No Future but a Shared Future

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fractured and inadequate state of national and global health law and institutions, revealing deeply embedded inequalities. In response to a World Health Assembly resolution proposing a special session to consider the benefits of developing a WHO convention or other international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response, the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) convened 30 of the world’s leading authorities on global health law, financing, biomedical science, implementation, and emergency response along with leaders from prominent international organizations deeply engaged in responding to the pandemic. This meeting was followed by regional consultations convened in Africa, Latin America-Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. The O’Neill Institute/FNIH also held a consultation with civil society representatives. This article is a concise, edited excerpt of the report of those meetings, outlining the options for such an international instrument.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Health Law and Policy, Global Health, Pandemic Treaty, World Health Organization, International Health Regulations