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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2021

Judith Bueno de Mesquita ,
Anuj Kapilashrami  and
Benjamin Mason Meier
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Abstract

While 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.

Keywords

Human RightsGlobal HealthCOVID-19World Health OrganizationUnited Nations
Type
Columns: Global Health Law
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 49 , Issue 2: Race and Ethnicity in 21st Century Health Care , Summer 2021 , pp. 328 - 331
Copyright
© 2021 The Author(s)

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Footnotes

About This Column

Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier serve as the section editors for Global Health Law. Professor Gostin is University Professor at Georgetown University and the Founding Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center and Director of the World Health Organization Center on National and Global Health Law. Professor Meier is a Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. This column features timely analyses and perspectives on law, policy, and justice in global health.

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