MEPs notify WHO that IHR amendments “adopted” in 2022 are null and void in the absence of evidence of a vote having taken place

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MEPs notify WHO that IHR amendments “adopted” in 2022 are null and void in the absence of evidence of a vote having taken place amendments

12 Members of the European Parliament (“MEPs”) wrote to the World Health Organisation demanding “conclusive and unambiguous evidence” that International Health Regulations (“IHR”) amendments “adopted” by the World Health Assembly in May 2022 were correctly executed by way of a majority vote.

Should Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus fail to send the required proof by 30 November, the MEPS declare that the IHR amendments “adopted” in May 2022 are null and void.At the time of writing, there had been no update as to whether Tedros had provided evidence of a vote having taken place to adopt the amendments.

As Eva Vlaardingerbroek explained on Twitter, the amendments made to the IHR might be null and void due to violation of basic procedural rules by WHO.

On 28 May 2022, the World Health Assembly quietly agreed to reduce the period during which nations have to opt out of future amendments to the IHR. “It now turns out, that that vote might have not been lawful,” Vlaardingerbroek said.

On 28 November, 12 Members of the European Parliament, led by Dutch MEP Rob Roos, wrote a letter to WHO’s Director-General after they uncovered that the basic procedural rules for the correct formation of a vote had been violated by WHO to speed up their attempted power grab.

According to the MEPs, the 2022 amendments were not validly adopted because there is no evidence that the vote of its 8th plenary meeting on 28 May 2022 to “adopt” these changes was correctly executed with the required majority vote as foreseen under Art. 21 in conjunction with Art. 60 lit. (b) of the WHO Constitution.

Breaking the news on Tuesday, Rob Roos MEP tweeted:  “WHO wants to change international law on pandemics. To push it through, they are now attempting to break the rules.  I, together with colleagues in the EU Parliament, formally object to this. We submitted this letter to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.” 

In his tweet, Mr. Roos attached a copy of the four-page letter to WHO’s Director General, which we have also attached at the end of this article.

“In our capacity as political control over the EU Commission,” the MEPs told Tedros, “and because the EU Commission is leading the process of negotiations re. WHO’s new Pandemic Treaty and re. amendments for the International Health Regulations on behalf of 27 EU-Member States … we, the undersigned Members of the European Parliament, see urgent need for a review of a matter currently in the hands of the EU Commission, the negotiations on two legal instruments of the WHO.”

The signatories pointed out that the reduction of the period of:

  • automatic entry into force of any amendments from 24 months to 12 months; and,
  • the period for rejecting or expressing reservations on IHR amendments from 18 months to 10 months

should, by WHO’s own rules, be made by a “majority of the members present and voting.”  Without clear evidence of the majority of these votes being obtained, the signatories said, none of the two changes can have been adopted by the WHA. The MEPs told Tedros:

Under no circumstances – in particular not with a far-reaching process of IHR revisions going on – a proper democratic process can allowed to be hindered nor reduced by any unduly shortened periods for entry into force nor by any unduly shortened periods for rejection or reservation on IHR amendments.

It is of utmost importance that such periods will by no means be reduced as a result of violation of the due procedure as described above and foreseen under the Constitution of the WHO.

The signatories then went on to demand that WHO provide “conclusive and unambiguous evidence” that the changes to reduce the periods were correctly executed by way of a majority of the members present and voting. 

They requested that evidence of the exact number of members present and the exact number of members voting in favour of these IHR amendments be in the form of an uninterrupted video message, sent via email, by the latest midday on 30 November 2023.

If the signatories did not receive this video message from WHO’s Director-General by the stipulated deadline, then the amendments “adopted” by WHA in May 2022 would be considered null and void. The MEPs wrote:

In case the requested evidence is not produced on time or not completely, we the undersigned Members of the European Parliament,  declare that the amendments to the International Health Regulations … dated 28 May 2022 as NULL AND VOID.

You can read the full letter to WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus below.

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