Civil Society Leaders Question Pandemic Treaty’s Ability to Address Global Health Inequalities

A session of the 2020 World Health Assembly.

 

Link to the source article >> https://healthpolicy-watch.news/skepticism-over-pandemic-treatys-ability-to-address-global-health-inequalities/

Some civil society organisations (CSO) are sceptical about whether a ‘pandemic treaty’ is the best way to address future global health crises, while treaty supporters say it will provide a legal framework binding countries and global health bodies to more agile and rapid responses to future outbreaks.

A session Monday sponsored by the Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2) brought leading CSOs, diplomats, academics and even WHO’s chief legal counsel face to face to air those views, in the context of a research initiative on the treaty being undertaken by the hub.

The debate comes just weeks ahead of a planned special session of the World Health Assembly which is to determine whether the global body will indeed move forward on a Treaty, as a key measure for improving pandemic response.

The treaty initiative has been supported most visibly by European countries, led by European Commission President, Charles Michel, who in a separate session at the World Health Summit in Berlin that the treaty would guarantee “access to information, financing, vaccines and countermeasures. It would increase capacity and resilience – at all levels.”

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