Political Sciences and International Security

VALENTINA ZAMBRANO
ELENA SANTIEMMA

The Course aims to give the students the necessary knowledge and skills regarding the role of international law and of the international organizations in the field of health protection at global level, with a particular reference to the World Health Organization and United Nations. The Course will pursue several learning outcomes strongly interconnected, such as: the knowledge of the sources and institutes of health international law; the knowledge of international institutions active in this field and the critical exam of their role and of non-State players; the critical analysis of the relationship between the protection of health and some sectorial field of the international legal order (international commerce and intellectual property; protection of the international security; humanitarian crisis); the ability to use this knowledge to develop a more aware and critical approach to international governance of the health emergencies, individually and by work group.

At the end of the course the student will have acquired: a) general knowledge, in particular, regarding the protection of the right to health in international law and the actions adopted by the international community in order to guarantee this right; b) specific knowledge on the law, functions and role of the World Health Organization and and other actors in international health governance; c) specific knowledge concerning legal instruments to manage crisis (pandemic, conflicts, natural disasters); d) ability to present the legal knowledge offered by the Course in a timely and effective manner; e) interpret the phenomenon of international health governance on the basis of the knowledge acquired.

Knowledge of the basic notions of international law and of international organizations law

The first part of the course will deal with the protection of the right to health within the international legal order through the examination of the principal international instruments concerning this right and the role of international courts and human rights treaty bodies in implementing the same which will be analyzed through case studies. Moreover this part will focus on the recognition of the health international law and the role of the World Health Organization analyzing its organs, functions and norms (with a particular reference to the International Health Regulations). The role of the United Nations and of other international organizations as instruments of health global governance and the role of non-State players will be explored too.
The second part of the course will address the issue of individual and collective health protection in relation to the following topics: the relationship between the protection of the health and the protection of human rights; the relationship between the protection of the health at global level and the rights of intellectual property; safeguard of global health and health emergencies; safeguard of global health and international humanitarian law; protection of the international security and safeguard of health at global level (with a particular reference to the UN Security Council).
Moreover, ten hours of the course will be dedicated to analyse the topic of digital health and data health circulation, within the framework of the activities of the Jean Monnet Chair "Digital Rights Empowerment Across Market in the European Union".
As part of the course, Dr. Elena Santiemma, an expert in international humanitarian law, will hold the module “The protection of health in situations of humanitarian crisis and the role of institutional and non-institutional actors”. It will focus on the international instruments concerning crisis management (due to conflict or natural or man-made disasters) and the relationship with the protection of health and the role that, in these field, both institutional and non-institutional actors (with an international vocation) play.

- P. Acconci, Tutela della salute e diritto internazionale, CEDAM, 2011 (esclusivamente Cap I; Cap IV; Cap VI - parte I; Cap VII; Cap VIII);
- S. Negri, Salute pubblica, sicurezza e diritti umani nel diritto internazionale, Giappichelli, Torino, 2018;
- Y. Beigbeder, Worl Helath Organization, in Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law, 2013, p. 1-11;
- E. Santiemma, Il ruolo delle Istituzioni nazionali indipendenti sui diritti umani nella risposta alla pandemia di Covid-19, in L. Manca (a cura di), Le istituzioni nazionali per la promozione e la tutela dei diritti umani, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 2021, pp. 133-177.
- V. Zambrano, Il diritto a godere dei benefici del progresso scientifico: profili problematici di un diritto ancora in cerca di effettività, in La Comunità Internazionale, 2020, p. 415-437.
- V. Zambrano, L’accesso ai vaccini contro il COVID-19 tra i diritti di proprietà intellettuale e i poteri del Consiglio di sicurezza, in Ordine internazionale e diritti umani, 2021, p. 692-715.

Letture consigliate:
- The Day After: le Organizzazioni internazionali di fronte alle minacce globali alla salute, numero speciale 1/2024 della Rivista ordine internazionale e diritti umani, 2024 (disponibile online);
- S. Harman, Global Health Governance, Routledge, London, New York, 2012 (esclusivamente pp. 27-88).
- E. Missoni, La governance del sistema globale di salute. La mappa degli attori, in Sistema salute, 2014, p. 395-408 ss.

The Course will be characterized by the development of lectures and the in-depth analysis of case studies with the aim to develop the active participation of the students and their skill to use the acquired knowledge. In particular, the exercises on the case studies will be drawn from the jurisprudence of international courts (or international organs of control) and from the praxis of international organizations.
Moreover, the attending students, on a voluntary basis, will dwell into one of the topics studied during the course by means of an individual research and they will present their research during the last lessons of the course.

The attendance of the course is optional and not compulsory, but it is required in order to be considered attending. Only those attending (those who attended 2/3 of the lessons) can participate in the various activities just mentioned and fully achieve the different expected learning outcomes of the Course.

The assessment of the attending students takes place in the context of a path in itinere divided into three tests to verify the full achievement of the learning outcomes:
- at the end of the first part of the course a written test based on twenty multiple-choice questions and one open close question concerning the legal framework and principal institutes and players of the health international governance will take place (1 hour);
- at the end of the course attending students will present their individual research on a topic of the course (20 minutes);
- finally, the conclusive test will consist of an oral exam concerning the part of the course that has not been verified by the other two tests (10/15 minutes).
The final evaluation of the student will be determined by the average in thirtieths of the three marks obtained in the tests.

The assessment of non-attending students, always by means of a mark out of thirty, will be carried out within an oral exam (20/30 minutes) divided into 3/4 questions on the knowledge acquired in the study of the exam texts.