OPINION
Standing on the shoulders of Kiwi professionals, like Kirsten Murfitt and NZDSOS, who are working tirelessly to inform us of in-the-weeds detail of the potential future of NZ – even with a new centre-right government coalition – I’m publishing another of my humble submissions, this time about the proposed amendments to the WHO’s International Health Regulations whatever, in order for other Kiwis to do likewise before February the 18th.
I’m not going to use the oft’ touted sentiments of “our democracy is dying,” or “our best days are now behind us,” even though they may be truisms, simply because New Zealand has never internally had to fight hard for its own democratic Form, it was literally handed to us on a silver platter by our mother country, Great Britain.
We still live in the glowing sunset of a once radiant democracy, and it’s on us as those citizens who still value our liberties, to use any democratic mechanisms that are available to us in the hope that they will be genuinely considered by our government representatives. Beautiful sunsets have the sublime ability to make the most cynical of hearts see how utterly glorious the lay of the land has always been. It could just be that we have needed to see it this way in order to consciously create a better future.
But now we do have to fight, and before any turbulent revolution, we owe it to ourselves and our children to use robust diplomacy and the institutions which availed us those rights – and I really stress the word ‘robust.’
Most people have been deeply asleep hitherto this precarious time, we’ve been quite spoiled, but now many are awake to the fact that silver platters can be violently flung, stolen or trampled into the dirt by people who don’t know the value of silver.
Please stay engaged.
Maybe pluck out just one or two aspects of the many problematic amendments detailed so well by lawyer Kirsten Murfitt in her “cheat sheet,” and write your own submission, in your own words, sincerely about that from your heart and from your head.
A submission does not have to be James K Baxter set to modern legalese… it just has to be one sincere opposition sentence from one concerned citizen, with one factual reference – and it is thus registered as a proper democratic process that must be recognised by our existing system and those who manage it.
I personally cannot write dry sentences without adjectives and epithets because I can’t bear to read such things when the stakes have been so high for so many years – but that’s just me. When it comes to ‘going gently into that goodnight’ – well, fuck that.
Do it however you see fit. ;-)
But do it.
All the best!
Love,
Olivia
My submission.
Survey question:
Are there aspects of the proposed amendments which you think New Zealand should support or oppose? Where possible, please reference the relevant IHR article that you are commenting on (see ‘Related Information’ at the top of this page)
I oppose anything that could even *possibly* place NZ’s sovereignty in the hands of unelected (or elected for that matter) wind-passing bureaucrats of bloated supranational bodies overseas (like Geneva), especially regarding the health, liberty and wellbeing of New Zealanders, way way down in the not so farty bottom of the South Pacific.
Our representatives must be tenacious and vigilant with any decisions about our way of life, keeping them firmly in the hands of Kiwis only: our citizens through the vehicle of transparent public discussions and public debates, and our representatives through not being unduly manipulated or influenced by said supranational bodies (the WHO, the WEF and the UN).
Re New article 13A:
NZ has always had its own pandemic plans in the past and so far, which were perfectly acceptable.
This new push toward “One Health” a WHO-led international public health response: – a globalist cookie-cutter international remedy for all nations, developed or developing, smacks of a singular lack of anything that could be considered diverse, as in something that can meet the needs of individual nation states along the lines of distinctive national character and values. Why this sinister push to homogenise people and nations?
Of particular concern is the question of whether this Treaty in its final form will spectacularly override our natural human rights, which we suffered an unpleasant overdose of under Ardern’s mis-governance the last time a so-called pandemic was heralded from the WHO rooftops.
Article 3 “Principles”:
The removal of the words “with full respect for the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons” in regard to the implementation of the regulations and replacing them with “based on the principles of equity, inclusivity, coherence and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities of the States Parties, taking into consideration their social and economic development.”
Aside from the incoherent word salad that this amendment amounts to – the term “equity” is a very odd concept to be using when referencing health responses, unless one happens to be a Marxist-leaning eternal adolescent who applies a ham-fisted economic lexicon to everything under the inequitable Sun. (Given his highly checkered past, T. Ghebreyesus deeply worries many on this score.)
But before we even get to these details within the “proposed amendments” there is the problematic matter before us that consists of Article 55 being breached already. The proposed amendments to the IHR should have been released by the Director General on 27 January 2024 – but this has not happened.
How on Earth can a proper, informed national interest test be undertaken by New Zealand citizens or government representatives when the contents of the latest draft have not been made known to any of us?
This was an important *deadline* that has failed to be met.
And in the WGIHR amendment draft, Article 55 has been erased entirely.
The WHO have violated Article 55 of the IHR, 2005, Third edition, which is standing law.
On this basis, the government of New Zealand must not consider any amendments to the IHR at the upcoming 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024.