scholarly journals Strengthening Human Rights in Global Health Law: Lessons from the COVID-19 Response

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-331
Author(s):  
Judith Bueno de Mesquita ◽  
Anuj Kapilashrami ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
International Human

AbstractWhile human rights law has evolved to provide guidance to governments in realizing human rights in public health emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the foundations of human rights in global health governance. Public health responses to the pandemic have undermined international human rights obligations to realize (1) the rights to health and life, (2) human rights that underlie public health, and (3) international assistance and cooperation. As governments prepare for revisions of global health law, new opportunities are presented to harmonize global health law and human rights law, strengthening rights-based governance to respond to future threats.

Framing Human Rights in Global Health Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mason Meier ◽  
Lawrence O. Gostin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Law ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Governance Institutions

This chapter frames the implementation of human rights law through global health governance. Global governance institutions have sought to translate human rights into public policy, shifting from the development of health-related rights under international law to the implementation of these normative standards in global policies, programs, and practices. This shift toward an “era of implementation” across an expanding global health governance landscape looks beyond the traditional “human rights system” in implementing human rights for global health. Analyzing human rights as part of global health law, this chapter examines how human rights have become a framework for global governance, with institutions of global health governance seeking to “mainstream” human rights across all organizational actions. This chapter concludes that there is a need for institutional analysis to compare organizational approaches conducive to the implementation of health-related human rights.

Human Rights in Global Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Organizational Policies ◽  
Governmental Organizations

Institutions matter for the advancement of human rights in global health. Given the dramatic development of human rights under international law and the parallel proliferation of global institutions for public health, there arises an imperative to understand the implementation of human rights through global health governance. This volume examines the evolving relationship between human rights, global governance, and public health, studying an expansive set of health challenges through a multi-sectoral array of global organizations. To analyze the structural determinants of rights-based governance, the organizations in this volume include those international bureaucracies that implement human rights in ways that influence public health in a globalizing world. Bringing together leading health and human rights scholars and practitioners from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the United Nations system, this volume explores: (1) the foundations of human rights as a normative framework for global health governance, (2) the mandate of the World Health Organization to pursue a human rights-based approach to health, (3) the role of inter-governmental organizations across a range of health-related human rights, (4) the influence of rights-based economic governance on public health, and (5) the focus on global health among institutions of human rights governance. Contributing chapters map the distinct human rights activities within a specific institution of global governance for health. Through the comparative institutional analysis in this volume, the contributing authors examine institutional efforts to operationalize human rights in organizational policies, programs, and practices and assess institutional factors that facilitate or inhibit human rights mainstreaming for global health advancement.

The Proliferation of Human Rights in Global Health Governance

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lance Gable
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multiple Levels

As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, threats to global public health continue to proliferate. New and novel risks to health have emerged consistently over the past 30 years. Moreover, our shrinking world now allows health threats to spread more quickly than ever before. Given these realities, efforts to protect and improve global health must be expansive, flexible, and able to take into account the variety of circumstances that may imperil good health. These efforts also must consider the multiple levels and varying contexts in which laws, policies, and other factors govern global health and affect health outcomes.

s.Two Implementation and Accountability, 7 Monitoring and Review to Assess Human Rights Implementation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meier Benjamin Mason ◽  
Huffstetler Hanna ◽  
Bueno de Mesquita Judith
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Public Health Data ◽  
Health Related ◽  
International Human ◽  
Public Health Promotion ◽  
National Practice

This chapter analyzes the fundamental importance of monitoring and review procedures to assess the implementation of human rights to advance public health. Recognizing monitoring and review as central to human rights accountability, the evolving functions of human rights monitoring highlight the range of national, regional, and international review mechanisms that provide oversight to support the realization of health-related human rights. While these mechanisms often do not have judicial powers—their recommendations are advisory rather than legally binding—the interpretive role entrusted to these review procedures has endowed their health-related recommendations with legitimacy in clarifying human rights treaty provisions and reviewing state efforts to meet treaty obligations. Assessing the implementation of international human rights law through national practice, monitoring institutions can facilitate human rights accountability for public health promotion and operationalize public health data to press governments to implement rights.

scholarly journals LIMITATION OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19: FROM PUBLIC HEALTH REGULATIONS TO DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-95
Author(s):  
Hanif Nur Widhiyanti ◽  
Anak Agung Ayu Nanda Saraswati
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
International Human ◽  
Health Regulations

A number of regulations and policies implemented by some countries regarding the limitations of freedom to manifest religion or belief have been highly debated since the Covid-19 pandemic. Many argue such policies are discriminative and inconsistent with human rights law. Thus, this paper aims at analyzing the concept of human rights in the implementation of religion manifestation during the pandemic, and investigating how states implement policies according to the international human rights legal framework. This normative research which uses comparative and conceptual approach concludes that policies established by states in general can be legitimized on several conditions, among others for public health concerns. In addition, the proportionality and the non-discrimination principles need to be applied accordingly.

Monitoring and Review to Assess Human Rights Implementation

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-176
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mason Meier ◽  
Hanna Huffstetler ◽  
Judith Bueno de Mesquita
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Public Health Data ◽  
Health Related ◽  
International Human ◽  
Public Health Promotion ◽  
National Practice

This chapter analyzes the fundamental importance of monitoring and review procedures to assess the implementation of human rights to advance public health. Recognizing monitoring and review as central to human rights accountability, the evolving functions of human rights monitoring highlight the range of national, regional, and international review mechanisms that provide oversight to support the realization of health-related human rights. While these mechanisms often do not have judicial powers—their recommendations are advisory rather than legally binding—the interpretive role entrusted to these review procedures has endowed their health-related recommendations with legitimacy in clarifying human rights treaty provisions and reviewing state efforts to meet treaty obligations. Assessing the implementation of international human rights law through national practice, monitoring institutions can facilitate human rights accountability for public health promotion and operationalize public health data to press governments to implement rights.

scholarly journals Crisis Without Borders: What Does International Law Say About Border Closure in the Context of Covid-19?

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Chetail
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
International Human

This paper is assessing the legality of border closures decided by a vast number of countries with the view of limiting the spread of Covid-19. Although this issue has raised diverging interpretations in relation to International Health Regulations and regional free movement agreements, international human rights law provides a clear-cut answer: the rule of law stops neither at the border nor in times of emergency. Against this normative framework, border control can and must be carried out with the twofold purpose of protecting public health and individual rights, whereas border closure is unable to do so because it is by essence a collective and automatic denial of admission without any other form of process. This paper argues that blanket entry bans on the ground of public health are illegal under international human rights law. They cannot be reconciled with the most basic rights of migrants and refugees, including the principle of non-refoulement and access to asylum procedures, the prohibition of collective expulsion, the best interests of the child and the principle of non-discrimination. The paper concludes on the ways to better integrate at the borders public health and human rights imperatives in due respect with the rule of law. In both law and practice, public health and migrant's rights are not mutually exclusive. They can reinforce each other within a comprehensive human rights based approach to health and migration policies.

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