Post-Pandemic Politics and the Pandemic Agreement: Our Common Path to Global Solidarity

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed critical gaps in global health governance and international cooperation during public health crises. The World Health Organization is spearheading efforts to establish a new 'International agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response' to strengthen global preparedness and solidarity for future emergencies. This paper analyses the proposed agreement's critical legal issues, drawing on literature and the negotiating drafts at the intersection of global health law, human rights, and intellectual property. Specifically, it considers how provisions in draft texts of the pandemic agreement may impact areas like equitable access to medical technologies, transparency around research and development efforts, compensation for vaccine injuries, enforcement of competition rules, and recognition of countries' differing responsibilities and capabilities. Through a discussion of these issues, the paper aims to navigate debates over the potential benefits and shortcomings of a binding pandemic agreement. While an international instrument could help standardise international norms and obligations, obstacles in negotiations, political willingness to learn from the COVID-19 experience and ambiguities in draft language may undermine its effectiveness. Areas like intellectual property waivers and technology transfers also remain politically contentious. The paper, while reviewing the recent three versions of the pandemic accord's draft, argues that to fight the next health crisis, it is necessary to have a solidarity-based framework that enhances the global prevention, preparedness and response and combat the pandemic profiteering's behaviour to save more lives and react better to the future crises.