EJIL Analysis

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“We’re In This for the Long Haul”: The End of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern Due to COVID-19

May 8, 2023

Last Friday, 5 May 2023, acting upon advice from an Emergency Committee, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared under Article 12 of the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005 that the spread of COVID-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). The emergency had been active since 30 January 2020. While a duration of three years leads to wonder whether this stretches the understanding of “emergency”, it has actually not been the longest-lasting PHEIC since the IHR (2005)’s entry into force. Instead, the PHEIC due to the risk of re-emergence and spread of wild poliovirus is now entering its ninth year, having been first declared on 5 May 2014. No longer being a PHEIC does not mean COVID-19 is not a pressing problem anymore. The WHO Director-General has emphasized the need for implementing sustainable long-term public health strategies. Gaps in vaccination rates across multiple countries continue to pose a risk of severe infections. Considerable uncertainties remain related…

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Two Weeks in Review, 24 April – 7 May 2023

May 7, 2023

Marko Milanovic offers a summary of the Amicus Curiae brief he co-authored with Sangeeta Shah submitted recently to the ECtHR. The brief, regarding the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia, deals solely with the downing of the MH17 plane. The authors examine the outstanding jurisdiction issues that were not dealt with in…

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South Korea’s Plan to Compensate Victims of Forced Labour Employed in Japanese Factories During Colonial Rule: A Step Forward for Peaceful Relations, but not for Victims’ Rights

May 5, 2023

On 6 March 2023, the Republic of Korea, in the person of the Minister for Foreign Affairs Park Jin, announced a plan for South Korea to compensate South Korean citizens who were forced to work in Japanese factories under Tokyo’s thirty-five-year occupation of the Korean peninsula. The plan is an attempt to settle the long-standing dispute between South…

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Amicus Curiae Brief in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia

April 29, 2023

The European Court of Human Rights recently joined two major interstate cases pending before it – the interstate case filed by Ukraine and the Netherlands against Russia that concerned the downing of the MH17 airliner and events in Eastern Ukraine in 2014, which it declared admissible in January, with the new interstate application filed by Ukraine…

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Two Weeks in Review, 10 April – 23 April 2023

April 23, 2023

Katie Johnston explores the Good Friday Agreement in the context of International Treaty Law. Johnston analyses the potential implications of the hybrid nature of the multi-party agreement of 1998 and relevant subsequent practice under the British Irish Agreement of 1999. In particular, the relationship between the multi-party agreement and the obligations…

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