Effectiveness Of International Law Objectives On Environmental Protection And Combatting Infectious Diseases

Effectiveness of International Law Objectives on Environmental Protection and

Combatting Infectious Diseases

[Student Name]

[Institutional Affiliation]

1. Introduction

International law describes the guidelines that regulate the deportment of nations in the

international system. The independent states in the global system establish and enforce the

principles of international law

. The primary sources of international law include the

customary international law, treaties, and general rules of law accepted by civilised states

since these principles stem directly from the literal conduct of nations

. Secondary sources of

international law entail interstate and state judicial decisions and the prose of the most

prominent publicists of the different nations

. The latter instances of sources are referred to as

secondary because they clarify rules established directly by states through, for example, a

custom, or treaty.

The transitory description of international law is among the major reasons why

international law is essential in dealing with global humanitarian issues such as, environmental

protection and combatting infectious diseases. Without a doubt, the world is composed of

autonomous sovereign nations that do not acknowledge a universality of higher authority. Due

to this anarchical structure, the nations have the mandate to conduct themselves based on their

own defined legal and socioeconomic frameworks. International law, therefore, is established

as a historical product resulting from the interaction of nations within a decentralised, anarchic

setting where the consent of the States spearheads it.

Hence, the concept of creating and enforcing international law presents a complex,

though, systematic way by which objectives are formulated and have to be agreed upon prior

to their enforcement. The aim of this paper is to discuss whether the contemporary international

law structure is sufficiently capable of achieving the established objectives by the international

David Fidler, ‘The role of international law in the control of emerging infectious diseases’ (1997) 95 Bull. Inst.

Pasteur, 57.

‘Statute of the International Court of Justice (1945)’ in Ian Brownlie (ed), Basic Documents in International

Law (Oxford University Press 1995) 438.

Ian Brownlie, Principles of Public International Law (Oxford University Press 1990) 4.

Fidler (n 1).

community. The article entails three sections, whereby the first section will discuss the

effectiveness of international law objectives about environmental protection. The second part

will assess the success of established international law objectives to combat infectious diseases,

and lastly, the paper concludes on whether the decentralised, anarchic environment is an

impeding factor towards achieving internationally set objectives.

2. Environmental Protection

International environmental protection law was started in Stockholm in 1972

, in which

it comprises of treaties and supplementary international legal documents. Following its advent,

the law was gradually developed in two phases, whereby the first stage involved the

establishment of a global governing body in overseeing establishment and enforcement of

environmental protection objectives, that is, the United Nations Environment Programme

(UNEP). Furthermore, the second phase involves the establishment of the environmental

protection objectives termed as the Action Plan for the Human Environment. Consequently,

the second stage involved establishing legal instruments concerned with air, water, and soil

pollution resulting from poverty and from industrial activities

The contemporary international environmental protection law objectives were

presented in The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that

was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992

. It is indicated that UNCED was considered remarkable

for the advancement of international environment protection laws in that it established the idea

of sustainable development for licit use

. Even though sustainable development was actually

at the central agenda of the Rio Conference, the discord between the North and South was

Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment, Report of the United Nations Conference on the Human

Environment, UN Doc. A/Conf. 48/14/ Rev.1 (1972).

Peter Malanczuk, Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law (Taylor & Francis e-Library 2002) 7.

M.F. Strong, ‘Beyond Rio: Prospects and Portents’ (1993) 4 Colorado Journal of International Environmental

Law and Policy, pp. 21-36.

Philippe H. Sand, ‘UNCED and the Development of International Environmental Law’ (1992) 3 Yearbook of

International Environmental Law, 17.

prevalent. Emphatically, there were also conflicts within various industrialised countries, or

between the new states and the developing countries. However, the conflict between the North

and South led UNCED to develop a pattern towards more polarisation involving negotiations

and decision making techniques

The conflict between the North and the South on the Rio declaration led to a

cumbersome concession between the two sides that the implementation of the objectives laid

out were stalled for some time

. The rule contained in the Rio Declaration refer to common

but disparate responsibilities of nations about their various contributions to international

environmental degradation, the necessity to eliminate and reduce unsustainable trends of

consumption and production, environmental effect assessments, among other things. In

parallel, Agenda 21 comprises of a non-binding action blueprint on development and

environment. The action plan lays out sectorial concerns on the marine and fresh water,

atmosphere, and land resources, cross – sectoral concerns like poverty, transfer of technology,

human health, and legal concerns

Nonetheless, by the autonomic nature and differences in production, industrialisation,

and legal instruments of the member states, Agenda 21 avoided contentious matters such as

consumption trends, the global debt of developing countries, and population growth. The most

controversial matters involved the principles on financial resources, whereby developing

countries were expected to put in an average annual cost of more than 600 billion USD towards

achieving Agenda 21. This amount does not include the UNEP Environment Fund and

environment-related protocols and conventions

Sand (n 8).

D. Kovar ‘A Short Guide to the Rio Declaration’ (1993) 4 Colorado Journal of International Environmental

Law and Policy pp. 119–40.

N.A. Robinson (ed.), Agenda 21 & UNCED Proceedings, 1992.

M. Bothe, H. Hohmann, ‘Precautionary Legal Duties and Principles of Modern International Law’ (1993) 3

Yearbook of International Environmental Law, 174.

On the other hand, the industrialised countries agreed to provide approximately 125

billion USD through concessional terms and grants to the developing countries. Furthermore,

despite the additional funds from the industrialised countries (the North), developing countries

did not project possibility to raise their assigned bulky load of finances so as to achieve the set

international environmental protection law objectives by Agenda 21. Hence, based on what has

been presented by member states for achieving global environmental protection objectives,

international law is certainly incapable to meet the established objectives. It is mainly because

of the different policies and legal frameworks that various countries and trade blocs employ in

the operations that guarantee their development rate.

