As with previous INB meetings, the opening session, adoption of the agenda and programme of work, report of the meeting and closure of the session were publicly webcast. Relevant stakeholders were invited to join and contribute. The substantive negotiations and the “stocktake” on progress were held in “closed” session i.e. not open to the people.
INB Press Conference 11th November 2024
The co-chairs of the INB Anne-Claire Amprou (France) and Precious Matsoso (South Africa) along with Steven Solomon (legal officer) held a press conference regarding the calling of a special session of the World Health Assembly.
Whilst progress was made in the first week of INB12 consensus was not reached on key articles such as Article 12 PABs, Article 11 technology transfer and the legal architecture of the Pandemic Agreement. Consequently, the Member States decided not to call a special session.
“Member States think that there are still to work to do and they want to use the coming week of discussions to continue making progress. Today Member States agreed we need to conclude the agreement as soon as possible and continue negotiations into 2025 with the goal of concluding the agreement by the next World Health Assembly scheduled in May 2025.” Anne-Claire Amprou.
“What was intended with this is to ensure that we can protect the world from a repeat of what happened with Covid 19…our biggest fear though is that when the next pandemic happens it will be more severe than what we experienced with Covid 19… Countries have committed to continue to complete this important and historic Pandemic Agreement. This, we hope will make the world safer and healthier for everybody today and in the future.” Precious Matsoso.
From the questions asked by the media, it became apparent that the legal framework, PABs (Article 12), One Health (Article 5), and Prevention (Article 4) all require further discussion. The question to media were limited so there could well be other contentious issues such as technology transfer and operationalising equity.
Closure of the session
As is the norm with the INB, the report of the session was displayed on the screen and marked green as agreed.
The Bureau, with the support of the Secretariat, will provide the INB with (1) a detailed program of work for the resumed INB12 to be circulated as soon as possible, and (2) proposed text by the Bureau on outstanding provisions to support the on-going negotiations.
Informal consultations will continue.
The report was agreed and will be published on the WHO website at a later date.
The floor was opened to Member States for comment. Those commenting were developing countries.
It is clear that significant differences remain between developing and developed countries. The operationalisation of equity remains contentious. The interrelationship between the IHR and the Pandemic Agreement remains unresolved.
Indonesia highlighted the following three areas as the focus for the resumed INB in December:
- Technology transfer
- Pathogens and benefit sharing system
- Legal architecture
It is worth mentioning that the contribution from Tanzania, on behalf of the forty-seven members of Africa plus Egypt, mentioned the fact that a group of children had joined the meeting and a photograph was taken of them alongside the members of the INB. The delegate quoted Precious Matsoso:
“…the picture is a generational memory that we sat here negotiating a treaty for 8 billion people on the planet and the generation to come. This is not only a noble opportunity for all of us but also a moral obligation.”
Let’s not forget that the substantive negations are going on in private – they are not accessible to the people. The reality is that the vast majority of those 8 billion people have no idea that such an agreement is being negotiated and neither has a draft of the Pandemic Agreement been made publicly available since May 2024. That should concern us all.
Conclusion
The Member States did not make sufficient progress with the negotiations to feel confident in calling a special session of the World Health Assembly for December. Consequently, finalising the Pandemic Agreement prior to the end of 2024 will not be possible.
INB12 will be resumed on 2nd December and run through to 6th December. If there is still no consensus another “stock take” will be done on 6th December after which a decision will be made regarding calling a special session of the World Health Assembly in early 2025.
The goal remains to finalise the Pandemic Agreement no later than the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025.
It is important to remember that the Pandemic Agreement is not about ceding national sovereignty to the WHO as is evident from Article 24.2 from the latest official draft of the Pandemic Agreement (marked as green which means “initial agreement was reached”):
“Nothing in the WHO Pandemic Agreement shall be interpreted as providing the WHO Secretariat, including the WHO Director-General, any authority to direct, order, alter or otherwise prescribe the national and/or domestic laws, as appropriate, or policies of any Party, or to mandate or otherwise impose any requirements that Parties take specific actions, such as ban or accept travellers, impose vaccination mandates or therapeutic or diagnostic measures or implement lockdowns.”
The Pandemic Agreement is a business proposition to build out manufacturing capacity across the globe for pandemic related products (vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics). This is so that big pharma and other international corporations can amass greater profit by ensuring that during the next pandemic (which Precious, Tedros, Mike Ryan and others are keen to remind us is around the corner) a significant section of the population (Africa for starters) is not missed as it was during Covid 19. (See Article 10 Sustainable and geographically diversified local production).
The Pandemic Agreement is, at its heart, about perpetuating the transfer of wealth from the people to the corporations in the age of pandemics. It is not about health rather wealth over health.
Next steps
2nd – 6th December: INB12 resumed
Now – 2nd December: informal intersessional meetings
