Texte du projet de convention sur les pandémies - Text of the Draft Convention on Pandemics - Texto del proyecto de convenio sobre las pandemias

In May 2021, the World Health Assembly (WHA) of the WHO decided to hold, within six months, a special session to assess the “benefits of developing a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response”. The International Centre for Comparative Environmental Law (CIDCE), as an international NGO specializing in environmental law and endowed with special consultative status with the United Nations, has a natural vocation to protect human health and animal health in times of pandemic. Therefore, in support of the AMS initiative, CIDCE hastened to set up an international team of more than 25 researchers from several countries, experts and professors in environmental law, health law and human rights, coordinated by Michel Prieur, President of CIDCE, in order to develop a convention on pandemics, in collaboration with the Normandy Chair for Peace and the Global Pandemic Network. After three months of voluntary work, from September to November 2021, a draft convention was effectively published on the CIDCE website. Along with the development of the draft convention, a rationale for its adoption was articulated in two forms: an executive summary and an explanatory version. The Global Pandemic Network spearheaded the formulation of the rationale and provided its English translation. Translation into Spanish was carried out by members of the group of lawyers. This book aims to disseminate the draft convention on pandemics drawn up by CIDCE, with the rationale behind it, in French, English and Spanish, in order to facilitate the negotiation and speed up the adoption of the treaty instrument. The book can serve as a tool for reference and inspiration for State and non-State actors involved in the diplomatic process leading to the conclusion, hopefully promptly, of an convention on pandemics, to push the process of scientific diplomacy that is likely to grow with the opening of negotiations at the WHO. Being a global threat, a pandemic calls for global solidarity and a global solution, through a global convention. The well-being of humankind and the viability of the planet are at stake. The complex interconnection that exists between living species is a root cause of zoonoses, the occurrence of which is linked to the close interdependence between human health, animal health and environmental quality. Thus, the multisectoral “One Health” approach is at the heart of the draft convention. Stemming from a “planetary health” vision, it intimately integrates the well-being of humanity and the preservation of other forms of life.