"Tell me thy company, and I'll tell thee what thou art."
- Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

Subject: Terminate all engagements, including funds acceptance, with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, because the engagement violates the principles described in the "Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors" [1]

Mr. António Guterres: We humbly request you to ask the World Health Organization decision making authorities to address this issue as early as possible.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan: We humbly request you to bring the issue explained in this petition to the attention of the WHO Executive Board and seek the proposed resolution.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: We humbly request you to work with the concerned decision makers to address the issue explained in this petition. If necessary, we also humbly request you to add this topic to the agenda for the forthcoming Health Assembly.

Background:

The World Health Organization (hereinafter called "WHO"), with its 190+ member states [2],  acts as the directing and co-ordinating authority on international health work towards the objective of "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health" [3][4].

The WHO directions and advice directly affect the the citizens (hereinafter called "we" or "people") of the member states.
Therefore, the biggest and the most important WHO stakeholder are the people.

We, the people, look up to WHO to be an ethical and trustworthy partner in health.

The ethical principles of Integrity, Independence, and Impartiality [5] are possible only if WHO partners with individuals and organizations that practice the same principles.

Problem:

One of the WHO donors, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been credibly accused of several malpractices, both in medical and agricultural sectors.

Therefore, we believe that the relationship with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation neither protects nor preserves WHO's integrity, reputation, and public health mandate.

Moreover, the engagement with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has resulted in unmanageable risks such as conflicts of interest and whitewashing of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation's image as described in paragraph 7 of the "Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors" [1].

As examples of the malpractices, here are some instances where the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation actions were in opposition to WHO's objectives and public health mandate:

1. When Mr. Bill Gates was the Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, the US government pressed antitrust charges against Microsoft for monopolization and taking actions to crush threats to that monopoly [6]. This is a demonstration of lack of integrity and ethics by Mr. Gates.

2. Mr. Bill Gates had the thought process to lower population by 10% or 15% through new vaccines, healthcare, and reproductive health services [7].
This is the complete opposite to WHO objective of achieving better health for everyone.

3. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is reported to have funded the American agency "Programme for Appropriate Technology in Health" (PATH) to conduct a HPV vaccine trial on a vulnerable and tribal population that resulted in the deaths of several female children. The committee that investigated it reported that this trial is a  medical malpractice, child abuse, and a blatant human rights violation [8].
This instance is a stark violation of the WHO ethical principles of integrity, accountability, and respect.

4. Agriculture and environment activists Dr. Rosemary Mason and Dr. Vandana Shiva criticized the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for being a leading funder of genetic modification (GM) of crops research, pushing for massive increases in the use of chemicals in agriculture, facilitating bio-piracy, and  funding unethical GMO trials [9][10]. This is a violation of paragraph 45 of the "Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors" (Engagement where particular caution should be exercised).

5. A proof that many people believe the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was involved in medical malpractice is a White House Petition that received more than 600,000 signatures [11].

Proposed solution:

In order to restore the people's confidence and trust on WHO, we, the people, appeal that:

1. WHO must stop accepting donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
We also appeal WHO to terminate all engagements with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
If and when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation stops the unethical and unhealthy activities, then the WHO could consider resuming the funds and engagements with the foundation.

2. Add a regulation to the "Financial regulations of the World Health Organization" [12] that states that funds must be accepted only from individuals and organizations that exhibit high levels of integrity, ethics, and accountability, and are not involved in any harmful activities or medical malpractices.

References:

1. Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors
2. https://www.who.int/countries/
3. https://www.who.int/about/what-we-do/who-brochure
4. https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/constitution-en.pdf?ua=1
5. https://www.who.int/about/ethics/ethical-principles
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.
7. "Innovating to zero!" TED Talk by Bill Gates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaF-fq2Zn7I
8. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/its-a-path-of-violations-all-the-way-to-vaccine-trials-house-panel/article5083151.ece - for the committee report, read the seventy second report "Alleged Irregularities in the Conduct of Studies using Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine by Path in India (Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare).

9. https://www.academia.edu/42063994/Why_dont_pesticides_feature_in_the_WHO_UNICEF_Lancet_Commission_A_future_for_the_worlds_children
10. https://www.asianage.com/columnists/great-seed-piracy-049
11. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-call-investigations-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-medical-malpractice-crimes-against-humanity
12. https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/pdf_files/BD_49th-en.pdf#page=143