Groningen Centre for Health Law

Nikee van der Gouw - In recent years, research has shown that international non-vaccination rates have contributed to currently increased rates of infection. The spread of the new respiratory disease COVID-19 has led to governments taking precautionary measures in order to ‘flatten the curve’ or, in other words, lift the burden on hospitals by slowing down the virus’s infection rate.

David Patterson - Democratic societies require freedoms of expression, movement, association and access to information to function – without free access to information and the right to challenge government action publicly and through the courts, democratic freedoms lose meaning.

Brigit Toebes - The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus is a matter of international law and human rights. The World Health Organization (WHO) should have more legal and financial capacity to act in the event of such an outbreak. It is too early to assess whether countries act proportionately in the light of human rights. A human rights based approach should be a standard component of interventions aimed at combating infectious diseases.

Ratna Juwita - The world is facing an unprecedented global health challenge in the 21st century: Covid-19. Covid-19 has reshaped our understanding of the ways we combat viruses. Since its initial detection in Wuhan in late 2019,[1] Covid-19 has infected people globally.[2]

Brigit Toebes - De uitbraak van het COVID-19 virus is een zaak van internationaal recht en mensenrechten. De Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WHO) moet meer juridische en financiële armslag krijgen om op te treden indien zich een dergelijke uitbraak voordoet.

Scott Burris - COVID-19 ontwikkelt zich geleidelijk tot een overdraagbare ziekte met een sterfte gelijk of groter dan de normale griep. Nationale overheden dienen hun strategieën herzien en over te gaan tot het managen van een pandemie.

Scott Burris - For decades, public health experts have been warning of the possibility of a viral outbreak that would rapidly spread across the globe, causing significant morbidity and mortality. To prepare, and with the experience of diseases like SARS, the World Health Organization and national governments have focused on early detection and containment strategies and the necessary capacity to carry them out.

Pedro A. Villarreal - The previous post dealt with general issues of how the interpretation of the IHR’s provisions needs to take place by following their object and purpose. This requires assessing public health measures adopted by states taking their specific context into account. A second question is what happens when states do not base their actions upon the IHR’s obligations. The current blog post elaborates on this scenario.

Pedro A. Villarreal - As the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold, there is an increase in the adoption of measures by states restricting international travel and trade, mostly though not exclusively against China and its citizens. At the outset, two legal questions arise: what exactly is the role of the legal instrument devised for facing such crises, the International Health Regulations (IHR)? And what happens when potential breaches to its provisions occur?

Living conditions in the Moria refugee camp are highly inhuman. The situation is explosive and characterised by daily demonstrations of desperate Moria people and confrontations with police.