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STORY: WHO / TEDROS PRESSER
TRT: 02:22
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 01 MAY 2025, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, press room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Let me be crystal clear, this agreement does not impinge on State sovereignty, and we hope journalists will call out in the coming weeks those who throw false narratives into the public domain.”
3. Wide shot, press room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The principles of state sovereignty, human rights, international humanitarian law, equity, solidarity and of basing public health decisions on science and evidence, are integral to the Agreement.”
5. Wide shot, press room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The Pandemic Agreement shows that multilateralism is alive and well. The agreement, which was carefully negotiated by Member States for more than three years, is a foundation to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics.”
7. Wide shot, press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Importantly, this is not just about reacting to disease outbreaks or confirmed pandemics, it’s about international cooperation for prevention, preparedness and response so that when outbreaks happen, they can be stopped.”
9. Wide shot, press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou, Co-chair, Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, World Health Organization (WHO):
“One of the central principles of the Agreement is equity. It aims to ensure that all countries have equitable access to the tools needed to manage a pandemic: vaccines, medical equipment, diagnostics.”
11. Wide shot, press room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Precious Matsoso, Co-chair, Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Today the world has in its hands an Agreement that was member states-designed, lead, reflecting their desire and commitment to make the world safer from pandemics. They exercised their sovereign rights to propose, negotiate and also agree truly groundbreaking and historic actions and ways to collaborate in future as a global community. This was driven by the goal of not allowing their citizens to again experience what they did during the COVID pandemic.”
13. Wide shot, press room
The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, today (1 May) said the Pandemic Agreement “does not impinge on State sovereignty,” stressing that “the principles of state sovereignty, human rights, international humanitarian law, equity, solidarity and of basing public health decisions on science and evidence, are integral to the Agreement.”
Last week in Geneva, countries finalized a draft global agreement aimed at improving how the world prepares for and responds to pandemics, marking a historic step that will be submitted to the World Health Assembly this month for adoption.
Dr Tedros, speaking to journalist in Geneva, said, the Agreement “shows that multilateralism is alive and well” and noted that it was “carefully negotiated by Member States for more than three years, is a foundation to prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics.”
He highlighted that “this is not just about reacting to disease outbreaks or confirmed pandemics, it’s about international cooperation for prevention, preparedness and response so that when outbreaks happen, they can be stopped.”
Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou, one of the co-chairs in the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, said, “one of the central principles of the Agreement is equity. It aims to ensure that all countries have equitable access to the tools needed to manage a pandemic: vaccines, medical equipment, diagnostics.”
The other Co-chair, Precious Matsoso, said, “today the world has in its hands an Agreement that was member states-designed, lead, reflecting their desire and commitment to make the world safer from pandemics.”
She said member states had “exercised their sovereign rights to propose, negotiate and also agree truly groundbreaking and historic actions and ways to collaborate in future as a global community,” and added that “this was driven by the goal of not allowing their citizens to again experience what they did during the COVID pandemic.”
Developed after over three years of negotiations under the auspices of the WHO, the draft outlines a framework for strengthening international collaboration, equity, and resilience in the face of future global health threats.
Negotiations began in December 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when WHO member States agreed on the urgent need for a legally binding international instrument and established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB).
The process involved 13 formal rounds of negotiations, many of which were extended into the early hours, culminating in Wednesday’s consensus after a final overnight session.
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