After more than two years of negotiations, a WHO treaty which supporters say would improve pandemic responses, but critics argued would have ceded national sovereignty, has stalled ahead of a global meeting of health ministers today.
While the yearly meeting of health ministers at the WHO opens today in Geneva, on Friday, Roland Driece, co-chair of WHO’s negotiating board for the agreement, accepted that countries had been unable to agree a final draft of the treaty.
Earlier this month, a group of U.S. Republican Senators wrote to President Joe Biden urging him not to sign the treaty, arguing that the draft treaty would be akin to “shredding intellectual property rights” and “supercharging the WHO.”
Similarly, Britain’s Department of Health reportedly said that it was advising against supporting the treaty because it undermined the country’s sovereignty.
“We will only support the adoption of the accord and accept it on behalf of the UK, if it is firmly in the UK national interest and respects national sovereignty,” a spokesperson said.
Mr Driece, however, argued Friday that finalising an international agreement on how to respond to a pandemic was critical. We are not where we hoped we would be when we started this process,” he said, but added that World Health Assembly this week would plot the way forward. He said he hoped participants would make “the right decisions to take this process forward” towards a pandemic agreement.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the lack of a draft treaty after the final day of negotiations was “not a failure.”
“We will try everything — believing that anything is possible — and make this happen because the world still needs a pandemic treaty,” he said. “Because many of the challenges that caused a serious impact during COVID-19 still exist.”
As previously reported on Gript, Independent TDs in Ireland, including Deputies Michael Collins and Mattie McGrath, have previously voiced strong opposition to the pandemic treaty.
Deputy Collins of Independent Ireland has said he “vehemently opposes” the WHO Pandemic Treaty and the corresponding health regulation adjustments. Speaking las t December, Deputy Collins said that the alterations included in the agreement pose substantial threats to Irish sovereignty by endowing the WHO with considerable authority over our national pandemic response policies.”
Deputy Mattie McGrath, speaking as far back as May 2022, described the treaty as “a total sellout,” claiming the commitment is all about “control, control, control,” as he expressed concern about granting expanded powers to the World Health Organisation.
Deputy McGrath previously called on the Minister for Health to provide a “genuine public consultation process, potentially including a referendum and a Dáil Éireann debate”, before deciding to support or reject the WHO Global Pandemic Treaty, saying such steps were “crucial” as he claimed the treaty’s binding nature would have a potential impact on Ireland’s sovereignty. He told the Dáil it might “undermine national decision-making, especially given the WHO’s influence by China and multinational pharmaceutical corporations.”
Addressing Deputy McGrath last year, Minister Stephen Donnelly said that Ireland had been participating in the “member-led, consensus-based negotiation process on both the IHR and the pandemic agreement as part of the EU bloc of Member States.”
“Ireland is also a member of the Group of Friends of the Treaty whose membership includes EU Member States, the UK, the Republic of Korea and South Africa among others,” he said, adding: “IIreland strongly supports an agreement that would foster an all-of-government and all-of-society approach, strengthening national, regional, and global capacities towards resilience to future pandemics.”
Speaking last month, the Health Minister reaffirmed Ireland’s commitment to the agreement, saying the State “strongly supports” a multilateral approach, welcoming the WHO’s “central leadership role,” adding that he anticipated the treaty to be adopted this month.
“The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the global status quo in terms of pandemic preparedness and response is not adequate and requires revision. It also demonstrated the cross-border nature of a pandemic, and that States need to work collaboratively in managing their response to such a threat. As such, Ireland strongly supports a multilateral approach to global health issues with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a central leadership role,” Minister Donnelly said in April.