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TWN
Info Service on Health Issues (Feb24/07) WHO: Textual negotiations on pandemic instrument postponed Geneve, 19 February (TWN) – The textual negotiations on the pandemic instrument are postponed to the 9th meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) tasked to develop the new instrument. The Bureau’s communication to Member States on the 8th session states: “During INB9, we will have text-based negotiations on the revised text. At INB9 we will need to find consensus on the text, in order to meet our May (2024) deadline.” The communication also states that the Bureau will prepare a revised negotiating text to be tabled at INB9 for text-based negotiation. The 8th meeting of INB is taking place from18 February to 1 March in a hybrid mode at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva. The 9th meeting of INB will be from 18 to 28 March, in the same mode at the same venue. Currently no other meeting is scheduled after INB9 prior to the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA). The negotiations on the pandemic instrument are expected to conclude prior to the 77th WHA in Geneva, 27 May -1 June 2024. Thus, pandemic instrument negotiations are expected to conclude within 9 days of text-based negotiations. However, the Bureau members told TWN that INB meetings will be scheduled in April and May to aim to conclude the negotiations prior to the 77th WHA. The Bureau’s communication states: “At the second-ever special session of the World Health Assembly, WHO Member States decided that the INB should submit its outcome to the 77th Health Assembly in May 2024. The two “marathon” sessions that are being held were agreed to by the INB, at the first meeting of the INB, and they are key in helping us finalize our work in time for WHA77”. As the Bureau’s communication rightly states, the special session of the World Health Assembly did not set a deadline to conclude the negotiations prior to the 77th WHA. According to the decision, the INB is to submit the outcome of its work to the 77th WHA. The decision states: “… the INB shall submit its outcome for consideration by the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly, with a progress report to the Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly”. The submission of the outcome does not mean that the negotiations should be concluded prior to the 77th WHA. A reason often given by the WHO Secretariat to Member States to conclude the negotiations is the United States (U.S.) presidential election wherein the potential election of Donald Trump to the presidency would result in a tough situation for the conclusion of the negotiations, including the potential withdrawal of the U.S. from the WHO. However, what is often ignored is the fact of the reluctance of the U.S. to ratify international treaties, irrespective of whether the Democrat or Republican party is in power. The delay in the text-based negotiations and the simultaneous push for concluding in May 2024 is viewed as a strategy to exert pressure on Member States, especially on developing country Member States to drop their demand to incorporate legally binding obligations on equity. Systematic delay in text-based negotiations The INB Bureau took a different approach from that followed by the Working Group on the amendments of the International Health Regulations 2005 (WGIHR) and has delayed the text-based negotiations since the publication of the “Zero draft” in 2023. The WGIHR, the negotiating body mandated for the amendment of IHR 2005, invited all Member States to submit the amendment proposals and incorporated the proposed amendments to the existing IHR text to facilitate the negotiation. The INB Bureau prepared the Zero draft and circulated it in February prior to the fourth meeting of the INB. The 4th meeting (27 February to 1 March 2023) and the 5th meeting (3 to 6 April 2023) of the INB discussed the Zero draft. Further, Member States also submitted written textual proposals to the Zero Draft. Based on these inputs the Bureau prepared another version of the text prior to the resumed 5th meeting (2-16 June 2023). Discussions were also held on that text, often called the “Bureau’s text”, during the 6th meeting of the INB (17 to 21 July 2023) and the INB drafting group meeting on 4 to 6 September. The September drafting group decided to prepare a proposal for a negotiating text for the consideration of the INB during its 7th meeting. At the 7th meeting of the INB (6 to 10 November) and its resumed session on 4 to 6 December 2023, Member States provided the textual suggestions to this text, identified as the “Draft Negotiating Text”, from the floor. However, INB7 did not raise or answer the question on whether Member States are willing to adopt the Bureau’s proposal (Draft Negotiating Text) as the actual “Negotiating Text”. The Bureau instead sent out an email to Member States between the November and December meetings of INB7 that claimed the Bureau’s text is considered as the “default negotiating text” and the text proposals from Member States will only be incorporated into that if they enjoy broad cross-regional convergence or consensus. This means, in effect, the INB is continuing to the discuss the Bureau’s proposal for a negotiating text as explicitly marked in the programme of work. Since the end of the resumed 5th INB meeting in June 2023, Member States have been engaged in informal groups, and later subgroups from November, to provide their suggestions on the text which find cross-regional support. However, every time after a discussion, either the Bureau, Co-chairs or Co-facilitators would revise the on-screen text to which Member States made their suggestions. Although the proclaimed rule is the text proposals with cross-regional support will remain in the Draft Negotiating Text, this rule is often ignored by the pen holders in the Secretariat and Bureau, especially when a developing country proposal finds cross-regional support. For example, the Africa Group’s proposal on a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) Mechanism which achieved cross-regional support is not retained in the proposal for the negotiating text. Thus, the text that will be discussed during the INB8 meeting is refined text from various subgroup discussions, and voluntary group initiatives and what the Co-facilitators, Vice-chairs or the Secretariat have captured from the discussions in these groups. The Bureau is to come out with another revised negotiating text for the 9th INB meeting. The Bureau’s communication as seen by TWN, reads in this regard: “… the Bureau proposes that following INB8, the Bureau, with the support of the Secretariat, prepare a revised negotiating text to be tabled at INB9 for text-based negotiations.” This means that even the text suggestions made by the Member States during INB8 will only be retained in the negotiating text that will be tabled in INB9 if pen-holders of the Secretariat and Bureau appreciate them. As a result, Member States are denied the opportunity to place their textual suggestions in the draft negotiating text and to start the text-based negotiation at INB8. This insistence of an informal process including the subgroup process delays the text-based negotiation. Further, this informal mode of negotiation is being used to force Member States to dilute their textual proposals even before the starting of text-based negotiations. This is disproportionately affecting developing countries’ efforts to address the existing inequity in the health emergency regime, as shown in the PABS Mechanism example mentioned above. It is clear that there exists no text clearly designated as the “Negotiating text” by Member States of the INB at any point in time, and it is quite doubtful whether there will be any even at INB9. 8th INB Programme of Work Apart from the plenary session, the 8th INB programme of work is divided into drafting groups and subgroup discussions. The INB working hours are 9.30 am to 12.30 pm and 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm. Though no evening session are currently scheduled, there might be sessions from 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm. On Friday 23rd February a joint plenary session with the WGIHR will be held. The drafting group session are as follows. · 19th February: Articles 7, 8, 16, 17 and 18 (whole day) · 20th February: Articles 1, 2 and 3 (9.30 am - 12.30 pm) · 22nd February: Articles 9, 14 and 15 (9.30 am - 12.30 pm) · 26th February: Articles 7, 8, 16, 17, 18 and governance-related articles (Articles 21-38) (Whole day) · 27th February: Articles 9, 14, 15 and governance related articles (Whole day) Subgroups meetings are scheduled as follows: · 20th February: Articles 4, 5 and 6 (2pm - 5pm) · 21st February: Articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 (Whole day) · 22nd February: Articles 19 and 20 (2 pm - 5pm) · 23rd February: Article 12 (2pm - 5 pm) · 28th February: Articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 (Whole day) · 29th February: Articles 4, 5, 6, 19 and 20 (Whole day).
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