Monaco participates in a new meeting of the Working Group on amendments to the World Health Organization's International Health Regulations

4ème réunion du Groupe de travail sur les amendements au Règlement Sanitaire International de l’OMS ©DR

The Principality attended the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) of the World Health Organization (WHO), which was held in Geneva from Monday, 24th to Friday, 28th July 2023.

The Working Group's (WGIHR) mandate is to recommend targeted changes to the IHR (2005) to improve the response to global health threats. The WGIHR is working to strengthen the IHR (2005) by taking into account scientific developments and lessons learned from past health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The main challenges are to improve preparedness, monitoring and international cooperation to deal with public health emergencies while minimising disruption to international trade and travel.

At this WGIHR meeting, Monaco reiterated its commitment to the IHR (2005) and the importance of upholding its scope and objectives.

The WGIHR focused on the issues of notifying, sharing and verifying public health information. The Principality was represented by a delegation led by H.E. Mrs Carole Lanteri, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Monaco to the United Nations Office in Geneva, who took the floor on several occasions to express their position on these issues.

The IHR (2005), adopted by 196 States, including the Principality of Monaco, is the only legally binding international instrument in the international health security sector.