Founded in 2021, World Council for Health is a non-profit initiative of EbMCsquared CiC, a community interest organization. World Council for Health is guided by its international Coalition Partners, Steering Committee, Volunteers, and Support Staff.
We believe in a healthy world, where everyone enjoys information transparency, access to proven medicines, and real action in the face of disease – while respecting each individual’s personal health decisions, without fear of discrimination or persecution. We believe in a world where we keep our water and air clean, food uncontaminated, and families together.
Policy Brief to Counter WHO’s Monopolization of Global Health
13 April 2023 – An expert group in political science and law has prepared for release today an in-depth policy brief on the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) and the WHO pandemic treaty/accord (WHO CA+). These two complementary instruments of international law are currently being negotiated by the WHO, its member states and private stakeholders in relations with the supranational body for adoption by the World Health Assembly in May 2024. Some introduced IHR amendments could already be voted on in May 2023.
The IHR amendments, if approved, would unduly enhance the powers of the WHO and thus the special interests that exert significant influence over the organization vis-à-vis states and non-state actors – raising serious questions with regards to state sovereignty and the future of governance... As such, they create a dangerous precedent if passed...
The WCH policy expert group issues a stark warning that any undue concentration of power in the hands of a few or a supranational body without a popular mandate, accountability and constitutional control mechanisms to restrain it, by nature, leads to abuse of power, undermines and compromises democratic processes, corrupts science, curtails choice, suffocates competing solutions, thereby reducing quality and innovation, and enables control over the flow of information as well as stifling of dissent.
The WCH expert group also points to the fact that the WHO is a compromised organization that only controls about a quarter of its own budget. The rest are earmarked contributions from a few high-income states and powerful private interest groups. Handing more power to the WHO, at this point, equals handing more, not less power to the special national and corporate interests that have impeded effective responses to global health emergencies in the past.
The proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations and the WHO pandemic treaty as a whole further raise serious questions... for societies as well as leaders to address. These questions pertain to the future of governance (global vs. democratic) ; the increasing concentration of power in the hands of the unelected, unaccountable few ; the future of gain-of-function research of concern ; the future of free speech and the right to dissent ; the future of the right to privacy ; the amount of digital surveillance and private data mining capabilities societies are willing to cede to profit-and-interest-driven actors that view them as hackable animals (as World Economic Forum contributor Yuval Harari put it) ; the future of the essential independent doctor/patient relationship ; the control over the production of and access to medical treatments and the integrity of regulatory processes.
The answers to these questions will have significant consequences for the everyday lives and well-being of people as well as the nature and structure of societies.
Mission - Steering Committee - Partners
The World Council for Health is a non-profit initiative for the People that is informed and funded by the People. Our coalition partners bring expertise in science, medical care, legal protection, and community organizing skills to help us achieve our goals.
With more than 180 partner organizations in 46 countries, our global coalition of health-focused initiatives and civil society groups seek to broaden public health knowledge and sense-making through science and shared wisdom. We are dedicated to safeguarding human rights and free will, while empowering people to take control of their health and well-being.
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