After three years of negotiations, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual assembly in Geneva on Tuesday adopted a new pandemic treaty, intended to coordinate and strengthen global defenses against any future pandemic. The treaty has, throughout the negotiations, been widely criticized for trampling national sovereignty and described as an attempted “power grab” by the UN.
The treaty gives the WHO more power to recommend emergency measures, as well as develop global surveillance systems to track infections in case of a pandemic. It creates a plan for countries to share information about pathogens and requires pharmaceutical companies to provide 20% of key medical supplies, such as vaccines, to the WHO during a pandemic. Half of those supplies must be donated, and the other half sold at low prices. The details for this “pathogen access and benefit-sharing” (PABS) plan will be worked out by May 2026.
Member states that sign and ratify the agreement will be bound by it and obligated to hand over, among other things, national pandemic planning, surveillance, and communications strategies to the WHO.
After Slovakia requested a vote on the agreement, with PM Fico saying it “undermines the principle of the sovereignty of member states and disproportionately interferes with the sphere of human rights,” it passed with 124 countries for, none against, and 11 abstaining, including Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Russia, Israel, and Iran.
Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher warned that the agreement would enable “fast-tracked experimental vaccines, censorship of dissent, and global surveillance systems.”
“The U.S. withdrawal from the WHO was a vital and strategic move—protecting national sovereignty and medical freedom,” Hulscher said in a post on X. “Other countries would be wise to follow suit before being bound by the WHO’s sweeping global mandates.”
A spokesman for the WHO claimed the agreement respects national sovereignty, saying it was “initiated, drafted, and negotiated by member states for member states.” It will take effect only in countries that sign and ratify the agreement.
