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Nonbinding Legal Instruments in Governance for Global Health: Lessons from the Global AIDS Reporting Mechanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Allyn Taylor ,
Tobias Alfvén ,
Daniel Hougendobler  and
Kent Buse
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Extract

In recent debates surrounding World Health Organization (WHO) reform, international lawmaking has received unprecedented attention as a future priority function of the Organization. Although WHO's constitutional lawmaking authority was historically neglected and even resisted by WHO and its Member States until the adoption of its first treaty a decade ago, the widespread consensus in favor of a central role for lawmaking in visions of a reformed WHO reflects the crystallization of contemporary approaches to global health governance. Today it is widely recognized that the trends toward globalization that have restricted the capacity of sovereign states to protect health through unilateral action alone have made innovative mechanisms to promote global cooperation and coordination, including international lawmaking, an essential component of governance of public health.

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Independent
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , Spring 2014 , pp. 72 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2014

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