MARY ALEXANDER • 18 JULY 2024

“It turns out that the World Health Organization, in its founding document (1946), EXEMPTED itself from criminal prosecution,” reads a claim circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere since 8 July 2024.*

It includes a one-minute video of UK comedian and known conspiracist Russell Brand interviewing US financial analyst and known conspiracist David Martin.

Brand asks Martin why he claims the WHO is a “criminal cartel” and “how the events of the last few years somehow demonstrate or at least utilise that”.

Martin responds: “In the founding document of the World Health Organization, they gave themselves the right to be exempt from all criminal prosecution of any kind whatsoever.”

He adds: “Why would an organisation need to give itself exemption from criminal prosecution? This is not civil prosecution, this is criminal prosecution …”

The reason “they wrote that into their founding charter”, Martin says, “is because they knew they were already breaking the law”.

Throughout the video, a clipped page of the WHO’s supposed “founding document” is displayed on screen as proof of Martin’s claim. It includes a URL to the page https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/pdf_files/BD_49th-en.pdf#page=34. That’s page 34.

The page is headed: “CONVENTION ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES. Article V – Representatives of Members”.

It reads:

Representatives of members at meetings convened by a specialized agency shall, while exercising their functions and during their journeys to and from the place of meeting, enjoy the following privileges and immunities:
(a) Immunity from personal arrest or detention and from seizure of their personal baggage, and in respect of words spoken or written and all acts done by them in their official capacity, immunity from legal process of every kind;

But the page isn’t part of the WHO’s “founding document”, and doesn’t “exempt” the WHO from “criminal prosecution”.

Convention passed by UN general assembly in 1947

If Martin had looked just four pages up to https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/pdf_files/BD_49th-en.pdf#page=30 (that’s page 30) he would have found that the section of text he refers to is not the WHO’s “founding document”.

Instead, it’s the text of a United Nations treaty, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies, adopted by the UN general assembly on 21 November 1947.

The treaty applies to all of the UN’s 17 specialised agencies. The WHO is just one of those 17.

The others include the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Seabed Authority, the International Telecommunication Union and the World Meteorological Organization.

All the treaty does is grant what is essentially diplomatic immunity to representatives of the UN’s specialised agencies, as international organisations. This means that officials from one country who travel to or live in another country are not subject to the laws of the second country. It is an ancient principle of international law.

The PDF Martin refers to is also not the WHO’s “founding document”. It’s simply a collection of essential WHO texts put together under the title “Basic Documents.”. It includes the WHO’s constitution, agreements with other intergovernmental organisations, rules and regulations, and more.

By “the events of the last few years”, Brand is clearly referring to the Covid pandemic. Both he and Martin are proponents of the disproved “plandemic” conspiracy theory, which holds that the pandemic was somehow planned by the WHO and other shadowy elites.

But in the video, Martin doesn’t explain how the WHO was “already breaking the law” back in 1947.

If the treaty text Martin refers to is proof that the WHO is a “criminal cabal”, then all other UN agencies are too – including, for example, the International Seabed Authority.

Read more: Russell Brand – Confidence man

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

The post No ‘founding document’ gives WHO exemption from ‘criminal prosecution’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 21 MAY 2024
Published by Africa Check on 29 May 2024

“BREAKING: South Africa signs new Global WHO Pandemic Treaty,” reads a screenshot of an X/Twitter post circulating on social media since 10 May 2024.*

“International health regulations are more important than South Africa’s sovereignty and I fully support this essential development to ensure our future medical safety and vaccine readiness,” it continues.

In the screenshot, the name of the X account posting the message is Premier Alan Winde.

The pandemic treaty, also known as the pandemic agreement or pandemic accord, has been negotiated by the World Health Organisation’s 194 member states for over two years.

Its aim is to “prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics”. The need for the treaty came out of the world’s lack of preparation before the global Covid outbreak and poor cooperation between countries during it.

But there have been concerns that the agreement would force nations to abandon their sovereignty, giving the WHO the global power to declare lockdowns, impose travel bans, force vaccines on people and more.

Sovereignty means a government has full control of its country’s affairs without outside control.

