Nouvelles

A. RESEARCH FOCUS

The World Health Organization (WHO), the only international intergovernmental organization dedicated to health, is in a unique position to encourage states’ adherence to standards prescribing global health goals. This is important since health law is a powerful tool for changing unhealthy behaviors and environments and fostering global coordination of health systems efforts (Marks-Sultan et al., 2016). For WHO’s normative leadership to materialize, the international standards adopted by it must be followed by concrete actions by national actors (decision-makers, legislators, health professionals, etc.). However, there is lack of evidence regarding the extent and scope of the integration of “WHO law” into state standards, an approach that is nevertheless essential to enhance this leadership. There are a number of reasons for this lack of data.

First, the monitoring and control mechanisms for normative instruments produced by WHO are mainly based on self-assessment reports submitted by States. However, the quantity and quality of the data  obtained vary. Regarding the quantity, not all States transmit data relating to the results obtained in the wake of the adoption of normative instruments and the volume of information presented remains variable. With regard to quality, the unreliability of data reported by States has been highlighted by expert groups tasked with evaluating the effectiveness of certain WHO normative instruments (WHO, 2015 a); b). This lack of data is also observed in university research. Some interesting studies exist, but their fragmentary nature complicates the overall assessment of WHO’s normative function. To respond to this concern, this research will study,  the impact of WHO’s normative action on the internal standards of Member States, and more specifically on their internal law (laws, regulations and case law).

Eight countries serving as tracer cases will be analyzed: Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica,  France, Israel, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States.

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B. METHODOLOGY

The methodology was selected to be open enough to accommodate the multiple disciplines (law, political science, sociology, etc.) represented in this research (Bartenstein & Landheer-Cieslak, 2015).  The methodological framework is structured around 4 axes:  

• I) Interpretative analysis of the literature to identify the contribution of four research areas to knowledge on the normative effectiveness of the WHO. This process will inform a theoretical model to interpret the empirical analyses of the next steps.
• II) Study of the occurrence of references to WHO normative instruments in seven case studies conducted in target countries.
• III) Semi-structured interviews in target countries and with key WHO informants to better grasp the conditions that shape the use of WHO norms. This step seeks to better understand the process of integrating WHO norms in domestic law, and identify the institutional, political, social and organizational considerations that influence reference to or use of WHO norms.
• IV) Comparative analysis of case studies across countries to revisit the initial theoretical model of the WHO normative effectiveness. The researchers will revisit the initial theoretical model and propose a more integrative model based on comparative and cross-case analysis. This refined model will provide a basis for recommendations to enhance the WHO normative leadership.

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C. OBJECTIVES

This research will:

• I) Assess how effectively domestic law considers the WHO’s normative instruments, from a quantitative and qualitative point of view;
• II)  Analyze the process of introducing WHO standards at national level;
• III) Develop theoretical knowledge on the normative effectiveness of international organizations by focusing on the case of the WHO and ;
• IV) Use this data to make recommendations to decision-makers, judges, managers and the WHO in order to improve the mobilization of WHO norms in national law and the development of effective international normative strategies to support global health governance.

D. TEAM

Principal Investigator

Catherine Régis, principal investigator, is a full Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal,

and co-director of the

She is a specialist in health law and policy and global health law.

Co-researchers

• Jean-Louis Denis, is a full Professor in the Department of Health Management, Evaluation and Policy at the University of Montreal’s School of Public Health, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Health System Design and Adaptation (Level 1) and co-director of the H-POD.  He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Management at King’s College London.
• Miriam Cohen is a full Professor at the University of Montreal and a researcher at the Public Law Research Centre and the International Centre for Comparative Criminology. She is a specialist in international human rights law and has a solid and rich experience in international organizations.  
• Pierre Larouche, is a full Professor and Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal and is a researcher at the International Business and Trade Centre

