WHO approves PANDEMIC AGREEMENT but 11 Countries (including Italy, Slovakia and Russia) Reject it: “Illegitimate role of the EU without authority over health”
by Gospa News Editorial Staff
The 78th session of the World Health Assembly is taking place in Geneva from 19 to 27 May. The wording of a pandemic agreement aimed at better preparing for and combating pandemics has been under negotiation for several years.
- Agreement’s adoption follows three years of intensive negotiation launched due to gaps and inequities identified in national and global COVID-19 response.
- Agreement boosts global collaboration to ensure stronger, more equitable response to future pandemics.
- Next steps include negotiations on Pathogen Access and Benefits Sharing system.
The coalition Smer-SD party strictly rejects the current wording of the pandemic agreement, as its members believe that the agreement doesn’t take into account the basic comments of Slovakia, undermines its sovereignty and will create chaos and ambiguity, TASR has learnt from the party’s press department.
Other member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) today formally adopted by consensus the world’s first Pandemic Agreement. The landmark decision by the 78th World Health Assembly culminates more than three years of intensive negotiations launched by governments in response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and driven by the goal of making the world safer from – and more equitable in response to – future pandemics.
“The world is safer today thanks to the leadership, collaboration and commitment of our Member States to adopt the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“The Agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action. It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the world from future pandemic threats. It is also a recognition by the international community that our citizens, societies and economies must not be left vulnerable to again suffer losses like those endured during COVID-19.”
But he forgot to clarify that the commission chosen by the WHO itself to identify the origin of the virus was tainted by shameful conflicts of interest and ignored multiple investigations into the laboratory-manipulated SARS-Cov-2 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the University of North Carolina in the Obama-Biden administration’s Predict project which was overseen by the WHO itself.
Governments adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement today in a plenary session of the World Health Assembly, WHO’s peak decision-making body. The adoption followed yesterday’s approvalof the Agreement by vote (124 in favour, 0 objections, 11 abstentions including Poland, Israel, Italy, Russia, Slovakia and Iran) in Committee by Member State delegations.
Why Slovakia rejects Pandemic Agreement
“Comments based on the protection of fundamental human rights and the sovereignty of Slovakia have been disregarded, making the agreement a threat to our national interests and citizens’ freedoms,” stated the party.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, measures were often enforced under pressure from international organisations and restricted people’s fundamental rights and freedoms, opined Smer-SD. The party insists that the agreement should guarantee the right of individuals to free and informed consent when using new vaccines and medicines and should set up a mechanism for the prompt compensation of people who “suffer damage to their health as a result of these products“.
Smer-SD demands that the agreement should contain clear provisions protecting human rights. “We believe that the pandemic agreement in its current wording creates chaos and ambiguity. It overlaps with the revised International Health Regulations but fails to define which obligations take precedence or how states should act,” stated party members.
Smer-SD views the stance of the European Union (EU) as a potential contracting party to the agreement as particularly alarming. “The EU isn’t a member state of the WHO and doesn’t have full sovereignty in health policy. This precedent raises serious questions about the democratic legitimacy and harmonisation of EU law with the provisions of the agreement, which might threaten Slovakia’s interests,” added the party.
Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said on the Slovak Radio on Saturday (17 May) that Slovakia doesn’t plan to support the pandemic agreement at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, and that it intends to request that the treaty should not be adopted by so-called global consent but rather through a vote.
Several opposition parties, as well as the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV), have already expressed their disagreement with Slovakia’s decision not to support the agreement. Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) doesn’t view it as correct to reject the agreement, either.
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