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Equitable Access Contracts: Building Blocks of a Future Global Vaccine Strategy

December 21, 2022

Ayelet Berman

Introduction Due to the major legal gaps revealed in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, in December 2021, WHO member states decided to establish an intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) to negotiate a new agreement on pandemic preparedness and response. On 5-7 December 2022 the INB held its third meeting, at which a conceptual zero draft (hence force, “draft pandemic treaty”) was considered. Among the innovations introduced by the draft pandemic treaty, making vaccines fairly and equally available in high income and low and middle income countries (LMICs) is a central principle (Article 4) and obligation (Chapter 3). The purpose of this note is to highlight the importance of contracts in operationalizing this principle and obligation in practice. Of particular importance are two kinds of contracts: first, funding contracts between philanthropic organizations or governments and vaccine developers (“funding contracts”), and second, voluntary intellectual property (IP) licensing and technology transfer contracts (in short, “technology transfer contracts”) between vaccine developers and manufacturers in LMICs. Developing a coherent and…

What Does the Monkeypox Outbreak Tell Us about Global Health Governance? Critical Remarks on the New WHO Declaration of Public Health Emergency of International Concern

August 10, 2022

Donato Greco

On 23 July 2022, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) declared that the outbreak of monkeypox constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (“PHEIC”). Under Art. 1 of the 2005 International Health Regulations (“IHRs”), a PHEIC means “an extraordinary event which is determined […] (i) to…

The far-reaching US proposals to amend the International Health Regulations at the upcoming 75th World Health Assembly: A call for attention

May 18, 2022

Dr Silvia Behrendt

Dr Amrei Müller

The upcoming 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) to be held in Geneva from 22-28th May 2022 will potentially adopt far-reaching amendments to the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR). The IHR is currently the most important multilateral treaty regulating the global architecture for health emergency, preparedness, response and resilience (HEPR…

Inadequate State Response to Protect Life and Health in Times of COVID-19 as a Violation of Human Rights Obligations – the Example of Poland

February 7, 2022

Julia Kapelańska-Pręgowska

While the fourth wave of COVID-19 pandemics flows over Europe and other continents, States undertake different steps and measures aimed at minimizing the spread of the virus. Many countries and regions introduced the requirement of COVID certificates/passes, while some plan to implement mandatory vaccinations at least for certain occupations. These measures have spurred discussions of…

Covid Passes and Non-Discrimination

December 14, 2021

Marko Milanovic

Today the British Parliament will decide on whether England will follow other parts of the UK – and many other states – in requiring the use of Covid passes (passports, certificates) to access certain public venues and services. Public debates surrounding the introduction of such passes frequently turn on their real or supposed discriminatory effects. It is black…

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Taking China to the International Court of Justice over COVID-19

April 2, 2020

Peter Tzeng

Scholars have claimed that China’s conduct with respect to COVID-19 (and the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2) violated the International Health Regulations, in particular the obligations of timely notification and information-sharing in Articles 6 and 7 (see, for example, here and here). Had China…

Derogating to Deal with Covid 19: State Practice and Thoughts on the Need for Notification

April 10, 2020

Natasha Holcroft-Emmess

In her blog post on EJIL: Talk! (9 April 2020), Dr Stevie Martin drew attention to an interesting development concerning States' measures to deal with Covid 19 and their impact on human rights. She discusses a decision of the England and Wales Court of Protection in which a judge appeared to find that the UK was…

Do the containment measures taken by Italy in relation to COVID-19 comply with human rights law?

March 16, 2020

Alessandra Spadaro

Italians, like the citizens of other democratic countries in times of peace, have learned to take for granted certain civil liberties and freedoms, such as the freedom of movement and assembly. It suddenly became evident to them that the enjoyment of these rights can be limited as the country has now been put on lockdown by the government,…

Is the National Security Exception in the TRIPS Agreement a Realistic Option in Confronting COVID-19?

August 6, 2020

Emmanuel Kolawole Oke

It has been suggested by some scholars and commentators that states can invoke the national security exception in the TRIPS Agreement as part of measures to tackle COVID-19 (see here, here, and here). This would entail invoking the security exception to suspend the enforcement of patent rights in order to facilitate either the importation or…