Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-qdpjg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-17T00:53:36.591Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The New International Health Regulations: An Historic Development for International Law and Public Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

David P. Fidler  and
Lawrence O. Gostin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the new International Health Regulations (IHR) on May 23, 2005. The new IHR represent the culmination of a decade-long revision process and an historic development for international law and public health. The new IHR appear at a moment when public health, security, and democracy have become intertwined, addressed at the highest levels of government. The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, for example, identified IHR revision as a priority for moving humanity toward “larger freedom.” This article analyzes the new IHR and their implications for global health and security in the 21st century.

The WHA instructed the WHO Director-General (DG) to revise the IHR in 1995 because the Regulations did not provide an effective framework for addressing the international spread of disease. Doubts about the IHR's effectiveness had, however, been present long before 1995. The critiques identified the narrow scope of the regulations (applying only to a small number of infectious diseases), the lack of compliance by states, and the absence of a strategy for responding to rapid changes in public health's global economic and technological environments.

Type
Independent
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , Spring 2006 , pp. 85 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

World Health Assembly, Revision of the International Health Regulations, WHA58.3 (May 23, 2005).Google Scholar
UN Secretary-General, In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security, and Human Rights for All: Report of the Secretary-General, A/59/2005 (March 21, 2005).Google Scholar
World Health Assembly, Revision and Updating of the International Health Regulations, WHA48.7 (May 12, 1995).Google Scholar
Dorelle, P., “Old Plagues in the Jet Age: International Aspects of Present and Future Control of Communicable Diseases,” Chronicle of the World Health Organization 23 (1969): 103–111; Roelsgaard, E., “Health Regulations and International Travel,” Chronicle of the World Health Organization 28 (1974): 265–268; Velimirovic, B., “Do We Still Need International Health Regulations?” Journal of Infectious Diseases 133 (1976): 478–482.Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Provisional Draft of the International Health Regulations (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, January 1998).Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS): Status of the Outbreak and Lessons for the Immediate Future (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2003).Google Scholar
World Health Assembly, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), WHA56.29 (May 28, 2003); World Health Assembly, Revision of the International Health Regulations, WHA56.28 (May 28, 2003).Google Scholar
World Health Organization, International Health Regulations: Working Paper for Regional Consultations, IGWG/IHR/Working paper/12.2003 (January 12, 2004); Gostin, L. O., “International Infectious Disease Law: Revision of the World Health Organization's International Health Regulations,” JAMA 291 (2004): 2623–2627.Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Review and Approval of Proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations: Draft Revision, A/IHR/IGWG/3 (September 30, 2004).Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Review and Approval of Proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations: Proposal by the Chair, A/IHR/IGWG/2/2 (January 24, 2005).Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Revision of the International Health Regulations: Note by the Secretariat, A58/4 (May 16, 2005).Google Scholar
World Health Organization and World Trade Organization, WTO Agreements & Public Health: A Joint Study by the WHO and the WTO Secretariat (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2002).Google Scholar
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, United Nations Treaty Series 171 (December 19, 1966): 999.Google Scholar
UN Economic and Social Council, UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Siracusa Principles on the Limitation and Derogation of Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1985/4, Annex, 1985.Google Scholar
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, United Nations Treaty Series 331 (May 23, 1969): 1155.Google Scholar
World Health Organization, The 3 by 5 Initiative, available at <http://www.who.int/3by5/en/> (last visited December 12, 2005).+(last+visited+December+12,+2005).>Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Achievement of Health-Related Millennium Development Goals: Report by the Secretariat, A58/5 (May 13, 2005).Google Scholar
Fidler, D. P., International Law and Infectious Diseases (Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1999).Google Scholar
World Health Organization, The International Response to Epidemics and Applications of the International Health Regulations: Report of a WHO Informal Consultation, WHO/EMC/IHR/96.1 (December 11–14, 1995).Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Global Defense Against the Infectious Disease Threat (Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 2002).Google Scholar
Fidler, D. P., SARS, Governance, and the Globalization of Disease (Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).Google Scholar
Statement for the Record by the Government of the United States of America Concerning the World Health Organization's Revised International Health Regulations, May 23, 2005. Press Release, U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, at <http://www.us-mission.ch/Press2005/0523IHRs.htm> (last visited January 9, 2006). (last visited January 9, 2006).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Statement+for+the+Record+by+the+Government+of+the+United+States+of+America+Concerning+the+World+Health+Organization's+Revised+International+Health+Regulations,+May+23,+2005.+Press+Release,+U.S.+Mission+to+the+United+Nations+in+Geneva,+at++(last+visited+January+9,+2006).>Google Scholar
Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency, September 26, 1986, 1457 United Nations Treaty Series 133; Convention on Nuclear Safety, July 5, 1994, 1963 United Nations Treaty Series 317.Google Scholar
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, April 15, 1994, in World Trade Organization, The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 424–492; Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, April 15, 1994, in World Trade Organization, The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 59–72.Google Scholar
World Health Organization, Review and Approval of Proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations: Relations with Other International Instruments. A/IHR/IGWG/INF. DOC./1 (September 30, 2004).Google Scholar
Pearson, G. S., The UN Secretary-General's High Level Panel: Biological Weapons Related Issues (Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention, Review Conference Paper No. 14) (May 2005).Google Scholar
Supra note 22.Google Scholar
UN Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility (New York, New York: United Nations, 2004).Google Scholar
Supra, note 2.Google Scholar
Rickards, J., “Taiwan-WHO Ties Improving, Officials Say,” China Post, May 26, 2005 available at <http://www.chinapost.com.tw/archive/detail.asp?cat=1&id=62934> (last visited January 9, 2006).+(last+visited+January+9,+2006).>Google Scholar
Yen, X., “Taiwan's WHO Bid Has No Legal Basis,” China Daily, May 31, 2005, at 4.Google Scholar
See UN Secretary-General, Press Release, World Health Assembly's Revised Regulations “Bold and Necessary Step” to Protect Global Public Health, Says Secretary-General (May 23, 2005) SG/SM/9886, SAG/365.Google Scholar
World Health Assembly, International Migration of Health Personnel: A Challenge for Health Systems in Developing Countries, WHA58.17 (May 25, 2005).Google Scholar