The Treaty Documents, International Health Regulations amendments, and their Status as of 15 November 2023

Prepared by Katie Ashby-Koppens, Lawyer

Schedule 1 – The Treaty Documents and their Status

The four treaties/accords (Treaties) are at various stages of adoption/completion, the:

1. UN’s Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Manifesto-Zero Draft (UN PPPR Declaration) - has been tentatively adopted on 20 September 2023 subject to convening of a full General Assembly.[1]

2. Amendments to the WHO’s 2005 International Health Regulations (IHRs) to which Australia is bound without reservation, has been split into two:

2.1   WHO’s Article 59 amendments to the 2005 International Health Regulations (Article 59 IHRAs). These were adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2022. They require express rejection by Australia by 1 December 2023. (Update from 22 December: These were unfortunately adopted by Australia despite our efforts, some other countries have opposed them though.)

The Article 59 IHRAs were referred by the Internal Strategies Branch, Department of Health to JSCT on 13 June 2023 and considered JSCT in Report 210, tabled 3 August 2023, were endorsed as minor and that binding treaty action should be taken.

2.2. WHO’s 307 IHRAs are currently being redrafted by the Working Group. The IHR Review Committee[2]  is required to deliver the 307 IHRAs to the Director General, WHO, by mid-January 2024 in accordance with Decision WHA75(9) for adoption at the 77th WHA end of May 2024.

The latest version of the 307 IHRAs that have been made publicly available are dated 17 December 2022 – they propose substantial amendments.

3.  WHO’s entirely new pandemic ‘treaty’ the new WHO CA+ which is a “Proposal for negotiating text of the WHO Pandemic Agreement”, for adoption at the 77th WHA end May 2024. 

[1]     It was only tentatively adopted because 11 countries objected raising concerns about the lack of ‘true and meaningful’ engagement in the negotiations of the declaration and opposing the attempt to adopt the declaration at a high level meeting, instead of the full assembly, which is required by the relevant resolution.

The 11 countries are: Belarus, Iran, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Russia, Korea, Syria, Eritrea, Venezuela, Zimbabwe

[2]     See Schedule 2 - list of members of IHR Review Committee.

Schedule 2 – IHR Review Committee members

Mohammad ABDELFATTAH, Egypt

Undersecretary for Preventive Affairs, Preventive Medicine Sector, Ministry of Health and Population, Cairo, Egypt

Obijiofor AGINAM, Nigeria

Principal Visiting Fellow, United Nations University, International Institute for Global Health, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Adjunct Research Professor of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

Visiting Research Fellow, United Nations University, Institute onComparative Regional Integration Studies, Bruges, Belgium

Mohannad AL-NSOUR, Jordan

Executive Director, Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET), Amman, Jordan   

Andrew FORSYTH, New Zealand

Manager, Public Health Strategy, Ministry of Health, New Zealand H.E.Ambassador HE Ambassador, Juan José GÓMEZ-CAMACHO (Vice-Chair), Mexico

Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, United States of America

Gian Luca BURCI, Italy, Switzerland

Adjunct Professor of international law and Academic Adviser in the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

Director of the joint LLM on Global Health Law and Governance, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, and Georgetown Law School, Washington DC, United States of America

Lawrence GOSTIN, United States of America

Professor, Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law, and Faculty Director, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Unites States of America

Roojin HABIBI, Canada

Research Fellow, Global Strategy Lab, York University, Toronto, Canada

Fellow, Canadian International Council Lecturer, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada

George HARINGHUIZEN, The Netherlands

Chief Legal Officer, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands

Hani JOKHDAR, Saudi Arabia

Deputy Minister for Public Health, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Yang LIU, China

Assistant Professor, Law School, and Director of the Center for Global Law and Strategy, Law and Technology Institute, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China  

Rana SAFDAR, Pakistan

Chief, Field Epidemiology & Disease Surveillance Division, National Institute of Health, Islamabad, Pakistan

Aalisha SAHUKHAN, Fiji

Head of Health Protection, Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Suva, Fiji

Vyacheslav SMOLENSKIY, Russian Federation

Deputy Head, Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor), Moscow, Russian Federation

Sandhya Dilhani SAMARASEKERA, Sri Lanka

Consultant Community Physician, Quarantine Unit, Ministry of Health, Colombo, Sri Lanka 

Sunita SREEDHARAN, India

Lawyer and Registered Patent Agent, New Delhi, India

Clare WENHAM (Rapporteur), United Kingdom

Associate Professor of Global Health Policy, Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

See also James Roguski’s - An Open Letter to World Leaders where he explains the process on the IHR, you can also subscribe to his substack.