Since the coronavirus outbreak, the profile of the World Health Organization has skyrocketed, and so have suspicions about its motives and alliances. Which is why this year's annual meeting of the organization's members - which is slated to begin on Monday - should get interesting.
As the US, Australia and other skeptical western states are expected to confront China and about the possibility of an investigation into Beijing's and the WHO's handling of the outbreak during its earliest days.
The coronavirus will be the focus for the World Health Assembly meeting, to be attended by all 194 WHO member states plus observers, and where policies and budgets are reviewed and approved.
But all eyes will be on how countries – including the US, Australia, Canada, France and Germany – pursue an investigation into China’s handling of the pandemic within the framework of the global health body.That could include taking the Chinese government to the international court.
Leaders of these countries have already made clear that they want an inquiry, including investigating the origin of the virus, whether it was initially covered up by China, and if Beijing was slow to tell the world that the virus was being transmitted between humans.
The WHO has itself been under fire, attacked for praising China’s pandemic response as “transparent” despite Beijing’s suppression of whistle-blowers and information at the start of the outbreak.
Beijing has, of course, rejected accusations that it covered up the virus during the initial weeks after the outbreak, as well as claims the virus might have leaked or, worse, been purposefully released, by a biolab in Wuhan. And while the CCP has said it would support a WHO-led inquiry into the virus's origins, it has simultaneously slammed Australia, the US and other countries that have insisted on an investigation in the face of Beijing's reticence and obvious reluctance by accusing them of "politicizing" the outbreak (language that, like CCP criticism of phrases like "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus", has found its way into the rhetoric of the American left).
However, hypothetically speaking, even if the WHO authorized an investigation, which stumbled upon some new evidence or a 'smoking gun' to suggest that China is much more culpable than initially believed, there's little the WHO could do to hold China to account. Legally speaking, the WHO has the power to refer cases to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. However, China has already flouted the ICJ once, a gesture which underlined the fact that the ICJ has no power to enforce any of its decisions, as the SCMP reminds us.
Thanks to its position as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is effectively immune to any kind of legal or police action from an international standpoint. A decision against China by the ICJ would require a vote by the Security Council to approve enforcement, a vote which China would obviously veto.
Another mechanism, though it has also never before been used (just like the WHO has never actually referred a case to the ICJ), is the International Health Regulations. Enacted and adopted by all WHO members in 2005, the IHR "suggests" - a key word - that all conflicts brought before the WHO should be resolved in a matter "related to its interpretation or application through negotiation, meditation and conciliation."
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