Gender Inclusion in the Pandemic Agreement: A Growing Gap?

Michel of the European Council to complement the The objective of this report is to document the technical public health policymaking of the IHR progress to date on integrating gender equality into with a political commitment by member states.2 The the CA+. [...] 38 Independent Commission on Allegations of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, “Final Report of the Independent Commission on the Review of Sexual Abuse and Exploitation during the Response to the 10th Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic in the Provinces of North Kivu and Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC),” WHO, September 2021. [...] the proposed new Article 54 Six planned consultations on regarding the creation of an the amendments have been The proposed amendments to Implementation Committee.48 held with member states.46 The articles of the IHR represent the These amendments are WGIHR is meant to finalize continuation of WHO’s “add welcome, but they represent the package of amendments in women and stir” approach in that the. [...] Arguably, the progression of references to gender As of March 2024, there have in these draft texts demon- been six iterations of the Analysis points to the weakening strates how member states are development of the potential of gender-inclusive language by the engaging with the texts. [...] Much of the draft text in the different versions is, laudably, This decision to house the negotiations in WHO focused on the prevention and detection of poten- likely impacted the development and inclusion of tial pandemic pathogens and making health infra- gender concerns in the negotiations and, structure less vulnerable to acute events.