World Health Organisation pandemic preparedness treaty (FOI)

​​​Request

Please confirm whether the Government of Jersey chose to opt out of the World Health Organisation (WHO)​ pandemic preparedness treaty and the International Health Regulation (IHR) amendments, the deadline for which was 1 December 2023.

Response

The Government of Jersey is not aware of any treaty or amendments requiring opt out by 1 December 2023.  The process is currently at the stage of agreeing a negotiating text.

More information on both the World Health Organisation (WHO) pandemic preparedness treaty and the International Health Regulations can be found in the following link and notes below:

Governments continue discussions on pandemic agreement negotiating text (who.int)​

WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty 

WHO Member States have agreed to draft an accord to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The process is currently at the stage of agreeing a negotiating text. When the accord is eventually finalised, Jersey and the other Crown Dependencies will have the option to sign up based on the needs of their own population.

International Health Regulations (IHR)

The International Health Regulations (2005) are a separate, but related instrument on international health. Jersey independently signed up to these regulations. 

The current amendment process to the IHR is in response to learning from the COVID-19 pandemic and is limited in scope. Any proposed amendments will be considered by the World Health Assembly. 

Sovereignty within both processes

Throughout both negotiations the UK has been and will continue to be clear that they will not agree any amendments to the IHR or sign up to an Accord that would cede sovereignty to make domestic decisions on national measures concerning public health, such as, domestic immunisation programme rollouts and other similar measures. Respecting national sovereign rights is a distinct principle in the current draft of the Accord and many of the proposed IHR amendments are centred around protecting States Parties’ sovereignty.​