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New social demands, opportunities in the green economy, opportunities opened up by digital technology, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of remote work have again drawn attention to rural areas. In 2020, the European Commission conducted a public consultation on the long-term vision for rural areas. Support for rural areas is already provided under several EU policies, which contributes to their balanced, fair, green and innovative development. To support the implementation of the action plan, the common agricultural policy (CAP) and the cohesion policy will be of particular importance, which will be accompanied by a whole range of policies from other areas. The aim of this paper is an analysis of the EU legal framework of rural development policy, together with an analysis of the further development of the LEADER approach. Finally, a special focus is placed on the analysis of documents (long-term vision for the EU's rural areas) that deal with the future of rural development in the EU.
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How and why is implicit and explicit human rights language used by World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiators in debates about intellectual property, know-how, and technology needed to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, and how do these findings compare with negotiators' human rights framing in 2001? Sampling 26 WTO members and two groups of members, this study uses document analysis and six key informant interviews with WTO negotiators, a representative of the WTO Secretariat, and a nonstate actor. In WTO debates about COVID-19 medicines, negotiators scarcely used human rights frames (e.g., "human rights" or "right to health"). Supporters used both human rights frames and implicit language (e.g., "equity," "affordability," and "solidarity") to garner support for the TRIPS waiver proposal, while opponents and WTO members with undetermined positions on the waiver used only implicit language to advocate for alternative proposals. WTO negotiators use human rights frames to appeal to previously agreed language about state obligations;for coherence between their domestic values and policy on one hand, and their global policy positions on the other;and to catalyze public support for the waiver proposal beyond the WTO. This mixed-methods design yields a rich contextual understanding of the modern role of human rights language in trade negotiations relevant for public health.
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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, international access to COVID-19 vaccines and other health technologies has remained highly asymmetric. This inequity has had a particularly deleterious impact on low- and middle-income countries, engaging concerns about the human rights to health and to the equal enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress enshrined under articles 12 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In response, the relationship between intellectual property rights and public health has reemerged as a subject of global interest. In October 2020, a wholesale waiver of the copyright, patent, industrial design, and undisclosed information sections of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS Agreement) was proposed by India and South Africa as a legal mechanism to increase access to affordable COVID-19 medical products. Here, we identify and evaluate the TRIPS waiver positions of World Trade Organization (WTO) members and other key stakeholders throughout the waiver's 20-month period of negotiation at the WTO. In doing so, we find that most stakeholders declined to explicitly contextualize the TRIPS waiver within the human right to health and that historical stakeholder divisions on the relationship between intellectual property and access to medicines appear largely unchanged since the early 2000s HIV/AIDS crisis. Given the WTO's consensus-based decision-making process, this illuminates key challenges faced by policy makers seeking to leverage the international trading system to improve equitable access to health technologies.
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Global disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines have brought back into focus questions about whether the right to medicines has assumed any level of binding legality within international law. In this paper, we attempt to answer this question by considering if there is evidence of subsequent state agreement and practice to read the right to medicines into the rights to health and science protected in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. We adopt the interpretive framework in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the International Law Commission's 2018 report to analyze the work of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights relevant to medicines, and its relationship to the content and voting in successive resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly. We find that these resolutions provide some evidence of state agreement that the rights to health and science, as enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, include access to affordable medicines. Yet the legal implications of this right remain highly contested, particularly when it comes to trade-related intellectual property rights. The negotiation of a pandemic treaty offers possibilities for codifying this right beyond these discursive instances, while political opposition remains likely to continue to undercut this emerging legal norm.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, detained persons suffered an increasing number of human rights violations. A World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) report highlighted the abusive practices and legal ways to fight them. People in detention are generally at high risk of infectious diseases. Jails are overcrowded everywhere, hygiene is generally poor, and quarantine is often impossible. Persons with pre-existing medical conditions or pregnancies are especially vulnerable. It thus was no surprise that COVID-19 spread fast in detention facilities. Because of rules meant to contain the disease, infected persons often struggled to get in touch with lawyers and insisted on judicial review. Nonetheless, lawyers did find ways to assist people in jails and improve protection against COVID-19. This article highlights the OMCT report that assessed pandemic-related human rights issues, which were prevalent in many countries, focusing on Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It also discusses the legal and advocacy strategies and promising practices to protect people from COVID-19 in detention effectively, challenge ongoing and pandemic-related human rights violations occurring in detention settings, and seek accountability for abusive law enforcement measures.
