After two years of intensive negotiations – including long nights this week – the World Health Assembly (WHA) finally passed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) and committed to completing pandemic agreement talks within a year.
After failing to agree on the amendments before WHA opened on Monday, member states have been racing to the finish in a drafting committee during this week in meetings that often went into the early hours.
“Tonight we have all won and the world has won. You have made the world safer,” said a hoarse WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who lost his voice during the late-night sessions.
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Note deep disappointment expressed by Nina Schwalbe of Spark Street Advisors that all references to compliance have been dropped in the IHR.
“The amendments do not include any provisions for a compliance mechanism. How can countries be held accountable to their commitments with a compliance mechanism?”