Intergovernmental Negotiating Body

Public hearings regarding a new international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response

On the decision establishing an intergovernmental negotiation body (INB) to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, the World Health Assembly also requested the WHO Director-General to support the work of the INB, including by holding public hearings, in line with standard WHO practice, to inform its deliberations. The WHO Secretariat sought input from all interested parties in these hearings, and strongly encouraged participation in this important process.

The WHO Constitution provides that, “Informed opinion and active co-operation on the part of the public are of the utmost importance in the improvement of the health of the people.” The INB public hearings: The World Together, and public interest and support in them, helped to advance this critical principle.

First round of public hearings

The first public hearing was held on 12–13 April 2022 and featured both a spoken component (through videoconference technology); and a written component (through a dedicated web portal).

Select a session from the listing to watch the recording.

Written contributions

Written inputs received for the first round of public hearings and which are receivable per the terms of participation are provided at the link below. To respect privacy and personal data, contributors’ names and email addresses are not displayed.

Written contributions (Excel file of 4000 pages)

Key aspects of components

A summary of key aspects of each component for the first round of public hearings is provided below:

	Spoken Component	Written component
Participation	Interested stakeholders (as defined below)	The general public, as well as interested stakeholders
Time/word limits	2 minutes maximum, at reasonable pace to allow for interpretation (approximately 220 words)	250 words maximum
Language(s) of contributions	In any of the six official WHO languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish)	In any language, however no translation provided by WHO
Participant registration/submission of contribution?	Any interested stakeholder could express their wish to register.	Any interested stakeholder could submit a written statement subject to applicable terms.
Terms of participation	Per the terms of participation.	Per the terms of participation.
Broadcasting/archiving of contributions	Spoken contributions broadcast and archived on the WHO website. All persons and entities, including those who were not speakers, invited to follow the webcast, broadcast from the WHO website.	Written contributions are available from this page.

→ Terms of participation

Show less → See webcast and further details from the first public hearing

Second round of public hearings

For the second round of public hearings (29–30 September 2022), interested parties were invited to submit a video statement (of up to 90 seconds, accompanied by a transcript) in response to the following question:

“Based on your experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, what do you believe should be addressed at the international level to better protect against future pandemics?”.

Select a session from the listing to watch the recording.

Note: The archived version of the broadcast of the second round of public hearings was taken off-line temporarily in order to remove two video submissions which presented or promoted commercial products or services, in contravention of WHO policy and the terms of participation.

Video statements

Statements could be up to 90 seconds in duration and could be submitted in any of the six official WHO languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish). They were to be accompanied by a transcript of the statement, written in the language of the video statement. The submission period opened on Friday 9 September 2022 and closed on Friday 16 September 2022.

Compilations were prepared by the WHO Secretariat, taking into account the need to ensure propriety, appropriateness and decorum during the public hearings. Videos were selected randomly. Among those randomly selected, care was taken to ensure gender balance and equitable geographical representation as far as possible.

All individual (i.e. non-duplicative) video statements that followed the terms of participation, including those that were broadcast and those that were not, can be found below, provided they also met the requirements of propriety, appropriateness, and decorum. To respect privacy and personal data, email addresses have not been displayed.

Video submissions

→ Terms of participation

Show less → See webcast and further details from the second public hearing

While all contributions to the public hearings were moderated by the WHO Secretariat in line with the applicable terms and standard WHO practice, no contributions received or presented as part of the hearings should be interpreted as reflecting the view or position of WHO on any matter. In that regard, any designations employed do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the WHO Secretariat concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or of its authorities, and terminology used in the contributions may be at variance with that used by WHO.