Coloniality and imperialism cannot be ignored in analysing the negotiations around the proposed pandemic agreement
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/jcph.v1i2.80278Keywords:
International Negotiating Body, Vaccine hoarding, Global health governance, International Health Regulations, Pandemic prevention and responseAbstract
In his editorial on the negotiations for a pandemic agreement, Petersen (2024) notes that while some provisions have been endorsed by the International Negotiating Body (INB), others remain contested. He questions, with good reason, whether the negotiations will yield more equitable and effective arrangements for pandemic prevention and response. In this response we argue that the continuing expression of colonial arrogance in global health governance provides important contextual framing regarding vaccine hoarding and of the conflicts over the proposed pandemic agreement and that exploration of this would have added to the usefulness of the editorial.
Downloads
References
Atuk, T., & Cannon, F. (2024). 'Monkeypox, where is your rage?': The racialization, sexualization, and securitization of global health. Journal of Critical Public Health, 1(2), 43-50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/jcph.v1i2.79353
de Campos-Rudinsky, T. C., Bosha, S.L., Wainstock, D., Sekalala, S., Venkatapuram, S., & Atuire, C.A. (2024). Decolonising global health: why the new Pandemic Agreement should have included the principle of subsidiarity. The Lancet Global Health, 12(7). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(24)00186-4
Edward-Ekpu, U. (2021). Why Africa doesn’t have its own Covid-19 vaccine. Quartz, 2 April 2021.
https://qz.com/africa/1991891/why-africa-not-have-its-own-covid-19-vaccine (Accessed 1 September 2024)
Fassin, D. & Fourcade, M. (Eds). (2021). Pandemic exposures: Economy and society in the time of coronavirus. Hau Books.
Human Rights Watch. (2020). India: COVID-19 lockdown puts poor at risk: Ensure all have access to food, health care. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/27/india-covid-19-lockdown-puts-poor-risk (Accessed 1 September 2024)
Legge, D. G. (2018). Capitalism, imperialism and class: essential foundations for a critical public health. Critical Public Health, 29 (5), 624-631. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2018.1478067
Legge, D. G., & Kim, S. (2021). Equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines: cooperation around research and production capacity is critical. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 4, 73-134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/25751654.2021.1906591
Mignolo, W. D. (2021). Coloniality and globalization: a decolonial take. Globalizations, 18(5), 720-737. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2020.1842094
Petersen, A. (2024). The proposed WHO Pandemic Agreement: Ambitious progress or business as usual? Journal of Critical Public Health, 1(2), 1-4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.55016/ojs/jcph.v1i2.80000
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (2021). COVID-19: Make it the last pandemic. Geneva, The Independent Panel.
TWN. (2024). WHO Africa Group and Group of Equity say 'no' to dilution of PABS obligations. TWN Info Service on Health Issues, 30 September 2024 https://www.twn.my/title2/health.info/2024/hi240905.htm (Accessed 30 October 2024)
Watal, J., & Gostin. L.O. (2023). Squaring the circle on equity in a pathogen access and benefit sharing system. Geneva Health Files, 50. https://genevahealthfiles.substack.com/p/pabs-inb-gostin-watal-pandemic-treaty-pathogen. (Accessed 9 November 2024)
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 David Legge, Tania Cossich

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All articles in the Journal of Critical Public Health are published under a CC-BY-NC-ND license, or a CC-BY license if authors or their funders require this. The default CC-BY-NC-ND license means that authors and users may copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in un-adapted form only, for non-commercial purposes only, and only so long as proper credit is given (as is customary in academic work). Authors retain copyright of their work published in Journal of Critical Public Health.