In his post on the enforced disappearance, torture, and arbitrary killing of Giulio Regeni, Luca Pasquet quoted the annual report of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), where concern is expressed in relation to what “seems to be a recent pattern of short-term disappearances” in Egypt (UN Doc. A/HRC/30/38, para. 67, emphasis added). However, the phenomenon of “short-term disappearances” is not unique to Egypt and has been the source of concern for international human rights mechanisms at least over the past ten years. In the above-mentioned Annual Report, the WGEID informs that from 17 May 2014 to 15 May 2015 it observed a pattern of “short-term” enforced disappearances being used in a number of countries, and expressed its deep concern in this regard (para. 102). In the same report explicit reference is made to the practice of short-term enforced disappearances in Bahrain (para. 59). In the Annual Report for 2014 (UN Doc. A/HRC/27/49, para. 117), the WGEID observed a pattern of short-term enforced disappearances in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates). Moreover, the WGEID stressed that “there is no time limit, no matter how short, for an enforced disappearance to occur and that accurate information on the detention of any person deprived of liberty and their place of detention shall be made promptly available to their family members” (UN Doc. A/HRC/30/38, para. 102).

Il 9 e 10 giugno l’Università di Parma ospiterà il XXI Convegno SIDI, sul tema “La tutela della salute nel diritto internazionale ed europeo tra interessi globali e interessi particolari”.

In vista di questo appuntamento, il SIDIBlog, rinnovato nella sua veste grafica, è lieto di ospitare – in un’apposta sezione denominata “SIDIpost” – una serie di contributi, inizialmente inviati in risposta al call for papers per il Convegno e segnalati a tal fine dagli organizzatori e dal Consiglio direttivo della Società.

La diffusione di epidemie costituisce, da sempre, uno dei flagelli che segnano la storia dell’umanità. Come mostra, da ultimo, il caso del virus ebola, il progresso delle scienze mediche ha consentito di produrre vaccini capaci di immunizzare contro agenti patogeni particolarmente virulenti, così come medicinali che riducono significativamente il tasso di mortalità. In ogni caso, per contrastare efficacemente la diffusione di malattie infettive a potenziale pandemico, è necessario che i virus, o gli altri microorganismi patogeni, siano messi a disposizione in maniera tempestiva di laboratori adeguatamente attrezzati, dotati dei mezzi tecnici per isolarli e intraprendere le attività di ricerca e sviluppo preliminari alla produzione su vasta scala di vaccini e farmaci (si veda l’Editoriale del numero della rivista Nature dell’11 febbraio 2016, p. 129).

While international health cooperation has historically been an interstate endeavour, the acceleration of globalisation and the related decline of the importance of national states at the international plane gave rise to a plethora of new actors: it is no longer only states, but also international organisations, multinational companies, and non-governmental organisations that play an important role with regard to public health protection. For example, at the end of the 20^th and the beginning of the 21^st century, civil society actors were protagonists in the HIV/AIDS movement, while governments failed to respond adequately to the rampant spread of the pandemic (famous examples in this regard are the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in the United States and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa. The latter filed a seminal case at the constitutional court in order to ensure availability of a drug preventing mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) (2002) 5 SA 721 (CC), Case CCT 8/02). Furthermore, with the intensification of public-private partnerships, the private sector and hence multinational enterprises play an increasing role in international health cooperation. In this vein, WHO engages for example in various disease-specific collaboration projects with the pharmaceutical industry.