Examining the global health arena: strengths and weaknesses of a convention approach to global health challenges.

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Academic Journal

Haffeld JB; University of Oslo and Norwegian Directorate of Health.
Siem H
Røttingen JA

The Journal of law, medicine & ethics : a journal of the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics [J Law Med Ethics] 2010 Fall; Vol. 38 (3), pp. 614-28.

English

The article comprises a conceptual framework to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a global health convention. The analyses are inspired by Lawrence Gostin's suggested Framework Convention on Global Health. The analytical model takes a starting-point in events tentatively following a logic sequence: Input (global health funding), Processes (coordination, cooperation, accountability, allocation of aid), Output (definition of basic survival needs), Outcome (access to health services), and Impact (health for all). It then examines to what degree binding international regulations can create order in such a sequence of events. We conclude that a global health convention could be an appropriate instrument to deal with some of the problems of global health. We also show that some of the tasks preceding a convention approach might be to muster international support for supra-national health regulations, negotiate compromises between existing stakeholders in the global health arena, and to utilize WHO as a platform for further discussions on a global health convention.
(© 2010 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.)