3. Combatting Infectious Diseases

Over the decades, physicians, public health officers, and scientists universally

acknowledge the advent and re-emergence of infectious diseases as among the main challenges

in public health for humanity. Combating infectious diseases on a global scale entails

development and adoption of complex objectives aimed at dealing with the matter without

implicitly affecting the socioeconomic status of the affected region, or explicitly affecting other

member states. For instance, many researchers agree that West African countries failed to curb

the outbreak of Ebola virus in Guinea, hence its spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia before being

notified to the World Health Organisation (WHO)

. Due to the ineffectiveness of the

normative and operational approaches taken by WHO to combat the virus, the UN Security

Council (UNSC) was prompted to adopt Resolution 2177 (2014) asserting “the unprecedented

extent of the Ebola outbreak in Africa constitutes a threat to international peace and security.

”

WHO is traditionally perceived as a global technical agent in public health. Even

though it recognises the proliferating politicisation of international health as well as the security

. Gian L. Burci, ‘Ebola, the Security Council and the Securitisation of Public Health’ (2014) 10 QIL Zoom In,

pp. 27-30; Alison Agnew, ‘A Combative Disease: e Ebola Epidemic in International Law’ (2016) 39 Boston

College International and Comparative Law Review pp. 97-128.

United Nations [2014] doc S/RES/2134; Agnew (n 13).

acuity around infectious diseases, the agency directs its public health objectives towards

preparedness and response capacities

. Therefore, the intervention of the UNSC through

Resolution 2177 (2014) recalls the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005)

and

emphasises the significance of WHO member nations in meeting their commitments as per the

IHR. The overall tone of the resolution was to extend political assistance and establish a further

commitment to international law objectives on combatting infectious diseases, whose actual

performance could be considered to have failed since several member states have not matched

the benchmark guidelines.

As observed in the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Guinea's, Sierra Leone's, and

Liberia's were incapable of controlling the spread of the Ebola virus. Hence, it can be

associated with their inadequate level of compliance to attaining the objectives on combatting

infectious diseases as set out by the International Health Regulations (2005). Furthermore,

their efforts were certainly hindered by the countries’ systematically vulnerable healthcare

systems and an extreme shortage of equipment

4. Conclusion

In light of the discussions above on the effectiveness of the objectives established as

well as compliance of member states with the international law, it is a fact that international

law is incapable of achieving its aims. It is mainly due to inadequate international instruments

for addressing human security problems that result from a progressively complex,

internationalised safe environment. Hence, concerning Ebola outbreak in West Africa, as well

as effects of the differences in ideologies between member states as observed during the

adoption of Agenda 21 (1992) in Rio de Janeiro. Therefore, even though various states have

World Health Organization [2005], A/IHR/IGWG/2/INF.DOC./4.

International Health Organisation [2005] 2509 UNTS 79; David Fidler, ‘From International Sanitary

Conventions to Global Health Security: The New International Health Regulations’ [2005] 4 Chinese Journal of

International Law 325.

Burci (n 13) 5.

put their efforts in establishing international objectives towards combating infectious diseases

and environmental protection, there is the lack of a suitable global governance framework to

ensure that they are achieved by every member state. Thus, to achieve the international

objectives established, a right-based approach should be used since it conjoins rights of

individuals to the mutual responsibility of offering human security and a sustainable

environment, in turn facilitating consensus on the compliance and practice international law.

Bibliographies

Table of Legislation

International Health Organisation (2005) 2509 UNTS 79.

Secondary Sources

Book

Brownlie I., Principles of Public International Law (Oxford University Press 1990).

Book in Seventh Edition

Malanczuk P, Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law (7

edn, Taylor &

Francis e-Library 2002).

Chapter in edited Books

Robinson N (ed.), Agenda 21 & UNCED Proceedings, 1992.

‘Statute of the International Court of Justice (1945)’ in Ian Brownlie (ed), Basic Documents

in International Law (Oxford University Press 1995) 438.

Journal Article

Agnew A., ‘A Combative Disease: e Ebola Epidemic in International Law’ (2016) 39 Boston

College International and Comparative Law Review 97.

Bothe M., Hohmann H., ‘Precautionary Legal Duties and Principles of Modern International

Law’ (1993) 3 Yearbook of International Environmental Law, 174.

Burci G, ‘Ebola, the Security Council and the Securitisation of Public Health’ (2014) 10 QIL

Zoom In, 27.

Fidler D, ‘The role of international law in the control of emerging infectious diseases’ (1997)

95 Bull. Inst. Pasteur, 57.

Fidler D, ‘From International Sanitary Conventions to Global Health Security: The New

International Health Regulations’ (2005) 4 Chinese Journal of International Law 325.

Kovar D ‘A Short Guide to the Rio Declaration’ (1993) 4 Colorado Journal of International

Environmental Law and Policy 119.

Sand P, ‘UNCED and the Development of International Environmental Law’ (1992) 3

Yearbook of International Environmental Law, 17.

Strong M, ‘Beyond Rio: Prospects and Portents’ (1993) 4 Colorado Journal of International

Environmental Law and Policy, 21.

Reports

United Nations, ‘Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment’, Report of the United

Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Doc. A/Conf. 48/14/ Rev.1 (1972).

United Nations [2014] doc S/RES/2134.

World Health Organization [2005], A/IHR/IGWG/2/INF.DOC./4.

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