A Granular Analysis of Snakebite Cases in India and their Spatial Trends

#### Authors

Thirumal Reddy Vennam, Prachi Shukla, Khushboo Balani, Jitendra Shah, and Satish Agnihotri

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India

### **A Human Rights Perspective for an International Treaty on Preparedness and Response to Pandemics**

**Leandro Viegas, Deisy Ventura, and Miriam Ventura** Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brasília, Brazil

As part of the legislative production concerning the various international responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, we identified the need for a human rights approach to vulnerability protection against gender and racial discrimination and violence and to promote access to health technologies and international assistance. We used desk research and a non-systematic review to collect the main proposals for a new pandemic preparedness and response treaty. We classified the proposals into four categories: democratic arrangements; transparency and control mechanisms; coercive powers; and political coordination mechanisms. We defined the main proposals that were repeated in the working papers and the articles researched or even proposals that seemed innovative for institutional evolution within the global health framework. In the COVID-19 pandemic, even with the WHO initiatives to promote access to health technologies, such as the ACT and COVAX facility, vaccine doses were concretized in developed countries, confirming the catastrophic moral failure of health apartheid. This situation could lead the world to further epidemic outbreaks. We have proposed that, to combat this type of scenario, the WHO must gain the "teeth" to call on member states to step up vigilance and institute independent assessments of sorts, new mechanisms for declaring health emergencies, and the installation of universal periodic reviews such as those of the human rights system. At the same time, the WHO could adopt sanctions against defaulting states and the creation of a Global Council of Health Threats. The pandemic preparedness and response system needs to be strengthened with political commitment to guarantee a human rights approach.

Leandro Viegas, Deisy Ventura, and Miriam Ventura

Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brasília, Brazil

#### Objectives

Within the legislative production regarding the different national and international responses to the covid-19 pandemic, we identified the absence of a human rights perspective that could provide protection to the vulnerable populations, fight gender and race discriminations and violence, and support the promotion of access to health technologies and to international assistance. Amongst the several proposals of a transformation to the current system of preparedness and response to pandemics, we sought to identify those which would consider a human rights perspective no only to the protection of vulnerable populations but also in terms of institutional evolution regarding the current global health architecture.

#### Methodology

We applied a document research to recollect the main proposals of a convention, a treaty or an international instrument on preparedness and response to pandemics. We classified the proposals into four categories: technocratic arrangements; transparency and control mechanisms; coercive powers; and mechanisms for political coordination. We defined as main proposals those which were found repeatedly throughout diverse working documents as well as in the reviewed literature. We also defined as main proposals those deemed innovative for the institutional evolution withing the global health framework.

#### Discussion and Main Results

During the covid-19 pandemic, measures taken by national States had an inequitable impact on on the health and welfare of vulnerable populations. Apart from these inequalities, even with the implementation by WHO of initiatives for the promotion of access to health technologies, such as the ACT and the COVAX Facility, the vaccines doses rested concentrated in developed countries. It was called "a moral catastrophe and a sanitary apartheid". This situation could lead the world into other epidemic outbreaks. In order to avoid this scenario, we proposed that WHO needs "teeth" to demand Member States to strengthen vigilance and establish a series of independent evaluations as well as new mechanisms for the declaration of global health emergencies and the establishment of periodic review such as those of the human rights system. At the same time, WHO could adopt sanctions against States that fail to comply and create a Global Council on Health Threats.

#### Conclusions

In order to guarantee a human rights approach to the system of preparedness and response to pandemics, there needs to be political engagement. At the national level, Member States need to commit to implementing best practices and polices to protect their population against health threats whilst adopting measures that minimize social, economic and health effects on vulnerable individuals. On the global level, States need to comply with internationally recognized rules and decisions agreed upon in common grounds in global for a, such as the WHO or another Global Agency. Transparency and accountability to those regulations could support security of every society, including those most burdened by vulnerabilities.

#### References

Viegas, Leandro Luiz, Ventura, Deisy de Freitas Lima and Ventura, Miriam. A proposta de convenção internacional sobre a resposta às pandemias: em defesa de um tratado de direitos humanos para o campo da saúde global. Cadernos de Saúde Pública [online]. 2022, v. 38, n. 1. Available at <https://doi.org/10.1590/0102- 331X00168121>.

This work was made possible with the support of the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
