Toward a More Effective, Equitable Pandemic Response

October 16, 2023

Event Description
If the COVID-19 pandemic was a stress test for multilateral cooperation, the world failed both in relation to intellectual property regimes and economic solidarity. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed serious weaknesses in the framework of global governance for health, as well as in the normative standards relating to public health emergencies. The International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005), which govern WHO member states’ responses, were largely marginalized, and the limitations of the IHR came into sharp focus as states adopted different responses and had very unequal access to countermeasures.

Today, there are now two parallel processes for developing a pandemic accord: through an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) and through revisions to the IHR. This panel event will set out the context of these two related, but distinct, processes. A moderated discussion will follow, in which speakers will critically analyze the prospects for arriving at agreements that are effective and equitable in preventing and responding to future public health emergencies.

Panelists
Welcome: Susannah Baruch, Petrie Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard University
Introduction and Moderation: Alicia Ely Yamin, Lecturer on Law and the Senior Fellow on Global Health and Rights, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School; Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Health Policy, Partners In Health
Gian Luca Burci, Adjunct Professor of International Law, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva) and former Legal Counsel, World Health Organization
Adam Kamradt-Scott, Dr. Jiang Yanyong Visiting Professor of Global Health Security, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Anne Moller, Program Manager, Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Partners In Health

Sponsored by the Global Health and Rights Project (GHRP) at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.