A healthcare worker prepares a Covid-19 vaccine dose at a free walk-in clinic in California, United States, 5 October 2023. (KeystoneEPA/Caroline Brehman)

NGOs allege rights abuses by Western countries in deadlocked pandemic agreement talks. Civil society groups are calling on a UN human rights expert to investigate alleged foot-dragging by pharma-intensive countries at ongoing pandemic treaty talks, but will the motion have teeth?

🦠PABS TALKS. After an extension was granted to negotiators at the World Health Assembly in May, talks on finding an agreement on a pathogen access and benefit sharing (Pabs) system resumed on 7 July and will continue behind closed doors until Friday.

Same old. But stark divisions between countries seem nowhere near being resolved yet. African countries are demanding legally binding terms, including mandatory payments in exchange for pathogen data they share, and technology transfers. The European Union, instead, favours maintaining incentives for private sector research and development.

A statement issued a week ago by the pharma industry’s International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, located not far from the talks, expressed “concern” about trends toward shifting away from open-access systems for pathogens.

Technicalities and jargon. Late last week, negotiators met with specialised pathogen databases, including Basel-based open-source Pathoplexus, which explained what is done with data and how it is shared, including through registration and other terms. The WHO coordinator laboratory system needs to be set up, with the labs that would be part of it and the terms and conditions agreed upon.

According to Geneva Health Files, countries did not agree on whether signing a Pabs contract should provide access to pathogens, or if a commitment to sign later would be enough. Click-wrap agreements – a proposal that would legally bind pathogen data users to share the resulting benefits with a single click - were also discussed.

𖤓INDIGENOUS RIGHTS VS AI. Representatives from indigenous communities are meeting till Friday for an annual gathering of an advisory body of the Human Rights Council, aimed at advising the UN member states on their rights.

On Tuesday, they’ll discuss the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence to their cultures. While the technology may help revitalise Indigenous languages and preserve oral histories, it may also enable unauthorised data extraction, algorithmic bias, and surveillance.

Digital colonialism. But amid enduring gaps between AI governance and human rights, concerns over digital colonialism – the use and exploitation of Indigenous knowledge, culture and other data without sufficient prior consent – will be a central theme in those discussions.

Pope Leo’s first encyclical on AI highlighted concerns over technological power as a “new form of slavery”. Prior to becoming head of the Catholic Church, Leo had spent decades working with Indigenous communities in Peru.

Uncertain future. The meeting of the Expert Mechanism on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, which will also discuss ways to increase their participation at the UN, comes at a difficult time for many communities.

In South America, where governments have recently shifted to the right, Indigenous peoples are bracing for policies that refocus on resource extraction and security over Indigenous rights.

📌 16 July | Africa launch of the World Investment Report 2026. The webinar will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss the latest global and regional investment trends, with a particular focus on the key findings of the World Investment Report 2026, released last week, and their implications for Africa.

For more events, visit the Genève Internationale website.