The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant weaknesses in the global legal framework for pandemics. In response, in 2021, WHO member states launched negotiations to develop a new pandemic agreement aimed at addressing the gaps revealed by the pandemic. After three years of negotiations, on 20 May 2025, the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution by way of a resolution. This is only the second time since the WHO’s founding in 1948 that the World Health Assembly has adopted an international agreement—the first being the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It marks a significant institutional and legal milestone, reflecting a major shift in approach by placing equity and solidarity at the forefront of pandemic prevention and response. Still, the agreement’s true impact will depend on a range of short- and long-term factors, which we explore in the following post.
Global Health
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The WHO Pandemic Agreement: Equity for Developing States or Business as Usual?
At 3am on Wednesday 16th April 2025, after three years of intense negotiations, WHO member states (minus the United States) preliminarily consented to a final text of the so-called Pandemic Agreement. The text will now be considered for final adoption at the upcoming World Health Assembly meeting in May 2025, where – barring any major upsets –…
To Future-Proof the WHO Pandemic Agreement, Rethink the Amendment Clauses
Recent negotiations on the proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement suggest that the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) will need more time to reach consensus on critical issues within the international legal framework for pandemic preparedness and response. Key topics, including one health and pathogen access and benefit-sharing, remain under discussion. One approach…
The 77th World Health Assembly: Modest Amendments to the IHR-2005… More Expectations of the WHO’s ‘Pandemic Treaty’?
The Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly (‘WHA-77’) was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 27 May – 1 June 2024. The theme of WHA-77 has been ‘All for Health, Health for All’, with two main hot topics on the agenda: (1) the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) from their 2005 version, based on more than…
Compliance and Accountability Mechanisms in the 2024 Revisions to the WHO International Health Regulations (2005)
Since the COVID-19 virus first emerged in China in late 2019 there have been many high-level reviews of how the world could better have tackled this devastating episode, including the report of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) report “Make it the Last Pandemic” co-chaired by Helen Clark and Ellen…
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