Exclusive: WHO Member States Agree on Key Resolution on The Future Work for The Pandemic Agreement, "Preserve Balance" [WHA78 PRIMER]
Newsletter Edition #128 [Treaty Talks]
Hi,
The adoption of the Pandemic Agreement at the World Health Assembly next week in Geneva will be a centerpiece of the annual meeting.
In today’s edition, we bring you an exclusive on the process that went into negotiating a resolution that lays the path forward on the post-adoption landscape - chiefly on the work towards a Pathogen Access Benefits Sharing Mechanism.
More from us in the coming days. Thank you for reading and keeping up with the news cycle from Geneva.
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I. PANDEMIC AGREEMENT: WHA78
WHO Member States Agree on Key Resolution on The Future Work for The Pandemic Agreement, “Preserve Balance”
Heading into the World Health Assembly for a “hoped-for” adoption of the Pandemic Agreement, health diplomats in Geneva spent several days negotiating, and finally reaching consensus on a resolution that will accompany the adoption of the new legal instrument in global health.
Why is this important? While there is an in-principle agreement on the text of the draft Pandemic Agreement (countries brokered consensus in April), the resolution lays out the process that will follow once countries adopt the historic Agreement next week. As with all aspects of this three-year-old negotiations process, this was not without a fair amount of tussle among countries.
In this story we present excerpts of the resolution, and also share explanatory comments from senior officials at WHO made a press briefing this week.
The resolution and the treaty will be discussed in the afternoon on Monday, May 19th. And will be taken up for adoption in a plenary session on Tuesday, May 20th according a schedule proposed by WHO.
See WHO explaining the procedures following the adoption. And the link to the draft Pandemic Agreement agreed by member states.
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