the ‘pandemic’ button?”. A few weeks later, it was the International Alliance for Justice and Democracy that denounced a project “liberticidal and anti-democratic”.
In February 2023, 17 Republican senatorsled by Ron Johnson, representing Wisconsin, presented the “No OMS Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act*“. The authors of this text demand that this pandemic agreement must be considered a treaty, which requires the consent of a majority of the Senate, or two-thirds.
The senators recall that “WHO and our federal health agencies have failed miserably in their response to COVID-19”. And “failure” who, they continue, “should not be rewarded with a new international treaty increasing the power of the WHO at the expense of American sovereignty.”
On Twitter, the passage of Dr. Abdullah Assiri has been widely reported since May 22. For some Internet users, the WHO “show her true face” wanting “create a global police state”. Others call to reject this treaty.
*No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty without Senate approval
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