Introduction

This module is part of a course entitled international law and health policy. This module focuses on International Health Regulation (IHR) 2005 and other health regulations. These focuses will be linked with the public health law and policy in Indonesia. Most of IHR’s relevance is to infectious diseases and it becomes more urgent in mitigating the Covid-19 pandemic and other infectious diseases. Therefore, it is important to discuss the roles of IHR in preventing global pandemics in the future as a result of natural infection or biological war. Our current lesson learned during the Covid-19 pandemic will be highlighted about international law and regulation.

The domain of global health law now encompasses increasingly diverse concerns, including aspects of biomedical science and human reproduction/cloning; organ transplantation and xenotransplantation; infectious and noncommunicable diseases; the control of the safety of health services; food and pharmaceuticals in international trade; access to medicines; and the control of addictive and harmful substances such as tobacco and narcotics. Global health law is also increasingly linked to other traditional areas of international legal concern. Environmental law and the control of toxic pollutants, arms control and the banning of weapons of mass destruction, human rights law, nuclear safety and radiation protection, international drug control, customs law, and occupational health and safety are increasingly recognized as inextricably connected to public health.

The evolution of global health law in the last two decades is very much tied to protecting and promoting human rights related to physical and mental integrity. Although global health law is largely utilized as a mechanism to protect and expand state interests in an era of global interdependence, it is also conceived of and employed as a framework or tool for protecting the rights of individuals and, perhaps, creating a more just and equitable world, especially in the field of health.

To improve global health, international public health law and policy should not only focus on infectious diseases. This should embrace issues in all domains. This module will discuss international law and regulation on those issues. The module will also discuss the global health situation and what laws and regulations impact global health. There is a need for more understanding of how such international law and regulation should be constructed. The roles of an international organization, such as an organization under the United Nations System (WHO, WTO, UNFPA, and UNDP) will be discussed in this module. All issues are linked with national public health regulation and policy in Indonesia.