Does the World Health Organization have the Powers it Needs to Fulfil its Objective (as Set Out in Article 1 of its Constitution) – ‘the Attainment by All Peoples of the Highest Possible Level of Health’? If not, What Additional Powers does it Need, and How Might it Gain Them?

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-734-2_85How to use a DOI?

Keywords

World Health Organization; Global Health Governance; International Health Regulations; COVID-19

Abstract

Since its creation, WHO once overcame geopolitical distractions and made prominent achievements in global public health, such as the SARS epidemic and the eradication of smallpox, and has played a leading role in global health governance. However, during COVID-19, WHO exposed its lack of power. While Article 2 grants the WHO normative and advisory powers, its authority remains constrained by state sovereignty, voluntary compliance, and funding dependencies. The organization lacks binding enforcement mechanisms to ensure member states adhere to health regulations. It does not have the power to achieve its goal, which is ‘the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health’ in Article 1 of the Constitution of the World Health Organization. If it is to fulfill its objective, it needs to acquire more powers in many aspects, such as enforcement powers, punishment, oversight, and so on. Considering that the WHO, as an international organization, needs to develop new international treaties or amend existing health regulations through consultation and compromise between states, this is the most straightforward way.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ke Li
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/05/27
TI  - Does the World Health Organization have the Powers it Needs to Fulfil its Objective (as Set Out in Article 1 of its Constitution) – ‘the Attainment by All Peoples of the Highest Possible Level of Health’? If not, What Additional Powers does it Need, and How Might it Gain Them?
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 10th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 779
EP  - 785
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-734-2_85
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-734-2_85
ID  - Li2025
ER  -