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As the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body meets to negotiate the text of the Pandemic Treaty,* more than 100 high-profile people have signed an open letter to leaders of WHO member states calling for an urgent agreement on a pandemic accord. 

“An agreement is meant to be reached just two and a half months from now – countries imposed a deadline of May 2024, in time for the 77th World Health Assembly,” the letter states.  And continues:

“As countries now enter what should be the final stages of the negotiations, they must ensure that they are agreeing on actions which will do the job required: to prevent and mitigate pandemic threats.

“We urge solutions which ensure both speed in reporting and sharing pathogens, and in access – in every country – to sufficient tools like tests and vaccines to protect lives and minimise harm.”

In total, 107 people signed the letter.  Signatories include 16 Club de Madrid members, 9 Global Leadership Foundation members, 46 Nizami Ganjavi International Centre members and a variety of academics and former politicians, including the former UK prime ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

WHO’s Actions are Unlawful

The World Health Organisation’s (“WHO’s”) Pandemic Accord is also referred to as the Pandemic Treaty, Pandemic Agreement and WHO Convention Agreement + (“WHO CA+”).

In December 2021, WHO established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and negotiate a pandemic agreement.  The INB is having its ninth meeting from 18 March to 28 March to negotiate the Pandemic Treaty’s text in the hopes it will be approved at the upcoming World Health Assembly.*

From 27 May to 1 June 2024, WHO is due to convene its 77^th World Health Assembly (WHA”). The WHA is WHO’s main decision-making body. The proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (“IHR”) amendments and the text of the Pandemic Treaty will be presented to the 77th WHA.  WHO and its backers will be hoping that both the Treaty text and the IHR will be adopted.

In 2023, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health highlighted the two issues that dominated discussions during the 76^th WHA: new ways to fund the “cash-strapped” WHO and the rewriting process for the pandemic response playbook.

The rewriting of the rules that will lead to the establishment of a pandemic accord will dominate discussions again this year.  The pandemic accord negotiations coincide with negotiations on IHR amendments. These 2-track negotiations often involve the same diplomats. Johns Hopkins described the difference, in their view, between the two proposed instruments:

The IHR are mostly seen as technical rules for disease surveillance, and negotiations are underway about making targeted amendments that could expand the IHR’s scope to also include equity considerations and other issues. The pandemic accord, on the other hand, is seen as a broader instrument that could also consider a host of other issues including intellectual property and One Health issues, for example.

The 2023 World Health Assembly: A New Playbook for Health Emergencies? Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 18 May 2023

Five months after its 76^th WHA, on 7 October 2023, WHO released a statement in which it declared it would not share the finalised IHR amendments with the public and WHO member states four months before the vote on it in May 2024 as WHO’s own rules require.  Dr. Silvia Behrendt pointed out that this is unlawful.

What is the Club de Madrid?

Club de Madrid is the world’s largest forum of former heads of state and government and is composed of 126 members from 73 countries, including 7 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, 14 leaders of regional and international organisations and 6 former UN special envoys on climate change.  You can view a list of members HERE.

Since October 2019, Danilo Türk has been Club de Madrid’s president. Türk was the President of Slovenia from 2007 until 2012.  Before becoming Slovenia’s president, he was Permanent Representative to the UN in New York and represented Slovenia on the UN Security Council and served as UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs. In 2016, he was one of the candidates for the post of the Secretary-General of the UN. In 2022, Türk was named one of the 12 people who are part of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism Comprises, which will be asked to build on the ideas in ‘Our Common Agenda’.

As Jacob Nordangård pointed out, “Our Common Agenda and the Pact for the Future can be seen as the United Nations’ answer to the call for a Great Reset that was announced in June 2020 by Klaus Schwab, António Guterres and Prince Charles (now King Charles III).”

What is the Global Leadership Foundation?

The Global Leadership Foundation (“GLF”) is a not-for-profit foundation, registered in Switzerland and founded in 2004 by FW de Klerk, former president of the Republic of South Africa. 

GLF “exists to make available, discreetly and in confidence, the experience of former leaders to today’s national leaders,” its website states.  It does this through its network of members – former presidents, prime ministers, senior government ministers and other leaders. “Working in small teams, in their personal capacity, [GLF] members offer private and confidential advice to heads of government,” GLF says. You can view a list of GLF members HERE.