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OBJECTIVE: To understand the status of generation and management of medical waste in medical institutions of Chongqing. METHODS: By means of onsite investigation and questionnaire survey, the generation categories and current status of management of medical waste in 50 medical institutions were investigated from Oct 2021 to Apr 2022 the existing limitations and prominent problems in the whole-process management of medical waste were identified so as to enable the safe disposal of medical waste based on laws and regulations. RESULTS: The average pollutants generation coefficient of medical waste was 0.22-0.72 kg/bed.day among all the grades of hospitals, the average pollutant generation coefficient of medical waste was 0.28-2.30 kg/10 people among grass-root medical institutions. The management of medical waste was more standardized in tertiary hospitals. There were a variety of problems in management of medical waste in clinics and village clinics, such as nonstandard classification of medical waste, unreasonable site selection for temporary storage of medical waste, unsatisfactory transportation means and untimely collection and transportation of medical waste. The problems of chemical, pharmaceutical and pathological medical waste were more prominent. The costs of disposal of medical waste were not strictly implemented in accordance with standards. The packaging, storage, loading, handover and disinfection of COVID-19 medical waste have been carried out in accordance with regulations. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to further standardize the management of medical waste, explore and formulate the collection and transportation modes of medical waste in primary medical institutions, intensify the supervision of classification, collection, storage, transportation and disposal of medical waste, optimize and upgrade the medical waste management information system, and encourage subsidies for the disposal of medical waste in Chongqing medical waste disposal enterprises during the COVID-19 period.
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These proceedings contain over 100 articles discussing the latest developments and challenges facing the vine and wine industry, focusing on 4 major themes such as viticulture, oenology, economy and law, and safety and health. Specific topics discussed include the adaptation and optimization of viticultural resources, the characterization of different microclimate to improve grape quality, the validation of new oenological techniques, and the resilience of the wine sector after the COVID-19 pandemic. Other topics included the impact of climate change on viticulture, the market competitiveness of the wine sector, and public health aspects wine consumption.
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This article presents compliance courses made by the International Wood Products Association (IWPA) for the Lacey Act and other laws affecting the wood-products industry. The training encourages importers to work closely with suppliers to ensure they have access to the information needed to understand the rules and conduct robust due diligence. The course was crafted in the hope that it would help develop an industry-wide class of wood trade compliance professionals. The initial compliance and due-diligence course in 2016 was extremely well-received, it led to a series of more advanced courses, comprising, "Advanced Wood Trade Compliance", "Audits for the Wood Trade Professional", "Wood Products Supply Chain Mapping Basics", and "Formaldehyde Emissions Regulations for the Wood Trade Professional". IWPA has conducted briefings and training for suppliers worldwide, partnering with organizations, such as the International Tropical Timber Technical Association, the Global Timber Forum, the Malaysia Timber Council, and several Chinese industry associations. The global COVID-19 pandemic has led IWPA to re-examine how stakeholders access its wood-trade compliance training courses. In the due-diligence space, travel restrictions are requiring that wood-product importers re-evaluate their due-diligence procedures to ensure they continue to meet the requirements of the Lacey Act and other relevant laws and regulations. IWPA will continue to update its courses to reflect the new reality. In particular, and for the first time, it will offer courses virtually and via IWPA's e-learning platform in the second half of 2020.
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This study explored how measures to curtail the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) in Vietnam affected the livelihoods and food and nutrition security of internal migrant workers. While Vietnam has made impressive progress towards food security in the past decades, marginalised groups of people such as ethnic minorities and migrants continue to face significant challenges. The project team investigated how the pandemic affected the precarity of these groups' income-generating opportunities and how the level of income generated affected the quality, as well as the quantity, of food consumed by migrant workers in Hanoi, the capital, and the Bac Ninh province, which hosts large industrial zones. Our research shows that income for migrant workers significantly reduced as a result of Covid-19-related lockdown measures. Almost half of the respondents were considered to be either moderately or severely food insecure. Financial support provided by the government hardly reached migrant workers because of the registration system required to receive unemployment benefits. To reduce the vulnerability of migrant workers, we conclude that: Short-term crisis responses need to focus on providing nutritious, healthy, and ample food to migrant workers;Policies that impose minimum standards of living need to be effectively enforced;The coverage of existing social safety nets by the government needs to be expanded;and A radical reform of labour law is needed to improve labour rights for migrant workers.
