PHEIC and Global Health Governance: Do Human Rights and Sovereignty Carry Any Value?

Abstract

The emergence of COVID-19 and subsequent declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) has brought into focus the role of the international health body in global health governance. Declaration of PHEIC under the ‘International Health Regulations’ empowers the WHO Director General (DG) to make emergency recommendations for measures which may require suspension of travel, halting of movement of goods suspected of spreading the disease; isolation or quarantine of suspected cases of infection and compulsory medical examination of individuals in certain cases. The declaration of a PHEIC may also amount to a threat to international peace and security as the ‘Security Council’ has determined through its resolution 2177 in the case of the Ebola crisis. In this context, the article seeks to investigate the importance of the two principles that play a role in the governance of health during a pandemic—one is the principle of human rights of individuals since it is the fundamental principle which forms a part of a governance regime; second, the principle of sovereignty since it is the States that decide whether to impose the measures and the extent to which the measures must be imposed.