Increasing Compliance With International Pandemic Law: International Relations and New Global Health Agreements
2023
This article from the Lancet focuses on the reasons why states comply with international pandemic law and the mechanisms global agreements can use to encourage and enforce compliance. The authors note how failure to comply with policies under the International Health Regulations (IHR) increases pandemic risk and contributed to COVID-19 outbreak becoming a global health emergency. The article identifies five main reasons why states comply with international law: maintaining a positive reputation, encouraging reciprocal commitments, fear of sanctions or political punishment for non-compliance, cultures of following legalized agreements, and accountability to constituents and social movements. The article also identifies three categories of compliance mechanisms and provides recommendations for specific mechanisms that could be incorporated into new international pandemic treaties and revisions to the IHR.
Source:
Kavanagh MM et al. Increasing Compliance With International Pandemic Law: International Relations and New Global Health Agreements. The Lancet 2023; 402(10407): 1097-1106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01527-1.