Health Affairs Blog: The Global Migration Crisis, International Law, And The Responsibility To Protect Health
Lawrence O. Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and Anna Roberts, fellow at the institute, discuss the impacts of global migration on health and security. “The sheer scale of forced migration, along with its potential to spread infectious diseases, is a matter not only of the right to health, but also of global health security to prevent the reemergence of diseases such as polio. … [I]t is very much in the international community’s interests to build health system capacity to prevent public health emergencies of international concern. Pro-active protection of health and security should be an obligation under international law, but it also is a moral imperative” (9/29).