A New Health Order for the World
A post-Covid social contract vs. «The Great Reset»
by Professor Dr.iur. et phil. Alfred de Zayas, Geneva School of Diplomacy
Many political scientists, economists, lawyers, historians, journalists and civil society activists have come to realize that the post-Covid world should not merely “pick up where we left off”, but actually requires a new social contract, one that will have better budgetary priorities, place people over profits, adopt concrete measures to advance equality and social justice. International solidarity and emergency preparedness must be strengthened to jointly face global challenges. Resuming “business as usual” is not an option. The crisis we are suffering and the pathetic mismanagement by many countries is the direct result of failed neo-liberal policies that must be revisited and corrected if the planet is going to survive.
New priorities needed
What should the new priorities be? Surely the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) must be strengthened and expanded. The International Health Regulations must be reassessed and a revised treaty should be adopted with provisions for faster and more effective international cooperation. The focus must be on prevention of disease and contagion, early warning and facilitation of exchange of information. Not only the WHO but all national and regional health authorities must devote time and resources to finding cures to current and future viruses, HIV/AIDS, cancer, heart disease, emphysema, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, malaria, tuberculosis. We have a moral obligation to endeavour to eradicate all diseases and not only those with potential of international spread. We need much more than just “band aids” and palliatives to alleviate current pain. We need properly funded institutions that – like health “think tanks” – anticipate future crises. As the world population, particularly in Europe, Japan, Australia becomes older, we owe it to our parents and grandparents to address all the issues that come with aging. The planet is rich and bountiful – and older people should not be discarded by society, but should enjoy the last years of earthly life in dignity.
World Conference on Post-Covid Recovery
It is in this sense that the United Nations Secretary-General should convene a World Conference on Post-Covid Recovery with the task of elaborating a Plan of Action, a world agenda based on multilateralism and coordination by all UN and regional agencies, with broad participation by inter-governmental organizations, like IOM and South Centre, the International Committee of the Red Cross, non-governmental organizations, universities and civil society. This is the time for António Guterres to confer with advisors from all disciplines, including economists Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty, and make concrete proposals to world leaders on how best to elevate health standards worldwide and how best to strengthen world peace by reforming the financial institutions, world trade and disaster relief in conformity with the Purposes and Principles of the UN Charter, taking due account of General Assembly Resolutions 2625 and 3314.
Rethink radically the prevailing financial and economic system
The COVID-19 pandemic can be a game-changer, a historic opportunity to radically rethink the prevailing financial and economic system characterized by its boom-and-bust cycles, widespread unemployment, and demonstrably unjust distribution of wealth, which have left societies inadequately prepared to deal with crises including pandemics, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and, of course, the consequences of global warming.1
A new social contract entails a paradigm shift in the prevailing economic, trade and social models. Governments bear responsibility for their unwise and inequitable budgetary allocations, which prioritize military expenditures over investment in health, education and people-centered infrastructures. In the light of the Covid pandemic, every country should immediately reduce military and non-essential expenditures and focus on resolving the problems and complications that accompany the pandemic as a matter of urgency.
Reorganize economic and trade priorities
This is a propitious moment for the Members of the United Nations to tame globalization, which has brought many good things, but has also been accompanied by extreme poverty and endemic social injustice. This is the time to reform the outdated Bretton Woods institutions2 and to reorganize economic and trade priorities so as to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and give practical meaning to the right of self-determination of all peoples and their right to development.
In this context, a World Conference on Post-Covid Recovery, with a mandate to revive multilateralism, must ensure the proper funding of all UN agencies and establish mechanisms to enhance their coordination and efficiency. But the conference, if it is going to have added value, must go beyond cosmetic adjustments and a perfunctory return to the broken status quo ante. The Conference must promote all-hazard emergency preparedness, also with regard to coordinated policies to address emerging global dangers, such as potential asteroid impacts.
For now it is not a question of amending the Charter under Article 108, but the Conference should issue a pledge, a good faith statement reaffirming the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations as the best hope of humanity, and committing to applying the UN Charter as a kind of world constitution,3 respecting the judgments and advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice as the authoritative statements of a world constitutional court. This would entail the progressive incorporation of UN Charter provisions into the domestic legislation of UN Member States.
Away from the arms race, war, military bases
A world conference could revisit the Four Freedoms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, rediscover the spirituality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, revive the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt, René Cassin, Charles Malik, P.C. Chang and John Humphrey. The paradigm shift entails a change in national budgetary priorities, away from the arms race, war, military bases, procurement, drones and missiles. What is urgent and feasible is a gradual, step by step conversion of military-first budgets into human-security budgets.
