In January, the Biden Administration quietly proposed amendments to the United Nations’ 2005 international health regulations (IHR) that would effectively hand the Director-General of the WHO unilateral powers to declare public health emergencies.
Jonathan Alexandre, a senior counsel from the international litigation nonprofit Liberty Counsel, reported that these IHR amendments have been “under the radar” to prevent objections to the unconstitutionality of the proposed changes.
Alexandre explained this further in an interview with NTD News, saying,
“They’ve done this undercover because they knew at any point, if you were to tell Americans you’re ceding the authority to an international body that is unaccountable to the people, if the media were to echo that message, certainly Americans would have no regard for this.
And we ought not to have any regard for this international body that is not accountable to us.”
There has already been concern surrounding the Global Pandemic Treaty that was discussed at the 75th World Health Assembly. The criticism over this treaty stemmed from the fear that the WHO would be given the authority to declare and define “public health emergencies” for the entire world.
The Biden administration’s 13 IHR amendments would, if passed, also contribute to an increase in the WHO’s authority to declare public health emergencies for the world and would alter international public health rules.
In the NTD interview, Alexandre described these amendments as “shameful,” “dangerous” and “unconstitutional”, saying,
“The shameful part is that it’s coming from our president. The fact that Joe Biden has proposed these 13 amendments. The danger in it is that it’s ceding control over to this government entity that is not the United States. And the unconstitutional part is that they don’t abide by any of our Bill of Rights, any of the freedoms we’ve committed ourselves to. Rather, they’re an unelected body that is determined, for whatever cause is necessary, to basically put the world on a chokehold, have it follow its dictates, depending on what threat or pandemic it deems at the moment to be necessary in order to lock down the entire world.”
The White House maintains that the IHR amendments will not weaken US sovereignty. Loyce Pace, the Assistant Secretary for the US Dept of Health and Human Services supported these proposed amendments, saying, “The United States led an inclusive and transparent process to develop this decision, as we are mindful that updating and modernizing the IHR are critical to ensuring the world is better prepared for and can respond to the next pandemic.”
However, Alexandre warns that the amendments would give the WHO and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, its director-general, the power to bypass “any governmental authority within the United States.” Thus, these unelected individuals will be given total authority over emergency operations.
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