International Researchers

• Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida is an associate Professor of international Law and  director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio.
• Hugo Muñoz is an associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at Universidad de Costa Rica.
• Florian Kastler  has a Doctorate in Public Law from Paris Descartes University is a researcher at Institut droit et santé from l’Université de Paris.
• Pamela Laufer-Ukeles is Professor of Law and Health Systems Administration at the Academic College of Law and Science in Hod Hasharon, teaching feminist legal theory, bioethics, health care reform, and elder law among other subjects.
• Colin Gavaghan is the Director of the New Zealand Law Foundation Centre for Law and Policy in Emerging Technologies and is a professor at University of Otago.
• Jeanne Snelling is a researcher and lecturer at University of Otago.
• Olivier Guillod is a professor at the Faculty of Law from Université de Neuchâtel and director of Institut de droit de la santé.
• Mélanie Lévy is an assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at Université de Neuchâtel.
• Sandra Hotz is a Professor at Université de Neuchâtel.
• Katherine Ginsbach is is an associate with the Center for Transformational Health Law at the O’Neill Institute.
• Katie Gottschalk is the executive director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
• Kashish Aneja is a consultant at the O’Neill Institute, where he utilizes his global legal expertise to support the development of the COVID-19 Law Lab and the HIV Policy Lab.

Young researchers

• Gaëlle Foucault is a Doctoral student at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal and a research assistant at the H-POD.  She is also associated with the CERIUM.
• Maelenn Corfmat is a Doctoral candidate in law at the University of Montreal and Paris Descartes University.
• Ido Alon is a Post-Doctoral researcher. He completed his Ph.D. at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
• Thomas Grenier is currently completing a Bachelor of Law (L.L.B.) at Montreal University.
• Sophie Poirier is currently completing a Bachelor of Law at University of Montreal.
• Nathalie Voarino is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre de recherche en droit public  (CRDP – Université de Montréal).
• Nathan De Tracey is currently completing a Bachelor of Law at University of Montreal
• Naomie Beauchamp is currently completing a Bachelor of Law (L.L.B) at University of Montreal.
• Mariam Aïdara is currently completing a Bachelor of Law at University of Montreal.
• Raphael Uzan is currently completing a Bachelor of Law at University of Montreal.

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E. PUBLICATIONS

• Denis, J.-L., Régis Catherine, Weinstock, D. M., & Champagne, C. (2021). Pandemic societies. McGill-Queen's University Press.
• Regis, C, Cohen, M, Larouche, P, Denis, J-L, Cadeddu, S, et Foucault, G « A stress test for the World Health Organization (WHO) in a pandemic world: what can we hope for the future? » (sous presse) dans Jean-Louis DENIS, Catherine RÉGIS et Daniel WEINSTOCK (dir.), Pandemic Societies, McGill-Queen's University Press.

G. CONFERENCES

1. « Au-delà des perceptions: Le leadership de l'Organisation », présenté par le CR CHUM. Tous les détails ici.
2. TEGL 2021 Panel :The Role of the WHO in a Pandemic: The Need for a More Adaptive Form of Leadership? : Research cooperation Transformative Effects of Globalisation in Law summoned experts to give various panels examining the numerous consequences of the pandemic and its transformative effects.

H-POD’s co-directors, Jean-Louis Denis and Catherine Régis as well as Miriam Cohen and Pierre Larouche are invited to join the discussion. On September 17, they will discuss their paper on the role of the World Health Organization and its leadership during a pandemic.

During a pandemic of such scale and severity as Covid-19, there is demand for proactive and decisive political leadership (Ansell, Boin& Hart, 2014). A pandemic is a perfect example of an extreme context that also creates an ambiguous space, bundling together individuals, organizations, communities and whole societies. Leadership in such extreme contexts and ambiguous spaces has become a pre-eminent question in political and sociological literature (Hannah &Uhl-Bien, 2009;Ospina et al., 2020). Pandemics also reveal a high degree of interdependence among developed and developing countries in facing the associated health, economic and more broadly societal challenges. We argue in this paper that pandemics require that political and public health leadership, on the one hand,be very focussed and assertive (Boin, Stern, Sundelius, 2016; Ansell,Boin& Hart, 2014) at the international level, while on the other hand, ensure the mobilization of leaders at the local community and national levels (Denis, Langley, Sergi, 1992). In order to reconcile these different requirements to effectively tame the pandemic, a new form of meta-systemic leadership is needed – one that combines clarity of goals and advice, solid expertise and effective networking with national leaders – in order to ensure the legitimacy and effectiveness of global public health interventions, like those of international organizations.

"Enhancing the Normative Leadership of the WHO in Brazil: FGV Direito Rio 2021 Field Results", The FGV Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU-South América Global Governance, in partnership with the Law Faculty of the University of Montreal joined forces to organize the webinar

G. FINANCIAL PARTNERS

This project received the Insight grant by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council  (file no. 435-2020-0470) and is also financed by the George Stellari Funds.

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