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Professional sport has undoubtedly been hit hard by COVID-19. Clubs and governing bodies have had to adapt rapidly to the public health emergency and have come under great financial and regulatory strain. Some sports have weathered the storm better than others, though, and professional rugby union experienced significant off-field turbulence, with wages reductions seen across the English Premiership. This article will examine the conduct of Premiership Rugby and its clubs during the COVID-19 crisis from a competition law perspective and will argue that, by acting in concert, Premiership and the clubs may have breached UK competition law.
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Public health law is a legal concept not only regulating the provision of health services but also improving the quality of life and extending access to the service for the public members. Covid-19 opens access to health services for the people, and it serves as an indispensable part in the survival of the people, including the vulnerable people of adat law. This research aims to analyze the degree of success in implementing public health law in Tenganan Pegrisingan village-Bali in the scope of preparedness or response to the pandemic. This research employed socio-legal methods involving interviews, observation, and focus group discussion (FGD). Primary data were collected from interviews and FGD, involving the participation of the traditional chief, village head, and other adat figures in Tenganan Pegringsingan-Bali. The research analysis required a descriptive-qualitative approach. This research sees how the tenganan Pagringsingan tribe clings on to their sovereignty to survive and respond to the Covid-19 pandemic without leaving their framework governed by international and national laws. It leads to the research result revealing that the public health law in Tenganan Pegrisingan adat village combines traditional and modern elements and spiritual and science. This approach can set a model for other village communities. The leadership role of adat people that are inherent, strong, and obeyed has made public health law more properly managed and more effective in dealing with the pandemic. The supportive policy framework that is harmonized at all international, national, and regional levels and all over adat villages is a prerequisite to help maximize the potential of tribal public health system innovation.
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This article summarized the laws and regulations on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, classification of infectious diseases, and measures for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in Japan. It focused on the containment of spread of infectious diseases, classification and categorization in the treatment and quarantine. In addition, the response to the novel coronavirus pneumonia in the early stage of transmission in Japan was introduced. Moreover, we propose specific suggestions to improve the system of laws and regulations on the prevention and control of infectious diseases in China, improve the classification of infectious diseases, clarify the rights and obligations of governments at all levels, establish medical facilities with"classification and combination of normal and emergency situations"for the treatment of infectious diseases, practice emergency simulation exercises regularly, and improve risk communication.
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Purpose: This study examines whether the law of one price (LOP) or price convergence holds during the COVID-19 pandemic for essential food items in India. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use the daily retail price data of 22 essential food items from 103 Indian markets for two years (2019 as pre-COVID and 2020 as COVID period). Pesaran's (2007) second-generation panel unit-root test has been used to examine the price convergence of essential food commodities across various markets of different zones in the pre-COVID and COVID periods. Findings: The authors find a tendency toward the convergence of prices across the spatially segregated markets for essential products. But, during the COVID period, there is a weak or no convergence of prices for essential food items. Hence, the LOP does not hold during the pandemic, indicating massive price deviations for food items across Indian markets. This has severe implications for food security as enormous price increases in some markets have been evidenced during the pandemic. Research limitations/implications: The study calls for immediate policy adoption to restore the disrupted supply chain of essential food items. Along with that, the public authority should strictly prohibit black marketing and unlawful hoarding of essential food items. In addition, farmers should be provided direct cash benefits for restoring their farming activities. Originality/value: This paper is first study to examine that hypothesis of LOP in the context of COVID crisis.
