Values, Policies and Rights

The Gaza Strip, characterized by its dense population and persistent geopolitical instability, has experienced decades of armed conflict, resulting in systematic healthcare infrastructure deterioration. The healthcare delivery system has been collapsed by Israeli military operations, creating cascading effects that extend beyond regional boundaries. The medical facilities have been targeted, combined with humanitarian aid restrictions, has created unprecedented challenges in providing essential healthcare services to the affected population. The environmental degradation resulting from infrastructure destruction poses additional threats to regional and global health systems. This analysis examines the multifaceted health crisis encompassing healthcare system dysfunction, pharmaceutical supply chain disruption, infectious disease proliferation, and the consequent implications for global health security. The conflict and military support raise trade-offs between military expenditures and other critical sectors, including international healthcare and development funding. The failure to protect healthcare infrastructure in Gaza establishes concerning precedents for similar conflicts globally and undermines the fundamental principle of medical neutrality. The Gaza crisis demonstrates the urgent need for strengthened global health security mechanisms capable of responding to conflict-induced health emergencies.

The WHO Pandemic Agreement, adopted 20 May 2025 as WHO's second legally binding health treaty, mandates a One Health approach for preventing zoonotic spillovers (75% of emerging infectious diseases) and establishes a Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system requiring manufacturers to provide WHO with 20% of pandemic product production in exchange for pathogen genetic sequence data access. Learning from COVID-19's inequitable distribution (low-income countries: <33% vaccination coverage vs. high-income: ~80%) and the 2022 TRIPS patent waiver's failure due to lack of technology transfer, Article 11 shifts focus from patents to building tangible manufacturing capabilities through WHO-led technology transfer hubs. Critical implementation challenges include procedural dependency on a May 2026 annex negotiation that must occur before the Agreement can be signed (Article 31) and ratified by 60 parties (Article 33), plus geopolitical fractures from US nonparticipation and abstentions by 11 countries including Italy, Israel, and Russia, which fragment global pharmaceutical supply chains and undermine the benefit-sharing system. The Agreement's success in reshaping pandemic response depends on successfully negotiating operational modalities and bridging the gap between equity goals and fragmented geopolitical realities involving major pharmaceutical manufacturing nations.

This paper explored the social norms shaping perceptions, attitudes, and decision-making around family planning among men in three provinces of Kasai Central, Lualaba, and Sankuruthe of the Democratic Republic of the Congo through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The authors found that while social norms oppose the use of modern contraceptive methods and advocate for larger family size, there is notable social support for birth spacing. Some men reported they would support their wives in learning about contraceptive methods if they were able to make the final decision. However, other men felt that allowing their wives to seek a method would undermine their authority, or their virility. To increase modern contraceptive uptake, the authors recommend that interventions address the underlying issues that contribute to non-adherence, addressing the three categories and their associated norms individually and engaging reference groups important to each, including healthcare providers, religious leaders, and male peer groups, in family planning programming.

This Third World Network (TWN) statement on the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement at the 78th World Health Assembly states that "The adoption of the Pandemic Accord marks the beginning, not the end, of the equity debate." The organization views the agreement as a milestone following three years of intense negotiations, deep divides, and difficult compromises, representing an initial multilateral effort to address global inequities and promote international cooperation for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in a world marked by growing health inequities and geopolitical fragmentation. However, TWN stresses that the real test lies ahead, particularly in the next phases of negotiations beginning with the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS). The upcoming PABS discussions offer WHO Members a rare opportunity to build a transparent and accountable system, anchored in legally binding rules for sharing biological materials and sequence data of pathogens with pandemic potential, coupled with enforceable benefit-sharing obligations. The statement warns that if these next steps fail, the world may once again face a pandemic armed only with empty promises, risking a repeat of the devastating failures seen during COVID-19, emphasizing that the agreement's success will be measured by whether it becomes a meaningful tool for equity or remains merely symbolic in ensuring developing countries can access affordable vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics swiftly and fairly during health emergencies.