Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A top World Health Organization committee on Monday unanimously adopted a proposed pandemic agreement, boosting its chances of being passed by the UN agency's full assembly on Tuesday.

The accord aims to prevent the disjointed response and international disarray that surrounded the COVID-19 pandemic, by improving global coordination and surveillance, and access to vaccines, in future pandemics.

The committee approval paves the way for its formal adoption by the annual assembly, which serves as the WHO's decision-making body.

Namibia's Health Minister Esperance Luvindao, chairing the committee, announced that a resolution on the accord had been adopted by 124 votes with no votes against—while 11 countries abstained, including Iran, Israel, Italy, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.

"Governments from all over the world are making their countries, and our interconnected global community, more equitable, healthier and safer from the threats posed by pathogens and viruses of pandemic potential, " said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

He congratulated WHO member states for coming together since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Their work to develop this global accord will ensure countries work better, faster and more equitably together to prevent and respond to the next pandemic threat, " he said.

Luvindao said the WHO Pandemic Agreement, concluded last month, showed the common international desire to be better prepared to prevent and respond to future pandemics.

She said it showed a commitment to the principles of "respect for human dignity, equity, solidarity and sovereignty—and basing public health decisions to control pandemics on the best available science and evidence."

The text of the agreement—which looks to improve pandemic surveillance and access to vaccines—was finalized by consensus last month, capping more than three years of negotiations.

The United States pulled out of those talks, following US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw his country from the WHO, a process that takes one year to complete.

Precious Matsoso of South Africa, and France's ambassador for global health Anne-Claire Amprou co-chaired the talks process.

"It is intended to create a rules-based, future-proof system that will stand the test of time. It does not, and will not, undermine the sovereignty of countries, " she told the World Health Assembly.

"In a time of growing geopolitical tensions and seismic changes, this agreement is proof that the world is still together."

Amprou said COVID-19 had been an "electroshock" to the system.

"It brutally reminded us that viruses know no borders; that no country, however powerful, can face a global health crisis alone."

© 2025 AFP