Il contributo delle organizzazioni internazionali e regionali alla gestione delle crisi sanitarie: il caso dell'epidemia di Ebola

This chapter aims at analysing the role played by international organizations to reacting to the 2014 Ebola epidemic with a view to highlight their possible contribution to the governance of global health emergencies. The analysis pays particular attention to the adoption, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, of the UN Security Council resolution 2177 (2014), which recognises that the Ebola epidemic represents a threat to international peace and security. By acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the UN Security Council has indeed triggered a machinery introducing a security paradigm in the management of health emergencies, a machinery which is likely to reshape the existing governance of the global health system, so far characterised by a high level of fragmentation and a piecemeal attitude. Based on this assumption, the present chapter addresses first the consequences at universal level of the intervention of the Security Council (sect. 2). Here the analysis is focused on the interaction among the United Nations and the Organisation so far representing the major intergovernmental player in global health governance, i.e. the World Health Organization. Then (sect. 3), the analysis moves to consider the implications for regional organizations directly involved in the international response to Ebola (namely the African organizations and the European Union). An assessment of what has been discussed in previous sections is present in the final part (sect. 4), where further possible developments – à droit constant – of the international management of health emergencies are also illustrated.