Member States of WHO secured a desperate win in reaching consensus on the amendments to the International Health Regulations, following more than two years of systematic and intense negotiations, culminating in an astonishing agreement in the final hours of the 77th World Health Assembly. The consensus assumes greater significance in an otherwise difficult meeting of WHO member states this year, that was fraught with several political resolutions laced with rounds of voting among 194 countries.
Amendments to these technical rules, last revised in 2005 following the SARS outbreak, is the first significant change in international law in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic that saw 20 million excess deaths. These rules have been in force since 1969, but have been amended and revised on several occasions. The latest round of the adoption of these amendments, have been targeted in nature, following negotiations on 300 proposals to amend these rules as suggested by scores of countries globally. This is also a big win for the United States, among others, who spearheaded the amendments’ process in 2021. The smallest of developing countries followed suit with bold and ambitious proposals to amend these rules.
In their statements after the adoption, several countries described the outcome of these negotiations as “momentous”, and as a testimony to multilateralism being alive in Geneva.
In this story, we look at how these negotiations unfolded during the last week in the midst of an ongoing Assembly. Negotiators who have been working on these discussions included both Geneva-based diplomats and capital-based experts – they spent days, and long hours into the nights, in drafting group sessions. See our earlier story, when a drafting group was established on May 29th. The following four days was a determined effort by all countries to get this over the finish line by around 4 p.m. on June 1, 2024.
For some delegations, it was a challenging process to finalize and agree on the amendments, while political and highly contentious discussions unfolded in the next room at the premises of the United Nations in Geneva. Some developing country diplomats hopped in to watch the voting on matters related to Palestine, and going back in, into the IHR drafting group sessions negotiating financing mechanisms among others. They not only survived, but also won on both accounts.
At the Assembly, countries also agreed to extend the mandate of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for another year. The INB was set up to establish a Pandemic Agreement.