Public health instruments have been under constant development and renewal for decades. International legal instruments, with their binding character and strength, have a special place in this development. The start of the 21st century saw, in particular, the birth of the first World Health Organization (WHO)-era health treaties – the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and its first Protocol. The authors analyze the potential impact of these instruments on global health governance and public health, beyond the traditional view of their impact on tobacco control. Overall, the very fact that globally binding treaties in modern-era health were feasible has accelerated the debate and expectations for an expanded role of international legal regimes in public health. The impact of treaties has also been notable in global health architecture as the novel instruments required novel institutions to govern their implementation. The legal power of the WHO FCTC has enabled rapid adoption of further instruments to promote its implementation, thus, enhancing the international instrumentarium for health, and it has also prompted stronger role for national legislation on health. Notably, the Convention has elevated several traditionally challenging public health features to the level of international legal obligations. It has also revealed how the legal power of the international health instrument can be utilized in safeguarding the interests of health in the face of competing agendas and legal disputes at both the domestic and international levels. Lastly, the legal power of health instruments is associated with their potential impact not only on health but also beyond; the recently adopted Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products may best exemplify this matter. The first treaty experiences of the 21st century may provide important lessons for the role of legal instruments in addressing the unfolding challenges in global health.
Although regional integration processes are mainly shaped around trade, economic and security objectives, health does come into the picture as it has an interface with each of those domains. Yet, reviews of relationships between regional integration and global and public health have so far been confined to specific organizations, geographic areas and thematic issues. This article, in contrast, attempts a comprehensive cross-cutting analysis of such relationships on a worldwide basis. The article demonstrates and systematizes mechanisms by which regional integration organizations address various aspects of health services and population health. It also explores how such mechanisms, and regional integration processes in general, contribute to international health cooperation and global health. The article argues that the multidisciplinary landscape of regional integration amplifies opportunities for the multisectoral dimension ofand cross-sectoral coherence forpublic health policy to manifest and function. The author also argues that the health dimension of regional integration processes may serve an important component of the rapidly expanding space of governance for global health.
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