GLF’s supporters are called the International Council, a group of companies, people and foundations, invited by GLF’s chair.  “The level of involvement of the International Council is at their discretion,” GLF declares. It implies that “support” is advisory.  It doesn’t explicitly state whether “support” also involves monetary support. Although on another page of its website, GLF does state that their “costs are met through donations from private individuals, corporations and other foundations” and “donors are invited to join GLF’s International Council.”

You can see a full list of GLF’s supporters HERE. The newest members of the International Council are:

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Sir Ronald Cohen
• The Hunter Foundation
• Oren Taylor
• Sanofi

Since October 2021, Helen Clark has been the chair of the Global Leadership Foundation.  Clark was the prime minister of New Zealand between 1999 and 2008. From 2009 to 2017 she was the United Nations Development Programme (“UNDP”) Administrator.  She was also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group. In 2019, Clark became patron of The Helen Clark Foundation. GLF describes her as “a global leader in sustainable development and gender equality.”

What is the Nizami Ganjavi International Centre?

The involvement of Nizami Ganjavi International Centre (“NGIC”) members signing the open letter to leaders of WHO member states is where things become curious, if not bizarre.

Established in 2012, NGIC claims to be a cultural, non-political organisation dedicated to the memory of the 12^th century Muslim poet Neẓāmī Ganjavi and the study and dissemination of his works.

Among its partners, NGIC boasts the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, the UN, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (“UNAIDS”) which is “leading the global effort to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.” To this aim, UNAIDS brings together the efforts and resources of 11 UN system organisations.

NGIC co-chairs are psychologist Vaira Vike-Freiberga, former president of Latvia, and Ismail Serageldin, former vice president of the World Bank.

Vaira Vike-Freiberga is a former president of the Club de Madrid (1999-2007).  While president of Latvia she was instrumental in achieving Latvia’s membership in the European Union (“EU”) and NATO, and was Special Envoy on UN reform. In addition to NGIC, she is a member, board member or patron of 29 international organisations, including the World Leadership Alliance and the European Council on Foreign Relations, as well as five academies. She was an official candidate for the post of UN Secretary-General in 2006.

Since the end of her presidency in Latvia in 2007, Vike-Freiberga has been vice chair of the Reflection group on the long-term future of Europe, chaired the high-level group on freedom and pluralism of the media in the EU and was a member of two high-level groups on European security and defence.

Ismail Serageldin is a founding Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.  He has held many international positions including as vice president of the World Bank, co-chair of the African Union’s high-level group for biotechnology and again for science, technology and innovation, and was a member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) panel for the review of the internet future.

Open Letter to WHO Member States

Gordon Brown published the letter on his website.  Brown, a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and, since September 2021, has also been serving as WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing.

According to his website, one of Brown’s campaigns is globalisation.  His globalisation campaign webpage states: “Globalisation … has been and is one of the defining themes of Gordon’s life in politics … Globalisation triggered a decades-long transition to a predominantly knowledge and financial services economy, in which the pace of change constantly accelerates.”

The following is the open letter signed by 107 signatories.  We have included the list of signatories at the end as, sometime in the future, it’ll be useful to know who urged for global tyranny to take hold under the pretext of pandemic preparedness.

Joint letter to leaders of WHO member states calling for an urgent agreement on a pandemic accord

20 March, 2024

To Leaders of WHO Member States,

The overwhelming lesson we learned from covid-19 is that no one is safe anywhere until everyone is safe everywhere – and that can only happen through collaboration. In response, the 194 countries which are members of the World Health Organisation decided in December 2021 to launch negotiations for a new international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, a Pandemic Accord, as a “global framework”  to work together to prepare for and stem any new pandemic threat, including by achieving equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.

Negotiation of an effective pandemic accord is a much needed opportunity to safeguard the world we live in. Countries themselves have proposed this instrument, individual countries are negotiating it, and only countries will ultimately be responsible for its requirements and its success or failure.

Establishing a strong global pact on pandemics will protect future generations from a repeat of the millions of deaths and the social and economic devastation which resulted from a lack of collaboration during the covid-19 pandemic. All countries need what the accord can offer: the capacity to detect and share pathogens presenting a risk, and timely access to tests, treatments and vaccines.

An agreement is meant to be reached just two and a half months from now – countries imposed a deadline of May 2024, in time for the 77th World Health Assembly.

