Global Health Constitution
The Global Health Constitution realizes the principles of SHG by translating the theory into actionable goals and delineating the roles each involved party effectuates.
It is a non-legal constitution, established to delineate actors’ duties and obligations in general terms. Its main functions are: 1) setting out underlying moral principles for global health, 2) serving as a unifying reference for all actors who devise their policies and laws, 3) bringing together diverse and disconnected health principles/ norms, 4) bringing all actors to the fold (not just states), 5) identifying each actor's responsibility in a single document, 6) providing a roadmap for meeting health and health agency needs, 7) grounding multilateral/ bilateral negotiations and global/ domestic health policy and law.
Only a unifying governance structure such as a GHC can bring about the global collaboration needed to address health issues. Actions and inactions of global and national entities are interdependent and can be mutually reinforcing. We need a health architecture designed to achieve health equity, and the GHC brings all the related actors into the health governance structure. The GHC is necessary to obtain foundational justice requirements. It can minimize the unjust influence of rich and powerful countries, which typically engage in power-bargaining.
GHC contains fundamental principles and objectives and the delineation of roles among global and national actors. It will make evasive or irresponsible behavior readily identifiable. It will act as a self-restraining guide for global decision-making. Since it is non-legal, it bypasses the need for explicit consent by state representatives and represents the health interests of all global citizens.
Sample GHC structure:
The GHC embodies the principles of SHG. Its establishment includes a conscious effort to involve all the relevant parties in the discourse. All the actors will need to engage in the establishment of this public construct. Its source of legitimacy is not legal but moral; the procedural and substantive justice-based legitimacy based on incompletely theorized agreements makes it a proper authority.