Framework Convention on Global Health: Ensuring compliance

Approximately fifty-four thousand people die unnecessarily every day due to the consequences of global health inequities.  Believing that a person's health status should not be determined by where they live, a group of health activists and academics formed the Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health ("JALI"), with the stated purpose of developing a Framework Convention on Global Health ("FCGH').  A challenging facet of this initiative is how to ensure the compliance of those states which do become parties to the FCGH.  Although there currently exist international treaties espousing the inclusion of health as a human right, none of these treaties include effective enforcement mechanisms.  This presentation explores the possibility of ensuring compliance by requiring state parties to provide jurisdiction in national courts for the redress of grievances stemming from a failure of the state party to comply with its obligations under the FCGH.  This mechanism has been used with some success in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  While recognizing that nations will more readily agree to waive their sovereign immunity in the context of political and civil rights than for economic and social rights, such as health, it is argued that seeking national jurisdiction in each state party is a promising strategy in the effort to establish health as an enforceable human right.  The target audience consists of all public health professionals, with or without legal expertise, who are interested in the development of the Framework Convention for Global Health.