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Purpose: Waqf (endowment) lands constitute as among the highest types of waqf (endowment) properties in Malaysia;yet it is still unable to reach its maximum potential due to various challenges such as capital, location, legal and administrative issues. Therefore, this study intends to explore these issues by focusing on the two states in Malaysia (Selangor and Perak) that have fertile lands but different management authorities. Design/methodology/approach: There were series of interviews that had been conducted with ten (10) key informants who are experts and practitioners in the areas of Shariah (Islamic law), farming, agribusiness, land management and waqf. Findings: Findings exhibit that constraints and challenges that had been highlighted in the previous literature still exist (although some improvements had been made), but there is emerging theme that the study intends to highlight which is on the needs to secure market for the agribusiness produce and the potential role of anchor company in the agribusiness. It is pertinent that for agribusiness to thrive, selecting the right anchor company that has the capacity to address the challenges is necessary. This study posits two anchor company models (Waqf Trustee-Anchor Company and Waqf Trustee-Anchor Company-Community Farmers) that can be applied for agribusiness on the waqf lands. Research limitations/implications: This study is based on the Malaysia's context influenced by specific country's features. Nevertheless, such findings can still be used as reference or benchmark by other endowment trustees in other countries especially for the Muslim countries as well as the non-Muslim countries that have significant Muslim populations. Social implications The suggested models have potentials to improve the living condition of the B40 (below 40% household income) in Malaysia because the models encourage their participation in the agribusiness activities. Originality/value This study focusses on the agribusiness, which is rarely being given attention in previous literature in the context of endowment lands. Therefore, this article bridges the literature gap and at the same time attempts to provide suggestion to address the pertinent issue - the underutilised endowment lands.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges to societies, individual healthcare systems and global public health. Manifestations of increasing health inequalities, social stigmatization and challenging ethical decision-making have been previously noticed. The aim of this article is to analyse the perceptions of frontline healthcare professionals regarding the potential impact of COVID-19 on the provision of healthcare services and the ethical challenges it may entail. Method: This research is a part of a larger research project which was conducted among frontline healthcare professionals in Estonia and used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. In this article, answers to specific open-ended questions from the questionnaire (n = 116) and in-depth interviews (n = 8) were analysed. For data analysis, inductive content analysis was used. The research was granted ethical approval.
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Objective: The study aims to analyze the issue of whether the application of vaccines developed in the COVID-19 pandemic can be legally enforced in terms of both international law and domestic law. Materials and Methods: Within the scope of the study, the jurisprudence of both the European Court of Human Rights and the Turkish Constitutional Court, which shows whether vaccinations can be made compulsory in general and the legal conditions of this, has been scanned. Legal normative analysis was made with the obtained data and then it was applied to COVID-19 vaccines by using the analogy method.
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Viral hepatitis C is an important public health problem and its elimination by 2030, defined by the World Health Organization, is an ambitious goal. The chance of free screening for HCV infection represents an important achievement that requires a successful State-Regions coordination and an effective regional organisation, that guarantees an interdisciplinary course between local and specialized healthcare. A structured communication program to increase the sensitivity of target populations as well as health professionals is the key for success. The implementation of the proactive screening, defined by the Milleproroghe Law, is crucial because it will define the tracks for the whole HCV costeffective screening strategies (1948-1988 birth cohorts) required to achieve the HCV elimination targets in Italy by 2030.
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The goal of this paper is to provide a review of the transfer of rights to broadcasting sporting events as one source of financing sporting activities and clubs through comparative practice and current legal regulations. Sports and the law are deeply intertwined, primarily due to the fact that sports are exposed to various challenges, ranging from doping, prevention of violence at sports manifestations, all the way to competition regulations, managing sports organizations and business processes. In this paper, we will analyze the positive legal regulations that enable the realization of income based on the right to broadcast. Sources of financing are necessary for the conduct of sporting activities. The most successful clubs generate the biggest part of their revenue through leasing broadcasting rights for sporting events and marketing. Broadcasting sporting events not only enables generation of direct revenue, but also removes the shackles of previously existing spatial barriers and thus contributes to the popularity of sports, athletes and their clubs. Occurrences such as the coronavirus pandemic have led to the organization of sporting events in controlled conditions, without the presence of an audience or with numerous limitations and restrictions. In such situations, numerous institutions have offered interactive forms of communication with the consumers (online museum tours, concerts, etc.), thus not only minimizing losses, but also maintaining contact with the audience. This situation has proven the significance of digital communication with the consumers. Even though the year 2020 went by without the previously planned Olympics and, in most cases, without sports fans in the stands, the sporting industry recorded a jump (from 388.28 billion dollars in 2020 to 440.77 billion of dollars in 2021). The growth in earnings was achieved predominantly due to the increase in media revenues.
