Close, But Not Yet: Consensus Pending on the Amendments to the International Health Regulations

Newsletter Edition #93 [Treaty Talks - IHR]

Hi,

In today’s edition we bring you an update from the final meeting of the Working Group to amend the International Health Regulations. While the deliberations have not concluded yet, countries are nearing consensus on significant changes to these rules.

Read this story to not only get a sense of key issues taken up this past week, but also what this means for the upcoming negotiations on the Pandemic Agreement that resume this week on May 20th.

Far from the menacing flames of politically motivated misinformation on these processes, negotiators in Geneva are putting their heads together staying focused on concluding these negotiations working nearly round the clock without adequate sleep or food or (good) coffee. It has been a privilege to witness this commitment from all countries.

I must confess this was a difficult story to write (with different ledes before I finally settled on this!). The closed door negotiations at WHO have been challenging to piece together - not only for the technical and legal complexities and nuances involved, but also political considerations that appear to shape these discussions continuously. This makes it a moving target, with no facile assessments on how things are progressing. Yet we are doing what we can.

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!

Watch out for more stuff from us as negotiations reach a crescendo in Geneva a week before the World Health Assembly. The countdown has begun.

Best,

Priti

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

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Illustration Credit: Amy Clarke, Chembe Collaborative

I. ANALYSIS: AMENDMENTS TO THE IHR

Close, But Not Yet: Consensus Pending on the Amendments to the International Health Regulations

By Priti Patnaik

Nishant Sirohi contributed to this story

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Disagreements on the need for a new financial mechanism to aid the implementation of the International Health Regulations, and language around technology transfer during health emergencies, among other open areas in the negotiations to amend the IHR, prevented countries from reaching consensus on a full package of amendments. Disagreements also continue on the text referring to the access to medical products, and on whether diversifying production was broadening the scope of the IHR.

After two days, and nights of conducting negotiations into the small hours of May 18^th, countries had a few, but important areas to reach consensus in order to close the deal on this track of negotiations, following the final meeting of the Working Group to amend the IHR.

Despite these challenges, countries made substantial progress on key matters including on nearly agreeing to a definition on pandemic emergency, and recognizing equity and solidarity as principles in the IHR, among other areas of convergence. (See WHO press statement on the meeting)

In his remarks at the close of the meeting, Ashley Bloomfield, from New Zealand, one of the Co-Chairs of the WGIHR, who has steered this process, said, “We feel we have captured already some significant and historic amendments that will form the basis of the package we will propose to the WHA… notwithstanding we still have work to do and we're committed to finishing the job. An important thing about those amendments is that they are not just technical amendments. They are significant amendments that both acknowledged the importance of equity, but also make concrete steps towards putting it into practice. And that's a shared and universal commitment which is really significant.”

This story looks only at a few select issues that were taken up by WHO member states this past week. We also discuss the implications of this process for the Pandemic Agreement track of negotiations.  

Image Credit: Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki, Pexels