Alan Winde is the premier of the Western Cape, the only province out of South Africa’s nine to be governed by the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The other eight are under South Africa’s majority African National Congress (ANC).

The country is set to hold national and provincial elections on 29 May, in a year that marks three decades of ANC national government.

Other major contenders in the elections, said to be the most important since 1994, are the Economic Freedom Fighters, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party.

‘ANC and DA devil’s alliance’

The X post has angered many social media users. Several suggest that the DA, the country’s largest opposition party, is secretly working with the ANC.

The screenshot has been posted with comments such as:

• After you Vote for ANC/DA they will bring back Covid. Vote them and suffer again.
• This is what Anc And DA devil’s alliance think of you.
• ANC and DA voters I hope you guys are aware of this.
• The ANC and DA both deny being in partnership with each other but it’s funny how everything sorded agenda that the ANC passes the DA fully supports!
• Basically ALL political parties are saying F@ck your sovereignty. Who are you Alan Winde to speak for me?

But is the X post really by the DA’s Alan Winde? And has South Africa’s ANC government really signed the WHO-coordinated pandemic agreement?

‘Woke Dick-tator of WEFtern Cape DICKTATORIAL Alliance’

The screenshot obscures the full name of the X account: Premier Alan Winde Western Cape Parody.

Here’s the original post, still live on X:

BREAKING: South Africa signs new Global WHO Pandemic Treaty – International health regulations are more important than South Africa’s sovereignty and I fully support this essential development to ensure our future medical safety and vaccine readiness. pic.twitter.com/f790YBzouz

— Premier Alan Winde Western Cape Parody (@AlanWinde666) May 10, 2024

A parody is an exaggerated impersonation of someone, often meant as satire.

But when satire and parody are presented as fact, they become disinformation.

The account’s handle is @AlanWinde666. Its bio reads: “Woke Dick-tator of WEFtern Cape DICKTATORIAL Alliance . Cape INDEPENDENCE will fail! Evil will always triumph, because parody is dumb!”

A search of Winde’s verified X account, with the handle @alanwinde, confirms that the post is not his.

More than this, South Africa can’t have signed the pandemic agreement because it’s still a draft, yet to be finalised. It would be impossible for any country to sign a draft treaty.

And as Africa Check explained more than a year ago, the pandemic agreement doesn’t require countries to hand their sovereignty over to the WHO. Any laws that might come out of it would have to be passed by individual countries.

The pandemic agreement, still bogged down in negotiations, is simply an attempt to prepare all countries of the world for another global disease outbreak.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

The post South Africa hasn’t signed WHO pandemic treaty – X post from parody account and treaty remains a draft appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 17 MAY 2024
Published by Africa Check on 22 May 2024

“The WHO has abandoned its contentious Pandemic Treaty following public discourse and backlash,” reads a claim circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere since late April 2024.*

For more than two years the 194 member states of the World Health Organization have been negotiating a draft pandemic agreement, also known as the pandemic accord or pandemic treaty. Its simple objective is to “prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics”.

The need for the agreement came from the lack of preparedness for the global Covid outbreak and poor international cooperation during it. Another concern was that people in wealthier countries were given tests, treatment and vaccines far more quickly than people in poorer countries.

The first step was in March 2021, when 25 world leaders – including South African president Cyril Ramaphosa – announced that “nations should work together towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response”.

“The main goal of this treaty would be to foster an all of government and all of society approach, strengthening national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics,” they said.

These leaders then took the idea to the WHO, the only organisation that directs and coordinates international health work. In December 2021 the international negotiating body (INB) was set up to draft, debate and finalise the agreement.

The first version, the “zero draft” of the agreement, was published in February 2023.

Since then there have been concerns and conspiracy theories in South Africa and across the world that the agreement would give global power to the WHO, allowing it to lock down countries, impose travel bans, force vaccines on people and more.

But none of this is true, as Africa Check explained earlier in May 2023. The agreement, when adopted, would be entirely voluntary and any laws that came out of it could only be passed by member states themselves.

Comments on the recent claim that the agreement has been “abandoned” include:

• Wow, we won one, nice work Humanity.
• This is really good news, if true, because by signing the contract Treaty, governments would be surrendering to WHO (NWO) control.
• I love it when we win.

