International assistance and cooperation for access to essential medicines can be established as an obligation of developed countries based on international human rights law and an array of authoritative guidance. The research aim of this thesis was to understand how developed countries can be influenced to meet this obligation under the current international order with a view to the improvement of international governance over this issue. To address this aim, this thesis conducted an analysis based on three sub-questions: (1) what is the current international order governing access to essential medicines, (2) what are the processes and mechanisms that the international order has used to influence developed countries and how have the countries responded, and (3) is there an alternative model to the current governance structure that could lead to improved implementation of international assistance and cooperation by developed countries. The analysis of the international order involved a study of the World Health Organization and its interactions with the World Trade Organization and the development-related institutions involved in access to medicines (i.e. the World Bank, UNAIDS, and the Global Fund). The lack of leadership by the WHO in governing access to essential medicines has led to significant tensions between the institutions in the form of conflicts, overlaps, and other issues. The thesis proceeds with a country case study to understand how states interact with the international order and how they can be influenced towards norm implementation. It was determined that the international order possesses an influential array of ‘socialization’ methods that have been successful in inducing states toward norm compliance (when backed by the support of international NGO networks and domestic pressure). However, the level of disarray that remains in the international order continues to have a negative effect on international assistance and cooperation. The thesis concludes with an analysis of emerging changes to the current system of governance over access to essential medicines and considers whether these changes might bring an improvement to developed country support of access to essential medicines.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:540163 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Mok, Emily A. |
| Contributors | Galligan, Denis ; Gostin, Lawrence |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1e69c608-2fed-4183-9e16-09ae9f671abc |
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