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During a parliamentary session earlier this month, Lucy Akello asked that the Attorney-General of Uganda postpone the upcoming vote at the World Health Assembly to adopt the amendments to the International Health Regulations and the Pandemic Treaty.

“We cannot, as a country, go into this vote without consulting [Members of the Parliament of Uganda],” she said.

The World Health Organisation (“WHO”) will present two new texts for adoption by its governing body, the World Health Assembly, in Geneva on 27 May – 1 June: proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (“IHR”) and the Pandemic Treaty, also referred to as the Pandemic Agreement, Pandemic Accord and WHO Convention Agreement + (“WHO CA+”).

On 7 October 2023, WHO released a statement in which WHO declared it would not share the finalised IHR amendments with the public and member states four months before the vote on it in May 2024 as WHO’s own rules require. As Dr. Silvia Behrendt pointed out in an open letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, this violates international legal obligations and is unlawful.

Lucy Akello is a Member of the Ugandan Parliament and serves as the shadow minister for labour, gender and social development. The Parliament of Uganda is unicameral, meaning there is only one house or assembly that legislates.

During a parliamentary session, she raised that the proposed IHR amendments should have been distributed to WHO member countries four months before the World Health Assembly considered them.

“As far as I know, none of this has been brought to the attention of Parliament yet,” she said. “We have less than a month to go into this vote, without consulting the Parliament of Uganda.”

Because the issues being voted on for adoption at the upcoming World Health Assembly affect every Ugandan, Ms. Akello requested that the Attorney-General ask for the vote to be postponed.

The Attorney General, who is a member of the Cabinet, is the principal legal adviser to the government of Uganda.  One of the Attorney-General’s responsibilities is to draft and peruse agreements, contracts, treaties and conventions for and on behalf of the Ugandan government.

“My request is that [the Attorney-General] request for a postponement of this vote because we cannot, as a country, go into this vote without consulting this august House,” she said.

Below is a clip of Ms. Akello raising the importance of requesting a postponement of the World Health Assembly vote in the Parliament of Uganda.  You can read her request in Hansard by downloading the pdf labelled ‘April04_2024’ HERE.

After the clip below ends, it is recorded in Hansard that she asked the Speaker if she could read an open letter in Parliament that she was going to pass on to the Attorney-General.  There is no indication of which open letter Ms. Akello was referring to.

The Speaker denied her request followed by the comment: “The Member’s major concern was that there are important issues being decided on quietly there, without consulting the Attorney-General … Therefore, I request the Attorney-General to link up with Hon. Lucy Akello to ensure that, indeed, this issue is followed up.”

Transcript

Ms. Lucy Akello (FDC, Woman Representative, Amuru):

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, I received an urgent call from concerned people all over the world regarding a very important vote, which is supposed to take place at the World Health Organisation. It is about the International Health Regulations and the pandemic vote that is supposed to take place.

There is not much time, but I would have read verbatim what is here for maybe Members to appreciate it. But the gist is: There is going to be a very important vote and Uganda, being a member of the World Health Organisation, is supposed to be informed prior to this vote. But, as far as I know, none of this has been brought to the attention of Parliament yet, and yet we have less than a month to go into this vote, without consulting the Parliament of Uganda, and it is something very very key.

Mr. Speaker, this is about the adoption at the 77th World Health Assembly, which states that: “Any amendment shall be communicated to all State Parties by the Director-General at least four months before the Health Assembly at which it is proposed for consideration.”

I will share, Attorney-General, this open letter and, maybe, you look at it as Cabinet. My request is that you request for a postponement of this vote because we cannot, as a country, go into this vote without consulting this august House. Because the issues that we are going to vote on, about the amendments, concern every Ugandan.

Thank you. Maybe I can read it.