The International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) are the primary global instrument for responding to, and seeking to prevent and limit the impact of public health emergencies of international concern, including communicable diseases with pandemic potential. The International Health Regulations are legally binding on all World Health Organization (WHO) Member States, including Australia. The IHR were revised following the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Over the past decade, the world has faced a number of significant health events, including H1N1 pandemic influenza in 2009, the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the 2018 Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each of these events has tested the utility and function of the revised IHR.
In this seminar, a panel of leading experts in public health law and global health security will examine whether the International Health Regulations are meeting their goal of protecting public health, international trade, and human rights, and whether the obligations in the IHR are sufficiently robust to respond to ever more complex public health emergencies.
The speakers are:
Dr Mark Eccleston-Turner, Lecturer in Law, Keele University
Title: The WHO response to Ebola in the DRC: a critical analysis of the legal application of the International Health Regulations
Dr. Alexandra Phelan, Centre for Global Health Science and Security, Georgetown University; Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center
Title: Human Rights under the International Health Regulations in an era of nationalism: laws in Australia and the United States
Dr. Sara Davies, A/Professor in International Relations, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University
Title: The Politics of Implementing the International Health Regulations
Venue: Sydney Law School, Monday 17 June, 6.00-7.30pm.
This free event is a side-event to the first Global Health Security Conference in Sydney, Australia held from 18 – 21 June 2019.
You can register to attend this event here.
For more background on the speakers, click here.
Sydney Health Law 
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