We are facing a crucial change to the "International Health Regulations" (IHR), a treaty between 193 WHO member states and the World Health Organization (WHO). These changes, to be adopted at the end of May 2024, have the potential to radically change the nature of this treaty and could even pose a massive threat to democracy.

The WHO is a significant and important organization for humanity, but is now to change your legal character in a harmful way. The purpose of this petition is not to harm the WHO, but to maintain its meaningful character.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is at stake?

1. restriction of democratic control: the Director-General of WHO alone can decide when an international emergency occurs, without being accountable. So far, he can only make non-binding recommendations. (Articles 12.1 and 49.5 IHR already in force). 

2. loss of national sovereignty: member states could be forced to follow the instructions of the WHO Director-General. (planned changes in articles 1, 10.4, 13A).

3. expansion of WHO's power: the Director-General's instructions could be issued not only in the case of pandemics, but also when, in his opinion, only a pandemic is imminent. And this without democratic control by parliaments. (planned changes in articles 1, 2).

4. threat to personal freedoms: Human dignity and fundamental personal freedoms could be stripped from the "IHR," allowing lockdowns, quarantines, forced vaccinations, and more, even if a country's government and parliament do not agree. (Article 18 already in force, planned amendment in Articles 2 and 3).

5. possible introduction of censorship: to combat "misinformation", censorship could be introduced, which would give WHO disproportionate power internationally. We feel that the courts should not be overridden. (proposed changes in Article 44.2e and Annex 1, New5g).


Why is this problematic?

The WHO is no longer the neutral organization it was founded as. According to research by Deutschlandfunk, the WHO is now 80% dependent on earmarked donations.
It is not acceptable that an organization dependent on donations decides on such fundamental restrictions on public life without parliaments still being able to intervene.

Worrying context

Germany has delegated its negotiating mandate on this to the EU Commission. After the WHO General Assembly, the agreed changes will take effect immediately. Ratification is not necessary. However, each member state has the power to accept or reject these changes. It is now in our hands which decision Germany will take!

Info: In May 2024, further amendments to the IHR will be put to the vote.

What do we demand?

• We call on the EU delegation to the WHO to prevent these amendments with all means at its disposal. If the amendments are nevertheless adopted, we demand that the Bundestag decides that they do not apply to Germany.
• The WHO should be financed exclusively by membership fees from states and not by private donations from large organizations

Sign now and share the petition!

WHO original documents IHR
https://apps.who.int/gb/wgihr/pdf_files/wgihr2/A_WGIHR2_Reference_document-en.pdf

Draft WHO Pandemic Agreement
https://apps.who.int/gb/inb/pdf_files/inb9/A_inb9_3-en.pdf 

Deutschlandfunkkultur
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/weltgesundheitsorganisation-am-bettelstab-das-dilemma-der-102.html

*Of course, this also applies to the other national parliaments involved.

Image copyright: file: © Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA.