Addressing the global tragedy of needless pain: rethinking the United Nations single convention on narcotic drugs.

The lack of medical availability of effective pain medication is an enduring and expanding global health calamity. Despite important medical advances, pain remains severely under-treated worldwide, particularly in developing countries. This article contributes to the discussion of this global health crisis by considering international legal and institutional mechanisms to promote wider accessibility to critical narcotic drugs for pain relief.

An international legal strategy for alcohol control: not a framework convention--at least not yet.

AIMS: The perceived success of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in influencing national and global public health policies has led to growing interest in promulgating new international legal instruments to address global health issues-including calls for a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control (FCAC). METHODS: Despite broad support in the public health community, the authors caution that an analysis of the value of lawmaking for alcohol control cannot rest solely on the character of the underlying public health challenge and the similarities between alcohol control and tobacco control. Other factors must be considered, including the relative political feasibility for global health lawmaking. The potential contribution of non-binding international legal instruments to advancing global alcohol control, in particular, deserves strong consideration. RESULTS: The authors propose a gradual international legal strategy for alcohol control, starting with a non-binding code of practice focusing on areas of critical concern with wide political consensus, leading over time to a comprehensive binding treaty. Although often dismissed as ineffective relative to treaties, non-binding international legal instruments have particular strengths and can create both norms and processes that impact the behavior of states and other actors, overcoming a number of limitations of more rigid legally binding strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Ultimately, the authors contend that the negotiation and adoption of a non-binding international legal instrument as a first step in a long-run legal strategy offers a more politically realistic, and potentially superior, alternative to immediate efforts to achieve a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control.

Lessons from the experience of U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities: addressing the democratic deficit in global health governance.

This article reviews the contributions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) to the progressive development of both international human rights law and global health law and governance. It provides a summary of the global situation of persons with disabilities and outlines the progressive development of international disability standards, noting the salience of the shift from a medical model of disability to a rights-based social model reflected in the CRPD. Thereafter, the article considers the Convention's structure and substantive content, and then analyzes in specific detail the particular contributions of the Convention to health and human rights law and global health governance. It concludes with an exploration of the potential implications of the CRPD's innovations for some of the most pressing issues in global health governance, including the Convention's contributions to the principle of participation in decision-making.

Global governance, international health law and WHO: looking towards the future.

The evolving domain of international health law encompasses increasingly diverse and complex concerns. Commentators agree that health development in the twenty-first century is likely to expand the use of conventional international law to create a framework for coordination and cooperation among states in an increasingly interdependent world. This article examines the forces and factors behind the emerging expansion of conventional international health law as an important tool for present and future multilateral cooperation. It considers challenges to effective international health cooperation posed for intergovernmental organizations and other actors involved in lawmaking. Although full consolidation of all aspects of future international health lawmaking under the auspices of a single international organization is unworkable and undesirable, the World Health Organization (WHO) should endeavour to serve as a coordinator, catalyst and, where appropriate, platform for future health law codification. Such leadership by WHO could enhance coordination, coherence and implementation of international health law policy.