Perez-Leon-Acevedo & Yepez: The Institutional Pillars of the Latin American Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Human Rights-Based Approach to Health

Juan-Pablo Perez-Leon-Acevedo & Jose Yepez have published The Institutional Pillars of the Latin American Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Human Rights-Based Approach to Health (UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, Vol. 29, no. 2, 2026). Here's the abstract:

Latin America has arguably been the most affected region by the COVID-19 pandemic, yet there is no academic article or academic publication on institutional regional responses to the pandemic concerning the right to health. Hence, this article aims to fill that scholarship gap by answering the following question: how have regional bodies responded to COVID-19 concerning the right to health in Latin America? It is overall argued and found herein that: (1) there is a regional system on the right to health in pandemics such as COVID-19, about which a human rights-based approach provides a unifying standard; and (2) this system is embedded within the Organization of American States’ three-pillar framework, consisting of the Pan-American Health Organization, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. A human rights-based approach to health, which relies on international human rights law on the right to health, is considered a key component of the conceptual general framework herein. The Article analyzes the COVID-19 related practices of the three above-mentioned bodies. A central part of this Article’s methodology utilizes findings of convergences, synergies, and divergences between those bodies regarding the right to health during pandemics like COVID-19.