Divergent Perspectives in Global Health Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Prah Ruger
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Global Public Good ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Actor Model ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
Global Health Policy ◽  
Self Interest

The global health governance (GHG) literature frames health variously as a matter of security and foreign policy, human rights, or global public good. Divergence among these perspectives has forestalled the development of a consensus vision for global health. Global health policy will differ according to the frame applied. Fundamentally, GHG today operates on a rational actor model, encompassing a continuum from the purely self-interest-maximizing position at one extreme to a more nuanced approach that takes others’ interests into account when making one’s own calculations. Even where humanitarian concerns are clearly and admirably at play, however, the problem of motivations remains. Often narrow self-interest is also at work, and actors obfuscate this behind altruistic motives.

The Pan American Health Organization and the Mainstreaming of Human Rights in Regional Health Governance

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 356-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Mason Meier ◽  
Ana S. Ayala
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Global Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Regional Health ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Global Health Policy ◽  
Pan American ◽  
Health Organization

In the development of a rights-based approach to global health governance, international organizations have looked to human rights under international law as a basis for public health. Operationalizing human rights law through global health policy, the World Health Organization (WHO) has faced obstacles in efforts to mainstream human rights across the WHO Secretariat. Without centralized human rights leadership in an increasingly fragmented global health policy landscape, regional health offices have sought to advance human rights in health governance and support states in realizing a rights-based approach to health. Examining the efforts of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), this article explores the evolution of human rights in PAHO policy, assesses the mainstreaming of human rights in the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (Bureau or PASB), and analyzes the future of the rights-based approach through regional health governance.

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.

Getting human rights right in global health policy

The Lancet ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 385 (9978) ◽  
pp. e42-e44 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Tasioulas ◽  
Effy Vayena
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Global Health Policy

Global Health Inequalities and Justice

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Prah Ruger
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Policy System ◽  
Global Institutions ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Global Health Policy ◽  
Health Justice ◽  
Shared Health Governance

This chapter discusses challenges of global health inequalities in the current global health policy system. It then describes provincial globalism and a shared health governance framework as approaches to these challenges. Moral philosophers have for some time argued that global poverty and associated human suffering are universal concerns and that there is a moral obligation, beyond matters of charity, for wealthier countries to do more. Being serious about addressing the problem of global health inequalities requires developing a conception of global health justice. Moreover, addressing global health inequalities requires a reexamination of the norms and principles underlying global institutions in order to offer proposals for a better global health policy. This chapter sketches analytical components of provincial globalism, a framework that takes individuals to be the moral unit in both domestic and global contexts and that improves the prospects of alleviating global health inequalities. Provincial globalism promotes the realization of individuals’ health capabilities and supports a shared health governance that enables institutions to reexamine the objectives, policy goals, and decision-making procedures of the global health architecture. Shared health governance, in turn, provides standards for regulating global and domestic institutions and practices to create the conditions for realizing individuals’ health capabilities.

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.

scholarly journals The rise of companies from emerging markets in global health governance: Opportunities and challenges

2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 897-918 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE ROEMER-MAHLER
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Pharmaceutical Treatment ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Treatment And Prevention ◽  
Global Health Policy

AbstractThe article analyses the involvement of pharmaceutical companies from emerging markets in global health governance. It finds that they play a central role as low-cost suppliers of medicines and vaccines and, increasingly, new technologies. In so doing, pharmaceutical companies from emerging markets have facilitated the implementation of a key goal of global health policy: widening access to pharmaceutical treatment and prevention. Yet, looking closer at the political economy underlying their involvement, the article exposes a tension between this policy goal and the political economy of pharmaceutical development and production. By declaring access to pharmaceuticals a goal of global health policy, governments and global health partnerships have made themselves dependent on pharmaceutical companies to supply them. Moreover, to provide pharmaceutical treatment and prevention at the global level, they depend on companies to supply medicines and vaccines at extremely low prices. Yet, the development and production of pharmaceuticals is organised around commercial incentives that are at odds with the prices required. The increasing involvement of low-cost suppliers from emerging markets mitigates this tension in the short run. In the long run, this tension endangers the sustainability of global access policies and may even undermine some of the successes already achieved.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document