We request that Parliament vote on whether to accept or reject the amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) that were adopted by the 75th World Health Assembly on 27 May 2022. Every nation, including Australia, has the authority to reject these amendments under Article 61 of the IHR, but any such rejection must be within 18 months of their adoption. This must be done before the end of November 2023. The changes to Article 59 of the IHR would shorten the time for future amendments to enter into force from 24 to 12 months and would shorten the period of time for rejection or reservations to be submitted from 18 to 10 months. We object to these changes. The amendments to the IHR that were adopted on 27 May 2022 have not been debated in or voted on by Parliament. This is compounded by the fact that an additional 307 proposed amendments are currently being negotiated by the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (WGIHR). The people of Australia have not had an opportunity to express their opinions regarding these legally-binding changes to international law.
We therefore ask the House to respect the will of the people of Australia and vote to reject the amendments to the International Health Regulations that were adopted by the World Health Assembly on 27 May 2022.
To sign the petition click the below link and follow the instructions
https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN5048/sign