In Isolation No More: The Need for Human Rights-Based Frameworks for Global Health Emergencies

Abstract

Ebola has taken the lives of over 11,000 people since the beginning of the outbreak in 2014. Observers including Médecins Sans Frontières have criticized the international community’s sluggishness in addressing the outbreak. This paper argues that the reticence of the international community to address the Ebola crisis is a result of the dominant use of a securitization framework that compels states to neglect their legal and moral duties to the global community. The securitization framework obfuscates the innate right to health of every individual. I argue that a human rights-based framework should be employed to effectively motivate states to fulfill their duties to respond to global health emergencies and to devise strategies to prevent outbreaks from occurring. A human rights-based framework can successfully prompt states to fulfill their responsibility to secure the human right to health of citizens and non-citizens. Moreover, a human rights framework will work to address global power differentials that result in the inequitable distribution of resources that contributes to ill health and the spread of infectious disease.