A question often asked is how nations can leave the WHO, since there is no procedure for exiting the WHO specified in the WHO’s Constitution. International law professor Francis Boyle provides the solution below.
“A Withdrawal from the WHO Constitution can be accomplished by invoking the Doctrine of Fundamental Change of Circumstances under Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Article 62 codified the rule of customary international law then known and still known today as rebus sic stantibus. Therefore, all States should be able to invoke the Doctrine of Fundamental Change of Circumstances/rebus sic stantibus even if they are not parties to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. It was never known or contemplated or even suspected that at the time States became contracting parties to the WHO Constitution that the WHO would someday attempt to transform itself into a totalitarian worldwide medical police state by means of the proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations and/or the proposed Pandemic Treaty. This WHO transformation:
(1) violates the essential basis of the consent of the state parties to be bound by the WHO Constitution; and
(2) radically transforms the extent of the obligations still to be performed under the WHO Constitution.”
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of Law
Attorney.
Article 62
Fundamental change of circumstances
1. A fundamental change of circumstances which has occurred with regard to those existing at the time of the conclusion of a treaty, and which was not foreseen by the parties, may not be invoked as a ground for terminating or withdrawing from the treaty unless:
(a) the existence of those circumstances constituted an essential basis of the consent of the parties to be bound by the treaty;
(b) the effect of the change is radically to transform the extent of obligations still to be performed under the treaty.
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign IL 61820 USA
Phone: 217-333-7954
Fax: 217-244-1478
(personal comments only)
