The COVID-19 pandemic instigated latent reflections about the capacity of the global health system to respond adequately to pandemics and unveiled the complex dynamics underlying the incorporation of WHO regulations by Member States. Approximately two-thirds of State Parties of the International Health Regulations 2005 have failed to implement relevant measures due to low or moderate levels of national preparedness. In order to ensure the WHO’s normative leadership, it is essential that international standards be followed by concrete actions by domestic actors.

In this context, the Health Hub: Politics, Organizations and Law (H-Pod), which is a transdisciplinary research laboratory of the “Canada Research Chair in health system design and adaptation”(Professor Jean-Louis Denis) and the “Canada Research Chair in collaborative culture in health law and policy”(Professor Catherine Regis), both from the University of Montreal, undertook a comparative analysis across eight countries to revisit the initial theoretical model of the WHO normative effectiveness. Several institutions are part of this joint endeavour: University of Montreal (Canada), FGV Direito Rio (Brazil), Universidad de Costa Rica (Costa-Rica), Université de Paris (France), Academic College of Law and Science in Hod Hasharon (Israel), University of Otago(New Zealand), Université de Neuchâtel (Switzerland) e Estados Unidos (O’Neill Institute). 

The impact of WHO’s normative action on the Brazilian legal order and institutional practices is coordinated by Professor Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida, director of the FGV Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU-South America Global Governance. Legal research based on quantitative data analysis conducted in Brazil aims to evaluate the impact of the WHO and its normative instruments (conventions, agreements, regulations, standards, and recommendations)” in the Brazilian legal order. 

During the second semester of 2021, FGV undergraduate students have been engaged in this empirical research in the auspices of the activity titled “Field Project”, coordinated by Professors Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida and Felipe Albuquerque. The objective of the present Webinar is to present and discuss the data collected by the Brazilian research team. The event is organised by FGV Rio de Janeiro Law School, in cooperation with the FGV Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on EU-South America Global Governance and the Law Faculty of the University of Montreal.