ACLJ Action continues to monitor two troubling sets of proposals under consideration by the World Health Organization (WHO) aimed at “Strengthening WHO preparedness for and response to health emergencies.” These proposals, if implemented, would allow the China-controlled WHO to infringe on Americans’ rights and liberties.
Proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations
First is the Biden Administration’s set of amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR), which they say are meant to promote a coordinated response to the international spread of disease. The dangerous language of these amendments would allow the WHO to manipulate international law and threaten the individual freedom and privacy rights of every American. These changes would expand the WHO’s capacity to finance the surveillance of Americans; allow the WHO to share unverified information from potentially malicious or self-serving sources in order to manipulate public health measures; and grant the WHO Director-General authority to deem almost anything, including issues such as gun rights, racism, and climate change, as “potential or actual” public health emergencies.
As written, these amendments cede significant sovereignty and authority to the WHO, endangering America’s fundamental rights and liberties. The Biden Administration’s brazenness in pandering to globalist institutions while mocking the rights of American citizens is on full display. If President Biden’s suggested amendments pass, they would subject American citizens to the whims of unelected international bureaucrats.
Recommendations to the Working Group on WHO Preparedness and Response
The second set of proposals is an extensive list of recommendations to strengthen the WHO submitted by the Working Group on WHO Preparedness and Response (WGPR).
These recommendations include the creation of an international digital surveillance regime. If these proposals are fully enacted around the world, every person in the world would be subject to perpetual monitoring and targeting by a centralized international bureaucracy. In the future the WHO could harness this technology to implement a system of extreme social control.
Another dangerous WGPR recommendation is the adoption of digital vaccine passports. Once implemented, these will centralize the sensitive health information of every living person across the globe. Potential exploitation is around every corner: controlling access to certain countries or places based on compliance with certain arbitrary health requirements; discrimination against the unvaccinated or those with certain health conditions; and no protection or control of personal or private health information, among numerous other problems. Centralizing and manipulating personal data for corporate or governmental gain has already proven a problem to governments, companies, and citizens around the world. Now, the WHO wants to turn around and centralize the data of every person on the planet for its own political purposes.
In fact, significant progress has already been made in the creation and adoption of digital vaccine passports. The World Health Organization has recently signed a contract with Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems to create a system for global electronic verification of coronavirus vaccination status. This system will serve as a vaccination checker across national borders and may go on to provide the status of people’s vaccinations other than COVID-19, such as polio or measles. It is disturbing that such an extreme proposal with the potential for abuse and infringement of fundamental human rights is already being implemented.
A third Orwellian WGPR recommendation is the creation of a transnational disinformation board. The Biden Administration has already sought to control the flow of information online in the United States using a government-sponsored “fact checker” to censor specific viewpoints.
The WHO’s track record on “misinformation” related to COVID-19 alone proves the dangers of vesting them with such powers. A WHO transnational disinformation board would impose tyranny on citizens across the world. If left unchecked, this board would regulate “misinformation” as determined by unelected international bureaucrats while creating false narratives to control the range of acceptable political opinions.
Globalists tout these proposals as public health solutions, but they are an anathema to basic principles of good governance. They will infringe not only on Americans’ constitutionally protected rights such as privacy, free speech, and national sovereignty, but also on fundamental human rights around the world.
The Current Situation
At the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) in May of 2022, the WHO was supposed to adopt the Biden Administration’s amendments to the IHR. Several countries pushed back against the Biden Administration’s proposed amendments. Iran, Malaysia, and a bloc of African countries were the main critics. As one African delegate stated, “We find that they are going too quickly and these sorts of reforms can’t be rushed through.” Ultimately, the 75th WHA did not consider the U.S.-proposed amendments. However, the WHA did adopt amendments that shortened the period during which countries could implement and object to any IHR amendments.
Additionally, the WHA established a “Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005),” to consider and propose a package of targeted amendments before the 77th World Health Assembly in 2024. The WHA also requested the WHO Director-General convene a Review Committee on the IHR (2005) to provide technical recommendations on the proposed amendments no later than October 2022.
In response to the recommendations submitted by the WGPR, the assembly “encourage[d] member states to continue to review and consider the possible actions.”
ACLJ Action views these proposals as imminent, debilitating threats to American rights and liberties. Rest assured that ACLJ Action will continue to monitor the situation and do everything in its power to prevent the WHO from gaining enough “arbitrary and sweeping” power to significantly harm the American public. We will remain vigilant and continue fighting to protect your rights and the rights of every American.
