The clarify things; the real danger to national sovereignty doesn’t lie with the Treaty itself, which simply provides the terms for administration, financing and governance, what must be opposed and rejected are the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulation (IHR).
Whilst the Treaty requires a vote of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords to be binding, the IHR amendments do not require such a vote. The IHR is existing law and, consequently, any amendments require a simple majority of the Member States, (which is 97 of the 194 Member States), to pass.
Each country will then have six months to opt out (reduced from eighteen months by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2022). If a country does not opt out during that timeframe, it will be assumed they have accepted the amendments by virtue of being an existing signatory to the IHR.
These are the IHR draft amendments:
• Expand the definition of pandemic and health emergencies, including the introduction of the word “potential” for harm rather than “actual” harm and the definition of “health products” is expanded to include any commodity or process that may impact on the response or “improve the quality of life”;
• Change the recommendation of the IHR from “non-binding” to “mandatory” instructions that the Member States undertake to follow and implement;
• Solidify the Director General’s ability to independently declare emergencies;
• Establish an extensive surveillance process in all Member States which the WHO will verify regularly through a country review mechanism;
• Enable the WHO to share country data without consent;
• Give the WHO control over certain country resources, including requirements for financial contributions and provision of intellectual property (within the expanded definition of “health products”);
• Ensure country support for promotion of censorship activities by the WHO to prevent alternative/dissenting approaches and concerns from being freely disseminated; and
• Change existing IHR provisions affecting individuals from non-binding to binding including border closures, travel restrictions, confinement (read quarantine), medical examinations and medication (to include requirements for injection with vaccines or other pharmaceuticals) ( (https://apps.who.int/gb/wgihr/pdf_files ... ion-en.pdf)https://apps.who.int/gb/wgihr/pdf_files ... ion-en.pdf) (https://apps.who.int/gb/wgihr/pdf_files ... ion-en.pdf)
If passed, the IHR will clearly cede sovereignty of health to the WHO (and it sponsors).