Implementation of the International Health Regulations: Evolving Reforms to Address Historical Limitations

Abstract

This chapter examines the evolving implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) in responding to public health emergencies. Analyzing implementation obligations under global health law, Part II outlines the national and global governance expectations inherent in the IHR. Part III chronicles the evolving implementation of the IHR in responding to infectious disease threats since the establishment of WHO, with early efforts seen as largely ineffective in speaking to the emerging disease threats of a globalizing world. Drawing from the sweeping changes in implementation expectations promulgated by IHR (2005), Part IV examines the implications of the revised IHR in responding to a rapid succession of public health emergencies of international concern. Yet despite continuing advancements in IHR (2005) implementation over fifteen years, the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the world, and Part V examines the limitations of the IHR in responding to this cataclysmic threat, raising an imperative for further reforms of global health law. As the world considers IHR revisions anew, with these revisions taking place amid an interconnected series of multisectoral reforms in global health law and governance, this chapter concludes that past limitations point the way forward in revising institutional mechanisms, ensuring IHR implementation as a foundation for global health security under global health law.

Note:
Funding Information: None to declare.

Conflict of Interests: None to declare.

Keywords: International Health Regulations, World Health Organization, COVID-19