Implementing new policies will grant the World Health Organization mass censorship abilities.
QUICK FACTS:
- A draft “bureau’s text” of the WHO CA+, or the “pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” document allows the World Health Organization (WHO) to take part in mass censorship schemes.
- In the document’s “Communication and public awareness” section, it says that “[p]arties shall strengthen science, public health and pandemic literacy in the population, as well as access to information on pandemics and their effects and drivers, combat the infodemic, and tackle false, misleading, misinformation or disinformation, and including through promotion of international cooperation.”
- In order to do the above, the document instructs the Parties to “conduct regular community outreach, social listening, and periodic analysis and consultations with civil society organizations and media outlets to identify the prevalence and profiles of misinformation, which contribute to design communications and messaging strategies for the public to counteract misinformation, disinformation and false news.”
- By involving media organizations, combatting supposedly “false” information, and calling for “social listening,” the WHO’s World Health Assembly (WHA) is integrating itself into the “censorship propaganda industrial complex,” according to researcher Meryl Nass.
- Violations against liberty go beyond speech, however, as co-chair of the WHO’s Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations and Saudi Arabia’s deputy assistant minister for preventative health Dr. Abdulla Assiri said at the WHA that the world “requires” policies that will prioritize “actions that may restrict individual liberties, mandating and sharing of information, knowledge, and resources.”
EXPANDING EMERGENCY POWERS:
- Several new WHO initiatives look to expand the emergency powers of the WHO, including a fund for vaccine passports, “enhanced accountability” through the Universal Health and Preparedness Review, “enhanced surveillance” through the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence and International Pathogen Surveillance Network, “enhanced monitoring” through the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, and “an enhanced emergency response network” through the Global Health Emergency Corps.
- The International Pathogen Surveillance Network launched on May 20 for the purpose of responding to disease threats before they become severe and “to optimize routine disease surveillance.”
- A recent document from the United Nations (UN) proposed the “General Assembly provide the Secretary-General and the United Nations system with a standing authority to convene and operationalize automatically an Emergency Platform in the event of a future complex global shock of sufficient scale, severity and reach.”
- “Global shocks” may be a variety of situations, including the climate, pandemics, supply chain issues, and other disruptions.
BACKGROUND:
- American Faith reported that a WHO delegate from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) called for a “simulation exercise” before implementing new Pandemic Treaty requirements.
- From the GPMB delegate’s perspective, this simulation is crucial to “ensure” the success of the imminent pandemic treaty and the proposed Internal Health Regulations (IHR) amendments.
- “We therefore suggest that member states together with other key stakeholders carry out a simulation exercise based on the draft accord and the draft IHR amendments later this year,” the delegate said.
