Lawmaking at the WHO: amendments to the international health regulations and a new pandemic treaty after COVID-19

Two concurrent lawmaking processes are currently underway at the World Health Organization (WHO) that could lead to a new pandemic treaty and to amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005. However, two major questions must first be addressed. Firstly, how can global health equity be fostered in the future worldwide distribution of medical supplies during a pandemic? And secondly, how can incentives be put in place so that information on disease outbreaks is exchanged more rapidly and transparently? (author's abstract

Global health governance and geopolitics: how Germany can contribute to a new global health architecture after Covid-19 amid growing geopolitical tensions

The development of a new global health architecture in the wake of Covid-19 will require important decisions to be made, especially when it comes to negotiating a pandemic accord and creating robust supply chains. Against the backdrop of their systemic rivalry, the US and China view global health policy as a field of geopolitical competition. This jeopardises the implementation of lessons learned from the Covid‑19 pandemic, not to mention global health in general. The question for Germany is to what extent it needs to adapt its multilateral approach to global health in order to respond to increasing geopolitical tensions. To this end, Germany should develop independent leverage to shape global health policy while also being a reliable, multi­lateral partner to all countries willing to improve in this field. (author's abstract

"One Health" and global health governance: design and implementation at the international, European, and German levels

The "One Health" approach has found its way into political processes at various levels. The reason for this is the increased occurrence of zoonoses, i.e. infectious diseases that can be reciprocally transmitted between animals and humans. One Health is located at the intersection of human, animal, and ecosystem health on the one hand and calls for trans-sectoral solutions on the other. Numerous substantive issues beleaguer the practical design of the One Health approach as well as its implementation by the World Health Organization (WHO), regional institutions, and states. One Health is currently being addressed in three contexts in particular: in the negotiations on the pandemic treaty, in the EU's Global Health Strategy, and in the German government’s strategy on global health. (author's abstract

The Governance of Disease Outbreaks

This edited volume is directed at experts in international law, practitioners in international institutions, and other experts who would like to familiarize themselves with the legal framework of infectious disease governance. Using the West African Ebola crisis as a case study, this book is part of a larger collaborative project on international health governance. Project partners are the Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft e.V. - Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (MPIL). The authors explain the context and substantive legal framework of the Ebola crisis, while also highlighting its human rights aspects, institutional law (such as the debate on the securitization of health), and the limits to a purely legal approach to the subject. The authors are experts in public international law, public health, political science, and anthropology. With contributions by: Elif Askin, Susan L. Erikson, André den Exter, Robert Frau, Wolfgang Hein, Bonnie Kaiser, Hunter Keys, Michael Marx, Edefe Ojomo, Ilja Richard Pavone, Mateja Steinbrück Platise, Christian R. Thauer, Leonie Vierck, Pedro A. Villarreal, A. Katarina Weilert. Der Sammelband richtet sich an ein Fachpublikum von Völkerrechtlern, Praktikern in internationalen Institutionen und anderen Experten, die sich mit den rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen der internationalen Governance ansteckender Krankheiten vertraut machen möchten. Fallbeispiel ist die Ebola-Krise in Westafrika. Der Band geht aus einem breiter angelegten Heidelberger Kooperationsprojekt zur „International Health Governance“ der Forschungsstätte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft e.V. - Institut für interdisziplinäre Forschung (FEST) und des Max-Planck-Instituts für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (MPIL) hervor. Die Autoren beleuchten Kontext und materiellen Rechtsrahmen des Themas, auch unter Hervorhebung menschenrechtlicher Bezüge, institutionelles Recht („Gesundheit als Sicherheitsrisiko?“) sowie die Grenzen eines genuin rechtlichen Ansatzes. Die Autoren sind den Disziplinen Völkerrecht, Public Health, Politikwissenschaften und Anthropologie zuzuordnen. Mit Beiträgen von: Elif Askin, Susan L. Erikson, André den Exter, Robert Frau, Wolfgang Hein, Bonnie Kaiser, Hunter Keys, Michael Marx, Edefe Ojomo, Ilja Richard Pavone, Mateja Steinbrück Platise, Christian R. Thauer, Leonie Vierck, Pedro A. Villarreal, A. Katarina Weilert

WHO-Initiativen: reformierte internationale Gesundheitsvorschriften und ein Pandemievertrag; Nach Covid-19: Synergien zwischen beiden Handlungssträngen nutzen

In der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) liegen derzeit zwei wichtige Vorhaben an, die zu einem neuen Pandemievertrag und einer Reform der Internationalen Gesundheitsvorschriften von 2005 führen können. Mindestens zwei große Herausforderungen stehen dabei im Vordergrund: Wie kann bei der künftigen weltweiten Verteilung medizinischer Güter im Krisenfall eine globale Gesundheitsgerechtigkeit ("Equity") hergestellt werden? Wie können die Anreize erhöht werden, damit Informationen über Krankheitsausbrüche künftig rascher und transparenter ausgetauscht werden? Es ist durchaus möglich, Synergien zu erzeugen, um die beiden Herausforderungen effektiver anzugehen. (Autorenreferat

International Law and Digital Disease Surveillance in Pandemics: On the Margins of Regulation

The COVID-19 pandemic elicited a surge in the use of digital tools to replace “classic” manual disease tracking and contact tracing across individuals. The main technical reason is based on the disease surveillance needs imposed by the magnitude of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus since 2020, particularly how these needs overwhelmed governments around the world. Such developments led to stark variations across countries in terms of legal approaches towards the use of digital tools, including self-reporting software and mobile phone apps, for both disease tracking and contact tracing. Against this backdrop, in this article I highlight some of the normative challenges posed by the digitalization of disease surveillance, underscoring its almost non-existent regulation under international law. I look back at the historical emergence of the epidemiological principles underlying this procedure, by referring to John Snow’s trailblazing work in cholera control. I emphasize how the COVID-19 pandemic prompted both technical and normative shifts related to the digitalization of these procedures. Furthermore, I refer to some of the overarching obstacles for deploying international law to tackle future tensions between the public health rationale for digitalized disease tracking and contact tracing, on the one hand, and normative concerns directly related to their legality, on the other hand. Lastly, I put forward conclusions in light of the current juncture of international health law reforms, and how they so far display limited potential to herald structural changes concerning the legality of the use of digital tools in disease surveillance

Exploring new interregional opportunities for pharmaceutical supply chains: the potential of Mercosur countries to advance the EU's Global Health Strategy

The European Union's (EU) Global Health Strategy calls for open and strategic autonomy in the field of pharmaceuticals, which would lead to the redesign of EU global supply and value chains as well as trade relations. As the EU and Germany are seeking to diversify their trade partners, the Mercosur countries offer latent potential. Mercosur is the name of the South American trade bloc consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Para­guay and Uruguay, with Venezuela's membership currently suspended. The associate states of the bloc are Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname. Bolivia is currently awaiting final approval to become a full member of the bloc. (author's abstract