UNGA adopts pandemic declaration; WHO Pandemic Agreement awaits PABS annex
The UN General Assembly on 12 October 2026 adopted a non-binding political declaration on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response by 153 votes to 3, with 2 abstentions, after consensus failed at the 25 September high-level meeting. It welcomes the WHO Pandemic Agreement, which cannot open for signature until its Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) annex is agreed.
Syllabus: Prelims · Current Affairs & IR; GS2 · Health, Education & Human Resources; GS2 · International Institutions
Why this matters for UPSC
GS2 (important international institutions; health) and Prelims current events: Prelims can ask what the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the PABS annex provide and which body adopts them; Mains, about equity and fragmentation in global pandemic governance.
Why it matters
When COVID-19 struck, developing countries were hit hardest, and the draft declaration itself records that inequities hindered timely access to vaccines, tests and medicines. The PABS annex is meant to fix that trade: a country that shares a new virus sample or its genetic data would get a share of the vaccines and drugs made from it, and manufacturers in the system would offer WHO rapid access targeting 20% of their real-time production. Until the annex is agreed, the Pandemic Agreement cannot even be signed, so these promises bind no one. The split vote in the General Assembly shows that political support for pandemic cooperation is no longer automatic, even for a text that binds nobody.
Prelims pointers
- World Health Assembly: WHO's peak decision-making body of all 194 Member States; it adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement in 2025 (78th session) and the IHR amendments at its 77th session.
- Article 19 of the WHO Constitution: the FCTC (adopted 2003, in force 2005) was the first international legal agreement negotiated under it; the WHO Pandemic Agreement is the second.
- International Health Regulations (2005): amended by the World Health Assembly at its 77th session; the declaration calls for implementing the amended Regulations alongside the Pandemic Agreement.
- Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS): sharing of pathogen samples and sequence data in exchange for fair sharing of resulting vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
- Nagoya Protocol: a protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity on access to genetic resources and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from their use.
- Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (2001), World Trade Organization: intellectual property rules should support Members' right to protect public health and access to medicines.
- One Health approach: links human, animal and plant health with the environment; the draft declaration asks for it to be coordinated among the Quadripartite organizations.
- The UN General Assembly's pandemic declaration is political and non-binding; only the WHO Pandemic Agreement, once ratified, can enter into force as international law.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the WHO Pandemic Agreement, consider the following statements:
1. It will enter into force after it has been ratified by 40 States.
2. It is the first international legal agreement negotiated under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Show the answer
Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2
1 is incorrect: once the PABS annex is adopted and the Agreement opens for signature, it enters into force after 60 ratifications, not 40. 2 is incorrect: it is the second such agreement; the first was the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted in 2003 and in force since 2005.
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