ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the development of a Pandemic Treaty to address the inadequacy of existing international public health agreements, and specifically, the incorporation of ABS into the fabric of agreements otherwise focused on specific health threats, the constellation of international organisations that will need to cooperate in areas of mutual and/or overlapping authority and the digitisation of access as implicating international laws protecting the flow of information, speech and ideas. The chapter speculates about some possible resolutions incorporating ABS mechanisms based on the text of the Nagoya Protocol, establishing a standing multilateral committee on ABS measures comprised of all specialised United Nations agencies with observer status available to stakeholders and civil society, and a copyright-based protection approach to protecting benefit sharing as the value of genetic resources is increasingly digitised.
