On the second day of the resumed session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on the pandemic instrument two Working Groups started text-based negotiations on Articles 4, 10, 14 and 17.
The resumed session 9th INB session started on 29 April in hybrid mode at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.
Currently there are three working groups focusing on the following articles.
· Working group 1: Articles 4 and 5
· Working group 2: Articles 10 and 11
· Working group 3: Articles 14 and 17
In the morning of 30 April many Member States expressed concerns over parallel meetings of the INB drafting group and the three working groups and their inability to effectively participate in the discussions. As a result, there was no drafting group meetings during the post lunch sessions.
The drafting group is the plenary meeting of the INB and contrary to its name no text-based negotiations were allowed all this while until now. Member States were allowed to express only their reasons for their disagreements with the proposed text.
However, on 30 April the drafting group decided to discuss Article 12 on the pathogen access and benefit sharing (PABS) system in the drafting group instead of a working group from 9.30am to 1.00pm on 1 May. The PABS discussion in the drafting group paved the way for textual insertions in that group.
In the afternoon session (2.00 to 5.30 pm) working group 2 initiated negotiations on Article 10 and working group 3 on Articles 14 and 17. During the evening session working group 1 restarted the negotiations on Article 4 and the working group 2 continued to negotiate on Article 10.
Thus text-based negotiations finally started among Member States.