Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) has warned the Biden administration not to hand over U.S. sovereignty to the World Health Organization (WHO) as negotiations move forward for a global pandemic accord for its member nations.
“The Biden Administration must not empower bureaucrats of the WHO—a troubled United Nations body that took disastrous missteps in the initial stages of the COVID-19 outbreak—with a new binding agreement that would tie our hands in the event of a future pandemic,” Smith said in a March 2 statement.
Smith added, “Many American citizens remain rightfully alarmed that the Biden Administration is poised to cede our US sovereignty to a corrupt UN bureaucracy and its Chinese-backed Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus—and I share their grave concerns.”
“The Biden Administration must commit to protecting US sovereignty and not cede decision-making to global elites who seek to override the American people,” Smith added.
“Instead of subjecting our great American government to an agenda-driven global bureaucracy, the Biden Administration must push for top-to-bottom reform at the WHO starting with the immediate ouster of Tedros—something I have repeatedly argued that is urgently needed now more than ever,” he concluded.
In response to Smith’s statement, a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the Biden administration “will not support any measure at the World Health Organization, including in these negotiations, that in any way undermines U.S. sovereignty or security.”
WHO Accord
The United States and other WHO member states set up an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) in December 2021, with the aim of drafting an agreement to “strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.”The draft agreement says it recognizes “the central role of WHO as the directing and coordinating authority” on international health work, including “pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and health systems recovery at national, regional and international levels.”
According to the text of the draft agreement, the WHO would appear not to have authority over member nations’ domestic pandemic policies.
“States have, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to determine and manage their approach to public health, notably pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery of health systems, pursuant to their own policies and legislation, provided that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to their peoples and other countries,” the draft agreement reads. “Sovereignty also covers the rights of States over their biological resources.”
“It is false to claim that the World Health Organization has now, or will have by virtue of these activities, any authority to direct U.S. health policy or national health emergency response actions,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services wrote in a statement to the press.
Legislation
Many Republicans have recently introduced legislation aiming to protect U.S. sovereignty against the WHO.On Feb. 15, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and several of their GOP colleagues introduced a bill titled “No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act.”
On Feb. 28, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with 14 of his GOP colleagues, introduced a Senate resolution, with a similar aim of preventing the president from ceding U.S. sovereignty to the WHO and other entities.
“The United States is a sovereign nation that cannot cede power to the deeply-flawed World Health Organization for any future health emergency. The WHO failed to hold China accountable for the global spread of COVID-19, which killed over 1 million Americans and thousands of Idahoans,” Risch said.
“This resolution makes clear the Senate must approve an international agreement—in any form—that requires new or expanded legal obligations in the U.S.”
