Health Law Legal Research: International

The WHO is the United Nations organization for coordinating global health policy. The website has information on WHO projects, activities and reports on various health topics. It also includes health related data and statistics through Global Health Observatory.

The World Bank loans money to developing countries for specific purposes--health care and health education being high among them. The website itself contains quite a bit of information about world health and research projects on health care.

Most of the UN funding managed by UNICEF is used for health care programs for vulnerable children. The website contains a lot of information about health and nutrition programs and statistics.

UNDP considers fighting HIV/AIDS, improving child and maternal nutrition, and reducing maternal mortality as major development goals. The website contains statistics, research, and information about these areas.

Foreign Law Guide is a subscription database available to Drexel students, faculty, and staff. It provides a description of the legal system of every country and links to where important documents such as constitutions, statutes, and treaties are available online (or citations to print). It also organizes country information by subject, which includes several health-law-related categories.

Globalex is a compilation of free legal research guides on numerous topics in international, foreign, and comparative law. Guides are written and maintained by law professors and librarians and cover most foreign countries as well as many topics in international law (such as international environmental law or terrorism law).

This research guide includes links to major international health law agencies and organizations, definitions of key terms, basic documents and treaties that relate to health law, online sources on emergency preparedness and response, and an extensive bibliography of books and articles related to international health law.

A set of regionally-organized digests available in Lexis--search “Martindale-Hubbell law digest” in Find a Source to see all the regional digests, or use “International law digest” to search across all countries. Contains a comprehensive summary of laws for 80 countries, including health laws.

A free database compiling information from 1200+ country legal databases. Contains international law, international court, and treaty databases as well as databases organized by subject, including Health & Medicine.

The largest and most prestigious international humanitarian NGO, the Red Cross/Red Crescent provides health care in developing countries and disaster relief situations. The website contains a wealth of information and reports on areas served by the organization.

MSF is an independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural or man-made disasters. Their website contains some reference information and reports about their activities.