Global Health Law and Pandemics : From COVID-19 to the Pandemic Treaty?

What would a pandemic treaty look like? This contribution will point to the concern that the current discussion of a “pandemic treaty“ aiming at better solutions to “health emergencies“ seems set on the current course which prioritizes certain kind of diseases as ones that international law should be concerned with. Will the proposed pandemic treaty replicate the focus on “health emergencies“ in the IHR and the global health security paradigm? This may continue the biases affecting the decision as to what is a health emergency, and whose security is included in “global health security“, especially given the paucity of norms touching on endemic and non-communicable diseases as well as on the underlying determinants of health. The current focus on duties surrounding new and emerging pandemics draws attention, resources, and efforts to diseases which are considered “PHEIC“. (Not including endemic diseases and non-communicable diseases). Can the pandemic treaty transcend this bias?

This presentation will address some of the open legal challenges for prompt and reliable global disease surveillance. Taking lessons learned before and during the COVID-19 pandemic into account, the unfulfilled dreams of depoliticizing epidemiological data-sharing through binding international law rules will be critically examined

The talk will critically examine two tropes prevalent during the pandemic and suggest that these framings both serve and cloak specific political interests. These include a simplistic dichotomy between ‘nationalism‘ and ‘multilateralism‘ and the alleged harmonization of global health law and international human rights law in the IHR revision of 2005.

Access to vaccines in low and middle-income countries is emerging as the COVID-19 pandemic‘s singular human rights and equity challenge. At the heart of these disparities lies a tangled web of international law regimes that significantly shape state responses to this crisis: from the WHO‘s International Health Regulations which governs pandemic responses - to the World Trade Organization‘s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights which governs pharmaceutical patents, to international human rights treaties which govern human rights to life, health and non-discrimination. There is limited interaction between these regimes and limited recognition of the pressing human rights concerns at stake. This presentation proposes to critically examine the application of the principle of systemic integration under international law through the real-world global vaccine inequity crisis, and consider its utility to the interpretation and reform of key regimes.