As countries now enter what should be the final stages of the negotiations, they must ensure that they are agreeing on actions which will do the job required: to prevent and mitigate pandemic threats. We urge solutions which ensure both speed in reporting and sharing pathogens, and in access – in every country – to sufficient tools like tests and vaccines to protect lives and minimise harm. The public and private sectors must work together towards the public good. This global effort is being threatened by misinformation and disinformation. Among the falsehoods circulating are allegations that the WHO intends to monitor people’s movements through digital passports; that it will take away the national sovereignty of countries; and that it will have the ability to deploy armed troops to enforce mandatory vaccinations and lockdowns. All of these claims are wholly false and governments must work to disavow them with clear facts.

It is imperative now to build an effective, multisectoral and multilateral approach to pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response marked by a spirit of openness and inclusiveness. In doing so we can send a message that even in this fractured and fragmented world, cross-border co-operation can deliver global solutions to global problems.

We call on leaders of all countries to step up their efforts and secure an effective pandemic accord by May. A new pandemic threat will emerge – and there is no excuse not to be ready for it.

Signed …

Signatories

 Key:

• *indicates membership of Club de Madrid
• ** Indicates membership of Global Leadership Foundation (Note: Brown published the name “Global Leadership Forum” however it appears this is a typo after reviewing the members of both organisations.)
• *** Indicates membership of NGIC