The new mantra: “Disarmament for Development”
The new mantra should be “Disarmament for Health”, or the broader concept of “Disarmament for Development”. Indeed, a significant reduction in military expenditures will liberate necessary funds to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure the enjoyment of all human rights by all, including and most importantly the right to health, food, water, shelter, etc. Taxpayers’ money that has been wasted in Orwellian “mass surveillance” activities, such as those revealed by Edward Snowden4 must be redirected to social services. In my 2014 report to the UN Human Rights Council I showed how the military establishment can be gradually converted into peacetime industries at all levels, creating many more jobs in education, healthcare, housing, environmental protection and other social services.5
A World Conference on Post-Covid Recovery should take measures to abolish tax havens and ensure the payment of taxes by investors and transnational corporations without phony registrations or “sweetheart deals”.6 The failures of the neo-liberal ideology, the systematic exploitation of peoples worldwide, the destruction of the environment and the constant threat posed by the arms race, stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, research & development programs into lethal autonomous weapon systems and other aberrations have become all too evident. Surely the gravity of the Covid-19 pandemic would have been considerably less lethal if governments had implemented human-rights centered economies in which the right to life and the right to health had enjoyed priority over market speculation, the drive to make short-term profits, and the senseless exploitation of the planet to the point of ecocide that today threatens the well-being of billions of human beings.
Civil society should demand a new social contract
Civil society in all countries should now demand from their governments a new social contract based on the implementation of the ten core UN human rights treaties. Admittedly, the task of standard-setting has not been completed, since codification of human rights is never definitive and never exhaustive but constitutes an evolutionary “mode d’emploi” for the exercise of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.
Alas, the interpretation and application of human rights have been hindered by sterile positivism and a regrettable tendency to focus only on individual rights while forgetting collective rights. It is all too obvious that many in the “human rights industry” show little or no interest for the social responsibilities that accompany the exercise of rights, and fail to see the necessary symbiosis of rights and obligations as formulated in Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Law is neither physics nor mathematics, but a dynamic human institution
The time has come to move away from narrow positivism toward a broader understanding of human rights norms in the context of an emerging customary international law of human rights. Law is neither physics nor mathematics, but a dynamic human institution that day by day addresses the needs and aspirations of society, adjusting here, filling lacunae there. Every human rights lawyer knows that the spirit of the law (Montesquieu) transcends the limitations of the letter of the law, and hence codified norms should always be interpreted in the light of those general principles of law that inform all legal systems, such as good faith, proportionality, estoppel, the prohibition of laws and treaties that are contra bonos mores, the principles of “do no harm”, ex injuria non oritur jus, and sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas. The letter of the law must never be used to undermine and defeat the spirit of the law.
A Post-Covid Conference on Recovery and Reconstruction
A new post-Covid social contract should follow the motto of the International Labour Organisation – si vis pacem, cole justitiam – in order to achieve peace, it is necessary to cultivate justice. Thus, a Post-Covid Conference on Recovery and Reconstruction should revisit the UN Charter and adopt multilateral measures that will strengthen the UN system so that the three pillars of peace, development and human rights are better served. Virginia Dandan in her 2017 report to the Human Rights Council presented a draft declaration on international solidarity.7 That is precisely what the world needs now. Indeed, our post-Covid priorities must be achieving a democratic and equitable international order based on solidarity which must be responsive to the needs of all members of the human family – not just to the whims of the 1%.
When Covid-19 is only a memory, the need for international solidarity will still be there, the need to help each other equitably and rationally, the need to combat other pandemics, to eradicate hunger, to ensure education for peace, to tackle the challenges of climate change and to build a democratic and equitable world order. It would be a great shame if we lose this opportunity to take our future in our hands, and if we allow the World Economic Forum (WEF) to push through its neo-liberal scam called The Great Reset Initiative.8 We must say “no” to the WEF and look for solutions in the genuinely progressive and humanistic World Social Forum9 and its Porto Alegre Manifesto. Another world is indeed possible, but we must all work for it.
1 See https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sgsm20029.doc.htm ; https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-15/UN-chief-says-mankind-so-unprepared-for-COVID-19-Qvi8tVla2k/index.html ; https://reliefweb.int/report/world/secretary-generals-un-covid-19-response-and-recovery-fund-april-2020 ; https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2020-03-25/launch-of-global-humanitarian-response-plan-for-covid-19.
2 My 2017 report to the Human Rights Council (https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/36/40) and my 2017 report to the General Assembly
(https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/72/187) formulate concrete proposals on how to reform the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund so that they are no longer “human rights free zones”.
3 See the 23 Principles of International Order formulated in my 2018 report to the Human Rights Council, paragraph 14, https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/37/63.
4 Edward Snowden, Permanent Record (Macmillan, 2019).
5 https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/27/51
6 My 2016 report to the General Assembly was devoted specifically to the criminalization of tax fraud and tax evasion, available at https://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/71/286.
7 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Solidarity/DraftDeclarationRightInternationalSolidarity.pdf