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School meals are a right enshrined in the Federal Constitutional of Brazil, and it is the duty of the State to guarantee them to all students enrolled in the public basic education network. The main way to carry out this guarantee has been through the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). Since March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the pandemic by COVID-19, several measures have been taken to control the disease, including the suspension of face-to-face classes, putting at risk the guarantee of the human right to school feeding in public school system. In view of this, this article, through a review, presents and discusses the reframing process and the challenges faced by PNAE in the context of the pandemic. It addresses the main changes that occurred with the enactment of Law n degrees . 13.987/2020, regulated by Resolution CD/FNDE n degrees 02/2020, which authorized, exceptionally, during the period of suspension of classes, the distribution of foodstuffs purchased with program resources to students' families. In addition, it presents the modalities adopted by the Executing Entities and the attributions of the different school feeding actors in the country, in the context of the pandemic, highlighting their reflexes on the food and nutritional security of this public.
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During 2018, Black or African American (Black) persons accounted for 43% of all new diagnoses of HIV infection in the United States (1). The annual diagnosis rate (39.2 per 100,000 persons) among Black persons was four times the rate among all other racial/ethnic groups combined, indicating a profound disparity in HIV diagnoses (1,2). Community-level social and structural factors, such as social vulnerability, might help explain the higher rate of HIV diagnoses among Black persons. Social vulnerability refers to the potential negative health effects on communities caused by external stresses (3). CDC used National HIV Surveillance System (NHSS)* and Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) data to examine the association between diagnosed HIV infections and social vulnerability among Black adults aged 18 years. Black adults in communities in the highest quartile of SVI were 1.5 times (rate ratio [RR] = 1.5;95% CI = 1.4-1.6) as likely to receive a diagnosis of HIV infection as were those in communities in the lowest quartile. Because of a history of racial discrimination and residential segregation, some Black persons in the United States reside in communities with the highest social vulnerability (4,5), and this finding is associated with experiencing increased risk for HIV infection. The development and prioritization of interventions that address social determinants of health (i.e., the conditions in which persons are born, grow, live, work, and age), are critical to address the higher risk for HIV infection among Black adults living in communities with high levels of social vulnerability. Such interventions might help prevent HIV transmission and reduce disparities among Black adults. Data on diagnoses of HIV infection among Black adults and reported to CDC through December 2019 were obtained from NHSS. Cases were geocoded to the U.S. Census Bureau tract level based on a person's residential address at the time of diagnosis. Census tract level social vulnerability data were obtained from the 2018 CDC SVI, which was developed to identify communities with the most potential needs (i.e., highest social vulnerability), before, during, and after public health events. Scores for overall SVI were generated using 15 population-based measures.. and were presented as percentile rankings by census tract, with higher scores indicating more vulnerability. SVI scores ranged from 0 to 1 and were categorized as quartiles based on their distribution among all U.S. Census tracts. NHSS data for Black adults with HIV diagnosed during 2018 were linked with SVI data. Data were analyzed by sex at birth with stratifications by age group and region of residence.. at time of diagnosis to assess differences in HIV diagnosis rates by SVI quartile. HIV diagnosis rates were calculated per 100,000 persons. RRs with 95% CIs were calculated comparing communities with the lowest SVI scores (Quartile 1) to those with the highest scores (Quartile 4) by sex at birth for age group and region of residence. Rates were considered significantly different if the 95% CIs of RRs excluded 1. Differences in numbers of diagnoses across the quartiles were analyzed by sex at birth and transmission category (i.e., male-to-male sexual contact, injection drug use, and heterosexual contact.) Rates and RRs were not calculated for transmission categories because of lack of population data. Data were statistically adjusted using multiple imputation techniques to account for missing HIV transmission categories (6). Analyses were conducted using SAS software (version 9.4;SAS Institute, Inc). This activity was reviewed by CDC and was conducted consistent with applicable federal law and CDC policy.**Among the 13,807 diagnoses of HIV infection among Black adults in 2018, the number and percentage of diagnoses by SVI quartile was 1,045 (7.6%) in Quartile 1;1,881 (13.6%) in Quartile 2;3,423 (24.8%) in Quartile 3;and 7,205 (52.2%) in Quartile 4 (Table);SVI scores were missing for 253 persons (1.8%). Black adults in Quartile 4 (rate = 52.1) were 1.5 times (RR = 1.5) as likely to