Human rights limitations in global health law reforms

On May 20, 2025, the World Health Assembly adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement, complementing 2024 amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR). While these reforms aim to strengthen pandemic preparedness, address inequities, and support resilient health systems, their final texts fall short of embedding human rights as a central pillar. Despite rights violations during COVID-19 prompting global calls for reform, the instruments soften explicit rights commitments with broader principles of “equity” and “solidarity,” which lack the legal precision and accountability of human rights law. We examine the implications of this shift, assessing how it may limit rights-based accountability in pandemic governance. Without deliberate institutional design—particularly within the Conference of the Parties (COP) process—these reforms risk an “implementation trap” where ambitious goals lack enforceable follow-through. We propose concrete measures to integrate human rights into governance, monitoring, and reporting to ensure the Pandemic Agreement fulfills its equity, solidarity, and rights promise.