	Name	Title
1	Carlos Alvarado*	President of Costa Rica (2018-2022)
2	Michelle Bachelet*	President of Chile (2006-2010)
3	Jan Peter Balkenende*	Prime Minister of The Netherlands (2002-2010)
4	Ban Ki-moon*	Eighth Secretary General of the United Nations
5	Joyce Banda*	President of Malawi (2012-2014)
6	Kjell Magne Bondevik*	Prime Minister of Norway (1997-2000; 2001-2005)
7	Kim Campbell*	Prime Minister of Canada (1993)
8	Alfred Gusenbauer*	Chancellor of Austria (2007-2008)
9	Seung-Soo Han*	Prime Minister of the Rep. of Korea (2008-2009)
10	Mehdi Jomaa*	Prime Minister of Tunisia (2014-2015)
11	Horst Köhler*	President of Germany (2004-2010)
12	Rexhep Meidani*	President of Albania (1997-2002)
13	Mario Monti*	Prime Minister of Italy (2011-2013)
14	Francisco Sagasti*	President of Peru (2020-2021)
15	Jenny Shipley*	Prime Minister of New Zealand (1997-1999)
16	Juan Somavía*	Ninth Director of the International Labour Organisation
17	Helen Clark**	Former Prime Minister of New Zealand
18	Micheline Calmy-Rey**	Former President of the Swiss Confederation
19	Baroness Lynda Chalker**	Former Minister of Overseas Development of the UK
20	Chester A. Crocker**	Former Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, USA
21	Marzuki Darusman**	Former Attorney General of Indonesia
22	Mohamed ElBaradei**	Former Vice President of Egypt
23	Gareth Evans**	Former Foreign Minister of Australia
24	Lawrence Gonzi**	Former Prime Minister of Malta
25	Lord George Robertson**	Former Secretary General of NATO
26	Gordon Brown	Former Prime Minister of the UK 2007-2010
27	Vaira Vike-Freiberga***	Co-Chair, NGIC; President of Latvia 1999-2007
28	Ismail Serageldin***	Co-Chair, NGIC; Vice President of the World Bank 1992-2000
29	Kerry Kennedy***	President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
30	Rosen Plevneliev***	President of Bulgaria 2012-2017
31	Petar Stoyanov***	President of Bulgaria 1997-2002
32	Chiril Gaburici***	Prime Minister of Moldova 2015
33	Mladen Ivanic***	Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2014-2018
34	Zlatko Lagumdzija***	Permanent Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UN; Prime Minister 2001-2002; Deputy Prime Minister 1993-1996, 2012-2015
35	Rashid Alimov***	Secretary-General Shanghai Cooperation Organisation 2016-2018
36	Jan Fisher***	Prime Minister of the Czech Republic 2009-2010
37	Sir Tony Blair	Prime Minister of the UK 1997-2007
38	Csaba Korossi***	77th President of the UN General Assembly
39	Maria Fernanda Espinosa***	73rd President of the UN General Assembly
40	Volkan Bozkir***	75th President of the UN General Assembly
41	Ameenah Gurib Fakim***	President of Mauritius 2015-2018
42	Filip Vujanovic***	President of Montenegro 2003-2018
43	Borut Pahor***	President of Slovenia 2012-2022; Prime Minister 2008-2012
44	Ivo Josipovic***	President of Croatia 2010-2015
45	Petru Lucinschi***	President of Moldova 1997-2001
46	Boris Tadic***	President of Serbia 2004-2012
47	Mirko Cvetkovic***	Prime Minister of Serbia 2008-2012
48	Dumitru Bragish***	Prime Minister of Moldova 1999-2001
49	Emil Constantinescu***	President of Romania 1996-2000
50	Nambaryn Enkhbayar***	President of Mongolia 2005-2009
51	Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic***	President of Croatia 2015-2020
52	Gjorge Ivanov***	President of North Macedonia 2009-2019
53	Valdis Zatlers***	President of Latvia 2007-2011
54	Ana Birchall***	Deputy Prime Minister of Romania 2018-2019
55	Hikmet Cetin***	Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey 1991-1994
56	Jewel Howard Taylor***	Vice President of Liberia 2018-2024
57	Djoomart Otorbayev***	Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan 2014-2015
58	Julio Cobos***	Vice President of Argentina 2007-2011
59	Ouided Bouchmani***	Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2015
60	Abdul Rauf AlRawabdeh***	Prime Minister of Jordan 1999-2000
61	Jadranka Kosor***	Prime Minister of Montenegro 2009-2011 [Note: There is a typo on the list published by Gordon Brown. Jadranka Kosor was Prime Minister of Croatia, not Montenegro.]
62	Milica Pejanovic***	Minister of Defence of Montenegro 2012-2016
63	Mats Karlsson***	Former Vice-President of the World Bank
64	Laimdota Straujuma***	Prime Minister of Latvia 2014-2016
65	Eka Tkeshelashvili***	Deputy Prime Minister of Georgia 2010-2012, Minister of Foreign Affairs 2010
66	Moushira Khattab***	Former Minister of State for Family and Population of Egypt
67	Raimonds Vejonis***	President of Latvia 2015-2019
68	Ilir Meta***	President of Albania 2017-2022
69	Edmond Panariti***	Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Albania
70	Andris Piebalgs***	European Commissioner for Development 2010-2014, European Commissioner for Energy 2004-2010
71	Manuel Pulgar Vidal***	Climate and Energy Global Leader at the World Wide Fund for Nature, Minister of Environment of Peru 2011-2016, President of COP20
72	Yves Leterme***	Yves Leterme, Prime Minister of Belgium 2008, 2009-201
73	Rovshan Muradov***	Secretary-General of the Nizami Ganjavi International Centre
74	Professor Erik Berglof	London School of Economics and Political Science
75	Professor Justin Lin	Beijing University
76	Professor Bai Chong-En	Tsinghua School of Economics and Management Studies
77	Professor Robin Burgess	London School of Economics and Political Science
78	Professor Shang-jin Wei	Columbia University
79	Professor Harold James	Princeton University
80	Ahmed Galal	Former Minister of Finance, Egypt
81	Professor Jong-Wha Lee	Korea University
82	Professor Leonhard Wantchekon	African School of Economics, Benin
83	Professor Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden	Mannheim University
84	Professor Kaushik Basu	Cornell University
85	Professor Bengt Holmstrom	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
86	Professor Mathias Dewatripont	Université Libre de Bruxelles
87	Professor Dalia Marin	University of Munich
88	Professor Richard Portes	London Business School
89	Professor Chris Pissarides	London School of Economics and Political Science
90	Professor Diane Coyle	University of Cambridge
91	Mustapha Nabli	Former Governor, Central Bank of Tunisia
92	Professor Wendy Carlin	University College London
93	Professor Gerard Roland	University of California, Berkeley
94	Professor Nora Lustig	Tulane University
95	Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi	London School of Economics and Political Science
96	Professor Philippe Aghion	College de France
97	Professor Devi Sridhar	University of Edinburgh
98	Yu Yongding	Former President of China Society in the World Economy
99	Muhammad Yunus,	Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2006
100	Kailash Satyarthe,	Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2014
101	Sir Ivor Roberts	Former UK Ambassador
102	Sir Suma Chakrabarti	Former EBRD President
103	Sir Tim Hitchens	Former UK Ambassador
104	Alistair Burt	Former Minister for Health/International Development
105	Tom Fletcher	Former UK Ambassador
106	Julian Braithwaite	Former UK Perm Rep to WHO
107	John Casson	Former UK Ambassador

*Article edit:  After publishing, the opening sentence has been correct and a paragraph has been added.  The opening sentence previously incorrectly stated “a week before the World Health Assembly is due to meet” when it should have stated the meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body.