“But you have proven to each other and the world that differences can be overcome, and common ground can be found.”
Loading
But Helen Clark, who co-chaired the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response which examined the WHO’s response to COVID-19, said while the agreement was welcomed, the timetable lacked the urgency required.
“I welcome the agreement at the WHA Special Session to set in train a process for negotiating new legal provisions addressing gaps in the international legal framework around pandemics,” Clark told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“I am concerned though at the lack of urgency in the timetable agreed which would see a proposal go to the World Health Assembly in May 2024 – more than four years after the WHO Director-General described the spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic.
“Given that another pandemic threat could emerge at any time, the sooner the gaps in the international framework can be filled, the better”, Clark said.
Clark has previously said the world could negotiate a treaty in six months as occurred after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the “historic and vital” decision.Credit:AP
While the WHA did not use the word ‘treaty’ in its statement, it said the convention or instrument agreed to would be created under Article 19 of its constitution, meaning it would be legally binding.
The global community has agreed to a Convention under Article 19 just once before; the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005. That took about four years to negotiate.
The first talks on a possible pandemic treaty will begin next March and continue in August after consultations.
Loading
The goal is to have an outcome for the Assembly to consider by May 2024.
The joint World Bank and WHO oversight body, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, which called for a legally binding agreement in its 2020 report and again in recent months, welcomed the assembly’s decision.
“The GPMB is of the view that a legally binding agreement, covering all aspects of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, is an essential tool to ensure sustained political commitment, strengthen leadership, and facilitate collective action in preparedness and response,” the board said in a statement.
“In short, in can address all the failings we have witnessed in this and previous pandemics and outbreaks,” the Board said.
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
WHO member nations agree to negotiate pandemic convention or treaty
Source: Philippines Alive
