Advancing Legal Preparedness through the Global Health Security Agenda

Ayala, Ana; Brush, Adam; Chai, Shuen; Fernandez, Jose; Ginsbach, Katherine; Gottschalk, Katie; Halabi, Sam; Hosangadi, Divya; Mapatano, Dawn; Monahan, John; Moretti, Carla; Pillinger, Mara; Ramirez, Gabriela Silvana; Rosenfeld, Emily

doi:10.1017/jme.2022.26

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

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“…The COVID-19 pandemic has tested the normative foundations of global health governance, dividing the world amid a global health threat and exposing the fragility of the international legal order. These challenges were foreshadowed by limitations of global health law in earlier Ebola responses, leading to the establishment of new multilateral policy initiatives to advance global health security–within and beyond WHO governance [ 45 ]. While WHO was intended to lead global coordination in public health emergencies, unilateral national measures violated IHR obligations and undermined WHO governance in the COVID-19 response, galvanizing necessary global health law reforms.…”

Section: Pandemic Challenges Galvanize Needed Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The World Health Organization was born as a normative agency: Seventy-five years of global health law under WHO governance

Gostin,

Meier,

Abdool Karim

et al. 2024

PLOS Glob Public Health

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The World Health Organization (WHO) was born as a normative agency and has looked to global health law to structure collective action to realize global health with justice. Framed by its constitutional authority to act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health, WHO has long been seen as the central actor in the development and implementation of global health law. However, WHO has faced challenges in advancing law to prevent disease and promote health over the past 75 years, with global health law constrained by new health actors, shifting normative frameworks, and soft law diplomacy. These challenges were exacerbated amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as states neglected international legal commitments in national health responses. Yet, global health law reforms are now underway to strengthen WHO governance, signaling a return to lawmaking for global health. Looking back on WHO’s 75th anniversary, this article examines the central importance of global health law under WHO governance, reviewing the past successes, missed opportunities, and future hopes for WHO. For WHO to meet its constitutional authority to become the normative agency it was born to be, we offer five proposals to reestablish a WHO fit for purpose: normative instruments, equity and human rights mainstreaming, sustainable financing, One Health, and good governance. Drawing from past struggles, these reforms will require further efforts to revitalize hard law authorities in global health, strengthen WHO leadership across the global governance landscape, uphold equity and rights at the center of global health law, and expand negotiations in global health diplomacy.

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Section: Pandemic Challenges Galvanize Needed Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The World Health Organization was born as a normative agency: Seventy-five years of global health law under WHO governance

Gostin,

Meier,

Abdool Karim

et al. 2024

PLOS Glob Public Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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The amended international health regulations: Implications and challenges for domestic legal frameworks

Emami,

Aperce

2024

Health Planning & Management

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The World Health Organisation's International Health Regulations were amended in May 2024, with a number of implications for countries to amend their legal and institutional frameworks. This perspective highlights two key areas of focus in the amendments—the importance of multisectoral coordination and subnational work ‐ and explores their links to health security challenges and to concrete country experiences. National legal and institutional frameworks constitute a key enabling mechanism for effective public health systems capable of preventing, detecting, and responding promptly to public health events and emergencies, and the recent IHR amendments provide a new impetus for WHO Member States to make these changes.

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A Global Health Law Trilogy: Transformational Reforms to Strengthen Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response

2022

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Advancing Legal Preparedness through the Global Health Security Agenda

Abstract: The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is a multilateral, multisectoral partnership comprised of more than 70 countries, international organizations, foundations, and businesses to strengthen global health security.

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

The World Health Organization was born as a normative agency: Seventy-five years of global health law under WHO governance

The World Health Organization was born as a normative agency: Seventy-five years of global health law under WHO governance

The amended international health regulations: Implications and challenges for domestic legal frameworks

A Global Health Law Trilogy: Transformational Reforms to Strengthen Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response

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