WHO Member States Score a Win on IHR and for Multilateralism, Bag More Time to Conclude Pandemic Agreement [WHA77]

Newsletter Edition #98 [Treaty Talks - IHR]

Hi,

The long drawn out negotiations on the amendments to the International Health Regulations had all the characteristics of a great Test Match in Cricket. Slow but steady, and suddenly gets all exciting with a flourishing win.

And what a win! This desperate race to conclude was not only against time, but also against a fast-eroding trust in multilateralism, deeply fractured by the pandemic and the subsequent ongoing wars that have redrawn geopolitics. Global health is now illustrative of what multilateralism can achieve, when enabled by great leadership, and persistence by countries.

In this edition, we recount what a tremendous World Health Assembly it has been this past week - one that concluded with less than 60 minutes to spare ahead the midnight deadline on June 1, 2024.

We will follow up with detailed analysis on the amendments to the IHR in the coming days. Also look out for our analysis on the most political Health Assemblies in recent years.

I also want to say that it has been an absolute privilege for us to report on these negotiations. This has been a tough exercise because of the closed nature of these discussions. So I am grateful to my numerous sources who have taken the time to educate and explain the politics, and the nuances in these legal provisions to us over more than two years.

Support public interest global health journalism, become a paying subscriber. Tracking global health policy-making in Geneva is tough and expensive. Help us raise important questions, and in keeping an ear to the ground. Readers paying for our work makes this possible.

Our gratitude to our subscribers who help us stay in the game!

Best,

Priti

Feel free to write to us: patnaik.reporting@gmail.com. Follow us on X: @filesgeneva

---

Illustration Credit: Amy Clarke, Chembe Collaborative

---

I. STORY OF THE WEEK: WHA77

WHO Member States Score a Win on IHR and for Multilateralism, Bag More Time to Conclude Pandemic Agreement

By Priti Patnaik

Nishant Sirohi contributed to this story

---

And this is how it is done.

Member States of WHO secured a desperate win in reaching consensus on the amendments to the International Health Regulations, following more than two years of systematic and intense negotiations, culminating in an astonishing agreement in the final hours of the 77^th World Health Assembly. The consensus assumes greater significance in an otherwise difficult meeting of WHO member states this year, that was fraught with several political resolutions laced with rounds of voting among 194 countries.

Amendments to these technical rules, last revised in 2005 following the SARS outbreak, is the first significant change in international law in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw 20 million excess deaths. These rules have been in force since 1969, but have been amended and revised on several occasions. The latest round of the adoption of these amendments, have been targeted in nature, following negotiations on 300 proposals to amend these rules as suggested by scores of countries globally. This is also a big win for the United States, among others, who spearheaded the amendments’ process in 2021. The smallest of developing countries followed suit with bold and ambitious proposals to amend these rules.

In their statements after the adoption, several countries described the outcome of these negotiations as “momentous”, and as a testimony to multilateralism being alive in Geneva.

In this story, we look at how these negotiations unfolded during the last week in the midst of an ongoing Assembly. Negotiators who have been working on these discussions included both Geneva-based diplomats and capital-based experts – they spent days, and long hours into the nights, in drafting group sessions. See our earlier story, when a drafting group was established on May 29th. The following four days was a determined effort by all countries to get this over the finish line by around 4 p.m. on June 1, 2024.

For some delegations, it was a challenging process to finalize and agree on the amendments, while political and highly contentious discussions unfolded in the next room at the premises of the United Nations in Geneva. Some developing country diplomats hopped in to watch the voting on matters related to Palestine, and going back in, into the IHR drafting group sessions negotiating financing mechanisms among others. They not only survived, but also won on both accounts.

At the Assembly, countries also agreed to extend the mandate of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for another year. The INB was set up to establish a Pandemic Agreement.

Image Credit: Photo by Pixabay, Pexels