It can also be seen here, here, here, here and here.

Has the WHO really “abandoned” the “contentious” pandemic agreement after a “backlash” by the public?

‘Getting this done means getting it right’

Work on the pandemic agreement continues. The most recent draft is dated 22 March 2024 and publicly available on the WHO website.

From 29 April to 10 May the INB resumed its ninth meeting to negotiate the agreement. The session’s proceedings, including documents and video of the discussions, can again be seen on the WHO website.

No final agreement came out of the meeting.

But in a 10 May press release, the INB said member states had agreed to continue working on the agreement and refining its draft ahead of the annual World Health Assembly, to be held from 27 May to 1 June.

“This is not a simple exercise,” South Africa’s Dr Precious Matsoso, co-chair of the INB, said in the statement.

“This is the first ever process to develop a proposed agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Getting this done means getting it right, and the INB Bureau is committed to help finalise a meaningful, lasting agreement.”

Negotiating a complex treaty covering the complex issues of global disease outbreaks, with 194 countries required to agree to its terms, will be a long process that has already taken years.

But the pandemic agreement has not been abandoned.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post No, WHO agreement to better prepare for future pandemics hasn’t been ‘abandoned’ after ‘backlash’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 12 MARCH 2024

The US Navy executed Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, a top World Health Organization (WHO) official and former head of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), at Guantanamo Bay on 3 February 2024.

This absurdly false claim has been circulating online in South Africa and elsewhere since 10 February.*

Ihekweazu, an epidemiologist, heads the health emergency intelligence and surveillance systems division at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.

During his time at the NCDC he led Nigeria’s response to the Covid pandemic. His book about the experience, An Imperfect Storm, is due to be published later in 2024.

The claim that he was executed at Guantanamo Bay comes from a story headlined “JAG hangs WHO despot”, published on the disinformation website Real Raw News on 10 February.

It can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Guantanamo Bay, known as Gitmo, is a US Navy base and detention centre on the coast of Cuba in the Caribbean. JAG or the Judge Advocate General’s Corps is the legal arm of the US Navy.

The story says “Gitmo sources” told Real Raw News that JAG hanged Ihekweazu on 3 February after he had “surreptitiously entered the United States to discuss enacting fresh shelter-in-place and vaccine mandates with the CDC’s nefarious Rapid Response Team”.

The US Centers for Disease Control’s Global Rapid Response Team tackles public health emergencies such as cholera, Covid, dengue, Ebola, famine and natural disasters across the world.

The Real Raw News story reads like bad fiction. Here’s one bit:

Atop the platform, the hangman slipped the noose around Ihekweazu’s neck and checked the tautness. Satisfied, he stepped backward, his hand hovering an inch from the button that, when pushed, would end Ihekweazu’s life.

But none of this happened.

Ihekweazu joins other public figures not hanged at Gitmo

Guantanamo Bay has a decades-long reputation for illegal detention, torture and other human rights abuses.

If the US Navy had executed a top WHO official there it would have made headlines across the world. It hasn’t.

And Ihekweazu has been publicly active long after his supposed death on 3 February. He has, for example, posted dozens of times on his official X/Twitter account @Chikwe_I, including photos of himself at public events – here, here and here.

On 13 February he delivered the opening remarks at the launch of the first global peer review of the WHO’s Universal Health and Preparedness Review.

And in early March he wrote an obituary for Nigeria’s former Access Bank CEO Herbert Wigwe, who died in a helicopter crash in the US on 9 February. It was published by This Day and Nigeria Health Watch.

The claim is false.

It’s not the first time Real Raw News has made up a story about a public figure being hanged at Guantanamo Bay.

Other headlines on the site include “Eric Holder Hanged at GITMO”, “Dick Cheney Hanged at GITMO”, “Dr. Francis Collins Hanged at GITMO”, “John Brennan Hanged at GITMO” and “Bill Gates Hanged at GITMO Ahead of Schedule”.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 14 March 2024

The post No, WHO epidemic expert and former Nigeria CDC head Ihekweazu not hanged at Guantanamo Bay appeared first on South Africa Gateway.