The latest negotiating text of a global pandemic treaty reaffirms nations' sovereignty and promotes equity and right to health as guiding principles.
The World Health Organization's Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, which includes its 194 member countries, got back to work on drafting a proposed agreement aimed at strengthening the world's preparedness for another pandemic, WHO officials said on Thursday.
The goal is to prevent a repeat of the massive loss of lives and livelihoods and widespread economic shocks and social inequities from the COVID-19 pandemic. A draft accord is expected to be submitted for approval next May by WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly.
Governments also are conducting parallel negotiations over amendments to WHO's International Health Regulations that provide legally binding rights and obligations towards disease outbreaks and other acute public health risks. The proposed amendments also deal with some of the challenges that arose during the pandemic.
The U.N. health agency said it also has been fighting a "torrent of fake news, and disinformation and misinformation" falsely claiming the global pandemic treaty would take away the sovereign rights of nations.
"Instead, it is intended to encourage international coordination so future pandemics can be better managed with less lives lost and fewer social inequities," WHO said, adding that the draft text "reaffirms the principle of sovereignty" for its member nations to address public health matters.
Negotiators have proposed letting WHO hand out a fifth of all the vaccines and other products the world needs and easing intellectual property restrictions to provide more equitable access to vaccines and therapies.
That's opposed by the pharmaceutical industry and some nations where its biggest companies are based.
If passed, the treaty would be just the second legally binding health agreement in WHO’s history. The first such agreement was the international anti-tobacco accord approved in 2003 that took effect two years later.
"Equity and the right to health are among the guiding principles of the draft text of the proposed pandemic agreement under discussion," WHO said.
"In this light," it said, "governments discussed the sustainable production of pandemic-related products; the transfer of technology and know-how to produce such items; and a multilateral system for access to pathogens and the sharing of benefits derived from them, such as vaccines and other pandemic-related products, to support prevention, preparedness and response."
