Publications /
Policy Paper

Back
Download PDF
A Role for International Law in Containing COVID-19: The Right to Health
Authors
Matsumoto Shoji
September 16, 2022
Related topics: 
International Relations
Society
International Law
Health

From the perspective of international human rights law, the right to health is important with respect to the international COVAX vaccine-supply scheme. Although many States with sufficient resources have prioritized access to future vaccines through bilateral agreements with vaccine manufacturing companies over multilateral cooperation between States, it is almost universally believed that only multilateralism would enable the eventual eradication of COVID-19 from the world.

There are two kinds of legal grounds for the right to health in international law from which legal obligations emanate, even if COVAX itself is not legally binding. One is the framework of international human rights law in general, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Another legal ground is the immediate obligations prescribed in the ICESCR.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Download PDF
    A Role for International Law in Containing COVID-19: The Right to Health
    Authors
    Matsumoto Shoji
    September 16, 2022
    From the perspective of international human rights law, the right to health is important with respect to the international COVAX vaccine-supply scheme. Although many States with sufficient resources have prioritized access to future vaccines through bilateral agreements with vaccine manufacturing companies over multilateral cooperation between States, it is almost universally believed that only multilateralism would enable the eventual eradication of COVID-19 from the world. There ...
  • Atlantic Currents Podcast : Abdelhak Bassou et l’Afrique des fossés
    April 25, 2022
    Retrouvez en exclusivité l’interview de Abdelhak Bassou, Senior Fellow au Policy Center for the New South, qui se livre à Helmut Sorge, Columnist au Policy Center for the New South, au sujet des multi-disparités présentes en Afrique. Abdelhak Bassou est l’auteur du Chapitre 5 du rapport...
  • Download PDF
    India–East Africa A Not So Healthy Relationship?
    Authors
    Isabelle Saint-Mézard
    Françoise Nicolas
    March 7, 2022
    Due to historical as well as geographical reasons, India and East Africa have long been close partners. In the recent period however, and even more so since the early 2000s, these ties have tightened as a result of combined efforts by the government of India and its business community. The presence of communities of Indian origin in several East African countries has also acted as a catalyst. East Africa is perceived as a valuable partner both by Indian authorities and by Indian pr ...
  • ATLANTIC CURRENTS 8th Edition : The Wider Atlantic in a Challenging Recovery
    Authors
    Abdelhak Bassou
    Afaf Zarkik
    Ahmed Ouhnini
    Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo
    Bernardo Sorj
    Frannie Léautier
    Iskander Erzini Vernoit
    Karim El Aynaoui
    Kassie Freeman
    Larabi Jaïdi
    Mohammed Loulichki
    Nathalie Delapalme
    Nouzha Chekrouni
    Otaviano Canuto
    Oumnia Boutaleb
    Oussama Tayebi
    J. Peter Pham
    Rim Berahab
    Uri Dadush
    March 7, 2022
    The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the global economy and has challenged the best minds to rethink how to design and implement an effective recovery. Countries in the wider Atlantic region have exhibited differential trajectories in traversing the pandemic. A number of countries in Europe succeeded in vaccinating most of their eligible populations, enabling life to return somewhat to normal. A smaller group of countries in Europe could manage infection rates even more ti ...
  • UA-UE : production délocalisée de vaccins en Afrique, sans levée des brevets
    Authors
    Sabine Cessou
    February 25, 2022
    Première grande annonce du 6e sommet entre l’Union européenne (UE) et l’Union africaine (UA) qui s’est tenu à Bruxelles les 17 et 18 février : six pays, l'Afrique du Sud, l'Égypte, le Kenya, le Nigeria, le Sénégal et la Tunisie, ont été sélectionnés par l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) – et non par l’UA, ni par l’UE - pour lancer la production de vaccins en Afrique. L’objectif consiste à faire face au coronavirus, mais aussi à d'autres maladies telles que le paludisme (av ...
  • I am the last and only dictator of Europe
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    February 3, 2022
    His message was one of reassurance, just as a great leader has to react in a crisis. The concerns about Covid 19 was nothing but “a frenzy and psychosis”. The President knew the secret to defeat the virus: vodka, sauna, tractor. Didn’t a US president named Donald Trump suggest  that toilet cleaning disinfectants chase the virus out of infected lungs on national television? (New York Times, April 24, 2020) That was Trump-speak, sure, but the man who uttered the tractor/vodka/nonsense ...
  • Download PDF
    Covid-19 and the Fiscal Space of Developing Countries
    Authors
    Hinh T. Dinh
    December 6, 2021
    Between January 2020 and June 2021, the world spent about US $16.5 trillion (18% of world GDP) to fight COVID-19, and this amount does not even include the most important losses such as deaths, mental health effects, restrictions on human freedom, and other nonmonetary suffering. Nearly 90% of this amount was spent by developed economies; the rest by emerging market and developing economies. Low-income countries spent just US $12.5 billion, or less than 0.0001% of the total. Moreove ...
  • Download PDF
    COVID-19 and Digital Repression in Africa
    Authors
    Hisham Aidi
    October 11, 2021
    The current global pattern of democratic retrenchment has multiple causes, including economic inequality, American imperial overreach, and increased migration, all of which have led to disillusionment with democratic systems, and inspired a populist demand for populist leaders. This populist wave has also led to the personalization of political regimes, democratic and authoritarian, with power highly concentrated in the hands of a single individual, as seen in Turkey, Philippines, P ...
  • As Reliable as Kalashnikovs
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    Helmut Sorge
    September 13, 2021
    When Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez tested positive for COVID-19 on his 62nd birthday, April 2, 2021 it might not have seemed unusual when there have been almost 200 million cases worldwide. But the leader of Argentina received two doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, on January and in February 2021, a virus terminator advertised by Moscow as potent like almost no other on the globe, with an efficiency rate given by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute at 96.1%. The risk of infec ...