The World Health Organization's Governance of Public Health Emergencies of International Concerns: Implications for Travellers from a Human Rights Perspectiv

Through increasing international travel, any highly contagious pathogen could precipitate a global public health emergency, affecting the fate of millions of people, the security of states and causing severe economic repercussion. The sudden outbreak of SARS exemplified this threat. Therefore, the role of travellers is decisive upon the success of global disease containment strategies. Internationally, the World Health Organization (WHO) is entrusted with the global mandate on health governance and thus adopted a revised version of the "International Health Regulations" (IHR) in 2005, which entered into force June 2007. This legally binding document is ground-breaking because it is applicable to situations of "Public Health Emergencies of International Concern" and founded upon the premise of human rights, in particular emphasizing the rights implications of travellers.The dissertation will explore this interface of global disease containment, as envisaged in the IHR under WHO policy, and its implications for travellers from a human rights perspective. The main findings will try to balance a high level of global health security and the concerns of travellers, as re-quired according to the IHR and universal human rights law, through benchmarking the human right to health. This topic opens up an entirely new chapter in both global public health as well as universal human rights law. Therefore, it is of significance not only for experts on public international and human rights law, but also for the WHO and its Member States. Keywords Global Public Health Law; WHO Governance; International Health Regulations; Travellers and Human Rights; Human Right to Health; international organizations; international state of emergency; infectious diseases; public health emergency of international concern Hauptdisziplin Rechtswissenschaften