GA Plenary:

Building on lessons learned from both the SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19 pandemics, the General Assembly Plenary session passed Resolution GA Plen/II/1 with a vote of 24/5/2. The resolution encourages the World Health Organization to consolidate current reporting abilities and essentially build a global data infrastructure to handle not just the current pandemics, but to have those systems in place for the next one. The successful passage of this resolution was, as defined by Representative Jenna Daschke of the United Kingdom, “the highest form of diplomacy” as the development team worked across blocs to ensure global support of the recommendations made in this resolution.

Of particular note was the recommendation for the “World Health Organization and other relevant United Nations bodies to set up specialized disease investigation task forces (SDITFs)” which would establish a protocol for investigating and mitigating new pandemics as they occur and establish global recommendations that Member States should adhere to during and after a health crisis. These recommendations fall along two lines. The first is to ensure collaboration and transparency of information and data, primarily by contributing to WHO efforts and relevant UN bodies to ensure that decisions are made across borders and on a regional and global level. 

The second line of recommendations is specifically tied to the efforts of the SDITFs, including providing SDITF personnel access to “areas, people, information, and facilities of interest,” as well as “protecting, securing, and refraining from destroying data, items, or facilities that may be helpful to SDITFs investigations.” The resolution further called for protections for SDITF personnel, including providing security as required, ensuring their “rights and liberties as stated in the United Nations Human Rights Charter are protected,” and requiring personnel “not [be] subject to violence, harassment, blackmail, abuse, or other actions to hamper their efforts.”

The resolution also outlined the SDITFs purpose and primary functions, primarily to investigate and evaluate new pandemics and outbreaks as they occur, ensure global communication and awareness given the ability to spread, and identify ways to assist Member States currently dealing with pandemic and endemic diseases. The resolution calls for “a database for virology and disease prevention research” which will connect research institutions with relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the WHO and the United Nations.