This article appears in Vol III Issue I: Republics
“One side effect of the move toward globalization has been the development of a network of judicial bodies with wide-ranging authority to alter domestic policy and domestic law,” writes Mary L. Volcansek and John F. Stack in Courts Crossing Borders: Blurring the Lines of Sovereignty. “What began as a mere side effect is now…a major force in shaping legal practice in many regions of the world and in driving resolution of human rights, economic, and even criminal issues.”
As a college student reading that book some years ago, I saw it as a warning that as globalization and transnationalism intertwined individuals and societies to the rules of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, like the World Economic Forum, then the greater their sovereignty at the peril of our own.
The fear of that reality has reawakened after news broke that the Biden administration is negotiating with the World Health Organization (WHO) to cede control of domestic health policy in the event of another pandemic. Domestic policy, in the United States and other signatory countries, would then be determined by the Geneva-based United Nations subsidiary.
Discussions between U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus began in September 2022, announcing “the U.S.-WHO Strategic Dialogue,” according to The Epoch Times. In a joint statement, they say that the dialogue “provides a platform to maximize the longstanding U.S. government-WHO partnership, and to protect and promote the health of all people around the globe, including the American people.”
Birthed from these talks was the “zero draft,” where an “Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB)” was established to negotiate a pandemic treaty, wherein the WHO will have the authority over nations’ vaccine mandates, lockdowns, treatments, and making sure such policies are “equitable.”
Under “Article 4. Guiding principles and rights,” the draft states that members will have “the sovereign right to determine and manage their approach to public health…provided that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to their peoples and other countries.”
A meeting to work out the final draft is scheduled for February 27.
