Changing the landscape of public health emergencies
Changing the landscape of public health emergencies
The team
With support from Warwick’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, as well as the Wellcome Trust, GCRF, the Open Society Foundation, the International Labour Organisation and the WHO, Professor Sharifah Sekalala plays a fundamental role in shaping a pivotal understanding of human rights and their implementation in the current global climate of health crises.
The challenge
Professor Sharifah Sekalala’s work on the intersection of international law, data privacy and global health and human rights could not be more timely.
Public health emergencies are not a new threat to society. However, we now live in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic and in an age of great change in global relations and digital infrastructure.
Given these new parameters, the need to understand how to successfully navigate these crises whilst maintaining human rights and curbing inequalities is of urgent importance.
Our approach
New public health emergency principles
Sekalala’s collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) brought together the expertise of over 150 specialists worldwide. This led to the development of new Public Health Emergency Principles to create standards and guidelines for the provision and protection of human rights in the context of public health emergencies.
The PHE Principles were cited by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s ResolutionLink opens in a new window on the need for a holistic approach to organising relations and health care between multiple states. This enables the Council of Europe to align future policy, including its representations in the International Health Regulations, with the guidelines laid out by Sekalala and the ICJ.
ESRC IAA awards have also supported Sekalala’s input to the Summit of Regional Experts, a series of consultations with regional human rights experts to refine the PHE Principles in line with the unique challenges faced by different locales.
Expert knowledge
Professor Sekalala was featured in the documentary ‘Beyond Siracusa: Human Rights in times of Public Health Emergencies’,Link opens in a new window a collaboration with the ICJ. The documentary explores the changing face of human rights in relation to public health emergencies in an increasingly volatile global landscape.
Sekalala provided expert knowledge detailing the importance of upholding governmental obligations to citizens and protecting their rights in times of crisis, both now and in the future.
Our Impact
PHE Principles
The Principles and GuidelinesLink opens in a new window (PHE Principles, 2023) have had widespread impact, influencing policymakers, public health practices, further study on access to medicines and vaccinesLink opens in a new window, and have been referenced in OHCHR (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination)Link opens in a new window Committee submissions.
In addition, the PHE Principles are being used to build a common understanding of what it means to secure human rights for both present and future generations amongst UN agencies, human rights experts and civil society, and were presented to the OHCHR RoundtableLink opens in a new window, ‘The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75: Looking to Future Generations’.Link opens in a new window
Ongoing Impact
Sekalala’s contribution to this area continues, with recent work providing guidance to the Uganda Ministry of Health on a series of legal guidelines. The resultant impact will ensure the drafting of a new data protection act for the Ugandan parliament that complies with the professional standards of the Ministry of Health Regulations.
Broadly, Sekalala serves as a global expert on emerging data protection regimes – particularly in the Global South and in cross-border contexts – engaging with a range of key actors to ensure citizens’ rights and health data are protected.
Bringing together international law, bioethics, epidemiology and public policy, Sekalala empirically investigates how services, apps, public policies and digital infrastructure are operating in practice. Her work stress-tests regulation against potential challenges and educates different stakeholders about the regulatory frameworks required and how better frameworks can be built collaboratively.