Promptly Notifying Infectious Diseases Likely to Cause Pandemics: Individual State Responsibility, Shared Collective Burden

Abstract

In the interconnected world in which we live today, a virulent disease anywhere in the world may spread globally very quickly. Hence, there is a critical international legal obligation on the World Health Organization (WHO) member states to notify WHO about the threat of infectious diseases occurring within their respective territories. This Article argues that this prompt notification obligation is justiciable. It also argues that to help all states perform this important legal obligation and uphold the right to health, there is a shared international legal responsibility of all states. There should be a global fund to assist economically vulnerable countries in bearing the brunt of the potential adverse consequences that may follow from a prompt notification to the WHO about the threat of the spread of infectious diseases. This Article posits that the WHO’s dependence on private funding has undermined its functioning as an interstate global public health body. Therefore, all WHO member states should contribute to a global fund to be managed by the WHO.

Keywords: infectious diseases, World Health Organization (WHO)