FROM Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 2021, a special session of the World Health Assembly will take place in Geneva to consider the development of an international convention or a similar instrument on pandemic preparedness and response. The assembly will have before it a report assessing in particular the benefits of such a treaty or instrument, submitted by the Working Group on Strengthening WHO's Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies after five meetings.

In support of this initiative, the International Center for Comparative Environmental Law (Cidce) set up a team of legal experts to prepare a draft convention on pandemics, which has been posted on the Cidce website (cidce.org). Unsponsored and unsolicited, it is the result of a spontaneous initiative by the Cidce, an independent international NGO specializing in environmental law. As such, the Cidce is also concerned with the protection of human and animal health. Hence its eagerness to design a legally binding instrument that allows humanity to stand together against pandemic hazards.