Workshop Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law Conference

Monash-Otago-WPRO Workshop on Equity in the WHO Pandemic Agreement (2016)

Calvin Wai Loon Ho 1 , Karinne Ludlow 1 , Gabrielle Wolf 1 , Karel Caals 1 , Elizabeth Fenton 2 , Emma Anderson 2 , Mengji Chen 3 , Julienne O'Rourke 3
  1. Monash University, Clayton, VICTORIA, Australia
  2. Bioethics Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
  3. Research, Ethics and Innovation Unit, World Health Organization Office of the Western Pacific Region, Manila, The Philippines

The Pandemic Agreement recently endorsed by the 78th World Health Assembly seeks to ensure that global health measures directed at preventing, preparing for and responding to a public health emergency are consistent with the requirement of equity. If adopted, it will be the second international agreement negotiated under Article 19 of the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO), but much wider in scope than the first agreement on tobacco control. While the Pandemic Agreement represents a clear commitment on the part of the global health community to multilateralism, it has been criticised for not going far enough to address deep-seated structural inequities and human rights concerns. This workshop, jointly organised by Monash University Health Law Group, Otago Bioethics Centre and the Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) of the WHO, will critically evaluate what equity means in relation to the three key mechanisms introduced in the Pandemic Agreement (i.e. the pathogen access and benefit-sharing system, the global supply chain and logistics network, and the coordinating financial mechanism). The workshop will also consider the normative implications of these mechanisms on three global health challenges (i.e. infodemics, technology transfer, and zoonosis in the context of One Health) identified in the preamble of the agreement. Sequence-wise, the workshop will begin with three short presentations to introduce the mechanisms and challenges. Participants will then be invited to discuss three case studies to consider what equity means in relation to these mechanisms and the global health challenges they are directed at.