Federal Constitutional Court
Complaint against future pandemic contract rejected
After a lawsuit regarding the pandemic treaty, the Federal Constitutional Court emphasized: The standard must first be enacted. photo
© Uli Deck/dpa
The corona pandemic is over – the world wants to be better prepared for a new pandemic. An international treaty is currently being negotiated. There are already many complaints in the making.
Since the negotiations at the international level are still ongoing, there is no consent law that could be challenged with the constitutional complaint, according to the highest German court (2 BvR 1082/23). There are currently more than 1,600 additional, almost identical constitutional complaints pending before the Federal Constitutional Court.
Contract is still being negotiated
With the World Health Organization (WHO) treaty, the world should be better prepared and be able to react more quickly in the event of a new pandemic. At the beginning of February, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach assured the WHO of Germany’s full support for the planned pandemic treaty.
The member states are currently negotiating the conclusion of the treaty. The complainant fears that the WHO could issue binding orders in self-declared pandemics and health emergencies and override decisions of sovereign states on health measures. According to the complainant, this could give the WHO legislative and executive powers and abolish the sovereignty of the member states.
The Federal Constitutional Court, however, emphasized that domestic legal effects only exist through a consent law. The standard must already have been issued. This presupposes that the Bundestag and Bundesrat have finally dealt with the law, meaning that it only needs to be drawn up by the Federal President and promulgated.
A lot of criticism
There are drafts of the international treaty as a basis for further negotiations. Accordingly, in the event of future pandemics, research measures and the distribution of vaccines should be coordinated and information exchanged more quickly between the contracting states. A contract text ready to be signed should be negotiated by May 2024. In this context, the International Health Regulations 2005 are also to be revised.
There was a lot of criticism even when it was being created. A few days ago, on September 18th, a petition against the pandemic treaty was discussed in the Bundestag’s Petitions Committee, in which there were fears of a loss of fundamental rights. However, the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Sabine Dittmar (SPD), took the view at the meeting that neither fundamental rights nor human rights were restricted by the pandemic treaty.