Global pandemic treaty: Soumya Swaminathan promises draft in 18 months

Source: The post is based on the article “Global pandemic treaty: Soumya Swaminathan promises draft in 18 months” published in Down To Earth on 17th August 2022.

What is the News?

The chief scientist of the World Health Organization(WHO) has said that the draft international pandemic treaty governing prevention, preparedness and response of future pandemics will be ready for negotiation in 18 months.

What is the Global Pandemic Treaty?

In December 2021, the World Health Assembly(WHA) agreed to start a global process to draft the pandemic treaty. 

The need for an updated set of rules was felt after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the shortcomings of global health systems.

Under the decision, WHO established an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to draft and negotiate the contents of the pandemic treaty in compliance with Article 19 of the WHO Constitution.

The INB has prepared a working draft which compiled inputs from WHO Member States and other stakeholders. 

What is the vision of the draft Global Pandemic Treaty?

The vision of the draft is to protect from the consequences of pandemic based on “equity, human rights and solidarity”. 

It talked about achieving universal health coverage, enhancing local production of medical resources, promoting genetic sequence monitoring and data sharing as well as recognising the socioeconomic impacts of such crises.

Will it be a legally binding treaty?

WHA aims to adopt the treaty under Article 19 of the WHO constitution, which enables it to draw up binding agreements on a wide range of issues under its mandate. 

Many countries agreed to this, but some like the United States wanted the treaty to fall under Article 21. This limits the number of topics that can have binding agreements. 

Only Russia wanted “non-legally binding recommendations”.